Limited Market. Right Placement. Renewed.

A sole trader based in Sydney came to us needing Public Liability insurance for their edge protection and perimeter rail installation business. The work was physical: installing perimeter rail and edge protection systems on residential homes during construction.

The business was early stage, with one staff member and a modest forecast turnover. The requested limit was $20M Public Liability, a level head contractors on residential builds often require.

What complicated the picture was the business name. On paper, it read like a WHS consulting or safety advisory firm. In reality, the work was hands-on trade work at height on residential sites - a materially different risk class from professional advice, and one that sits in a specific part of the insurer market.

We took the risk to the Public Liability markets with genuine appetite for trades at height, providing full details of the operation: physical installation only, residential buildings, edge protection and perimeter rail systems, a small early-stage operation based in Sydney.

The occupation description was a key part of our submission. A business name with "safety" in it will cause many underwriters to categorise the risk as professional advice rather than physical trades work. We made sure each submission led clearly with the actual activity and the relevant work at height exposure.

Appetite for early-stage height-work businesses is limited, and each market draws its lines differently. High Street Underwriting was the market that fitted - they reviewed the submission and provided terms.

Two challenges defined this placement.

Occupation description vs actual activity. A business name with "safety" in it reads as consulting or advisory work to an underwriter scanning a submission. Physical edge protection installation is a trades risk - working at height, managing perimeter systems on residential sites under construction, with the exposures typical of the building trades. Getting that distinction clear in the submission was essential. Even so, appetite for the occupation remained limited.

Minimum turnover thresholds. Some insurers operate minimum viable turnover requirements. An early-stage sole trader with a modest turnover can sit below those floors regardless of how clean and legitimate the operation is. The decline isn't about risk quality - it's about where the business sits against the insurer's book criteria. The broker market exists in part to identify insurers whose appetite doesn't exclude operators at this stage of their business.