Why Your Tools Need Their Own Cover
Walk onto any landscaping site in Australia and you’ll see the same thing: tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gear sitting in the open tray of a ute, or laid out across a garden bed while the crew grabs smoko. Zero-turn mowers that cost more than some second-hand cars. Chainsaws, blowers, brush cutters, hedge trimmers, and trailers — all of it essential, all of it portable, all of it vulnerable.
Standard public liability insurance doesn’t cover your tools. Neither does your ute’s comprehensive policy, at least not the full picture. If someone nicks your gear off the back of the Hilux while you’re grabbing lunch, or a fire tears through your lockup overnight, you’re covering the replacement out of your own pocket — unless you’ve got dedicated tools and equipment cover in place.
This article walks through what portable equipment insurance actually protects, how it works, what it costs in 2026, and the decisions you’ll face when setting up a policy that matches your setup. As with any insurance discussion, this is general information only — always read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) before buying.
What Counts as Tools and Equipment
Most insurers define tools and equipment broadly: anything you use to do your job that isn’t permanently fixed to a building or vehicle. For a landscaping business, that covers a lot of ground.
The Big-Ticket Items
If you’re running a professional landscaping operation, your most expensive pieces of gear are likely your mowing equipment. A commercial-grade zero-turn mower — think Toro, John Deere, or Kubota — runs anywhere from eight to twenty-five thousand dollars new in 2026. Even a well-maintained second-hand unit will set you back five to ten grand. That’s not something you replace out of petty cash.
Ride-on mowers and stand-on models fall into the same bracket. A single machine going missing or getting written off in a fire can wipe out months of profit if you’re not covered.
The Everyday Gear That Adds Up
Beyond the mowers, the list gets long fast. A professional-grade chainsaw from Stihl or Husqvarna typically costs between five hundred and two thousand dollars, depending on bar size and power. Most landscaping crews run at least two — a smaller one for pruning and a larger unit for takedowns.
Blowers run three hundred to eight hundred dollars for commercial models that can handle a full day’s work. Brush cutters and line trimmers fall into a similar range. Hedge trimmers from brands like Echo or Makita sit around four hundred to a thousand dollars each. Then there’s the smaller stuff: pole saws, edgers, augers, pressure washers, generators, and the ever-growing collection of battery platforms and chargers. Individually they might not break the bank, but total them up and you’re looking at real money.
Trailers and Transport
Don’t overlook your trailer. A decent enclosed trailer for a landscaping setup costs two to ten thousand dollars, sometimes more if it’s custom-fitted with racks, toolboxes, and tie-down systems. Open box trailers are cheaper but still represent a significant asset. Most tools and equipment policies can include trailers, though you’ll want to confirm this with your provider — some require trailers to be listed separately under a commercial vehicle policy instead.
Hand Tools and Consumables
Spades, rakes, shovels, wheelbarrows, ladders, hoses, sprayers — the small stuff. A single shovel isn’t worth insuring on its own, but when your ute gets cleaned out overnight and every hand tool you own disappears, the replacement cost runs into the thousands. Most blanket cover policies handle this without you needing to list every single item.
How Tools and Equipment Insurance Works
Portable equipment insurance — sometimes called general property cover or tools of trade insurance — sits alongside your public liability policy. It protects your gear against loss or damage from specific events, both on-site and in transit.
The Two Main Approaches: Specified vs Blanket Cover
Insurers generally offer two ways to structure your cover.
Specified items means you list individual pieces of gear on the policy, each with its own insured value. This is common for high-value items like zero-turn mowers or expensive chainsaws. You provide the make, model, serial number, and replacement cost, and the policy covers that item specifically. The upside is certainty — you know exactly what’s covered and for how much. The downside is administration, especially if you’re buying and selling gear regularly.
Blanket cover, sometimes called unspecified cover, gives you a total sum insured that covers everything under a certain threshold per item. For example, you might carry fifty thousand dollars in blanket cover with a per-item limit of five thousand. This is simpler to manage and works well for businesses with lots of mid-range gear rather than a few ultra-expensive items. The trade-off is that individual high-value items might be underinsured if they exceed the per-item cap.
Many landscapers run a combination: specified items for the big mowers and trailers, blanket cover for everything else.
Portable vs Fixed Equipment
The “portable” distinction matters. Equipment you take from site to site — mowers, trimmers, blowers, hand tools — is portable equipment. Equipment bolted down at your depot or workshop — like a fixed air compressor or a bench grinder — falls under a different category of business property insurance. Make sure you understand which bucket each piece of gear falls into, because a portable equipment policy won’t cover your workshop fit-out.
Theft from Vehicles: The Claim Every Tradie Knows
If you talk to any insurance broker who deals with trades and landscaping businesses, they’ll tell you the same thing: theft from vehicles is far and away the most common claim.
It’s a scenario most landscapers can picture because they’ve either lived it or know someone who has. You’re parked at a job site or stopped for lunch. Someone jumps into the tray, grabs whatever they can reach, and disappears in thirty seconds. Chainsaws, blowers, and brush cutters are particularly popular with thieves — they’re valuable, easy to carry, and simple to offload.
Standard comprehensive car insurance typically covers the vehicle itself and permanently fitted accessories, but the contents of your tray or toolboxes often fall into a grey area. Some policies include limited cover for tools — a few thousand dollars at most — while others exclude them entirely. Relying on your ute policy to cover your work gear is a gamble you don’t want to take.
A dedicated tools and equipment policy covers theft from an insured vehicle, usually subject to certain security requirements. Common conditions include:
- The vehicle must be locked when unattended
- Tools must be stored out of sight where practical — in lockable toolboxes, under a tonneau cover, or inside a canopy
- Overnight storage expectations — many policies require gear to be stored in a locked building or secure compound after hours
If your gear gets lifted because you left the ute unlocked with gear sitting in plain view, expect your claim to be knocked back. The security conditions are there for a reason, and they’re enforced.
The Overnight Risk
Theft from a worksite lockup or home garage is the other big one. Trailers get hooked up and towed away. Storage sheds get broken into. Even with cameras and locks, determined thieves find a way. Your policy should cover theft from your registered business premises or home address, assuming you’ve met the minimum security requirements — which usually means locked doors, windows, and reasonable perimeter security.
New-for-Old Replacement vs Market Value
When you make a claim, how much you get back depends on the settlement basis written into your policy. This is one of the most important details to check before you buy, because it makes a massive difference to your out-of-pocket costs.
New-for-Old Replacement
New-for-old replacement means the insurer pays the cost of a brand-new equivalent item, regardless of how old your gear was. If your five-year-old zero-turn mower gets stolen and an equivalent new model costs eighteen thousand dollars, that’s what you get (minus any excess). This is the gold standard for tools cover and what most landscapers should aim for.
The catch is that new-for-old cover usually comes with a slightly higher premium, and insurers may require proof that the gear was well-maintained. Keep service records, purchase receipts, and photos of your equipment — they’ll help if you ever need to claim.
Market Value
Market value settlement pays what the item was worth at the time of loss, taking depreciation into account. That five-year-old mower worth eighteen grand new might only be valued at six or seven thousand on the used market. The difference comes out of your pocket, and on a full suite of gear the gap can be tens of thousands.
Market value policies are cheaper upfront but riskier at claim time. They can make sense for older gear that’s already heavily depreciated, where the premium differential outweighs the potential payout. For your core equipment — the stuff you can’t run the business without — new-for-old is almost always the better choice.
Sum Insured vs Sum Insured After Deductions
Some policies also apply deductions for things like GST (if you’re registered and can claim it back) or an “age excess” on older items. Read the fine print so you know exactly what you’ll receive if the worst happens.
Hired and Borrowed Equipment
Landscapers regularly hire gear for specific jobs. Stump grinders, excavators, elevated work platforms, large chippers — expensive specialist equipment that doesn’t make sense to own outright unless you’re using it every week.
When you hire equipment, the hire company’s terms almost always make you responsible for loss or damage while it’s in your possession. Drop a hired stump grinder off the trailer or have it stolen from a site, and you’re on the hook for the full replacement cost. Some hire companies offer their own damage waiver, but it can be expensive and may contain exclusions.
Many tools and equipment policies include or offer an optional extension for hired and borrowed equipment. This covers gear you don’t own but are contractually responsible for, typically up to a sub-limit — say twenty or thirty thousand dollars. If you regularly hire expensive machinery, this extension is worth the extra premium.
Check whether the extension covers equipment you’ve borrowed informally — say, a mate’s rotary hoe — or only equipment hired through a commercial hire company. Policies vary, so confirm the wording with your provider.
What’s Typically Not Covered
Exclusions matter as much as inclusions, and tools and equipment policies have a few standard ones you need to know about.
Wear and Tear, Mechanical and Electrical Breakdown
Insurance covers sudden and accidental loss or damage. It doesn’t cover your gear slowly falling apart from years of use. If your chainsaw stops working because the engine’s worn out or the bar’s bent from hard use, that’s maintenance, not an insurance claim. The same goes for rust, corrosion, and other slow-moving damage.
Similarly, if your zero-turn mower’s engine seizes or your blower’s motor burns out, that’s a mechanical breakdown — an operational risk you manage through servicing and budgeting for repairs. Some insurers offer separate machinery breakdown cover, but it’s a different product from portable equipment insurance.
Mysterious Disappearance
“Mysterious disappearance” is insurance-speak for “it’s gone and nobody knows why.” If you can’t point to a specific event — it was stolen from a locked vehicle, it was destroyed in a fire, it was dropped in the dam — the insurer is unlikely to pay. You can’t just notice a hedge trimmer is missing from the shed and lodge a claim. There needs to be an identifiable cause of loss that falls within the insured events.
Intentional Damage, Negligence, and Other Exclusions
If you or an employee deliberately damage equipment, or the loss results from reckless behaviour — leaving gear unsecured in a public place overnight, for example — cover won’t apply. Most policies also won’t cover equipment left unattended in a publicly accessible area unless it’s secured in a locked vehicle or building.
Other common exclusions include damage caused by vermin, insects, or mildew (unless resulting from an insured event like storm damage), confiscation by authorities, damage from alterations or repairs being carried out on the equipment, and losses occurring while the equipment is being used illegally.
What Tools and Equipment Insurance Costs in 2026
Pricing varies by insurer, by location, by the type and value of gear you’re covering, and by your claims history. But as a general guide, landscapers in 2026 can expect to pay somewhere between five hundred and fifteen hundred dollars per year to cover twenty to fifty thousand dollars’ worth of portable equipment.
Several factors push the premium up or down:
- Total sum insured: More gear means a higher premium — straightforward enough.
- Type of equipment: High-theft items like chainsaws and blowers attract higher rates. A policy heavy on easily nickable hand-held equipment will cost more per dollar insured than one covering mostly mowers and trailers.
- Security arrangements: A locked, alarmed workshop in a low-crime postcode means a lower premium. Gear stored under a tarp in the driveway pushes it up — or makes you ineligible entirely.
- Claims history: Previous claims, particularly for theft, will increase your premium or affect the excess applied to theft claims.
- Excess: Choosing a higher excess reduces the premium. Common amounts range from two hundred and fifty to a thousand dollars. Some insurers apply a higher excess specifically for theft.
- Settlement basis: New-for-old cover costs more than market value, for the obvious reason that the insurer’s potential payout is larger.
- Location: Metro areas with higher crime rates tend to attract higher premiums, though regional postcodes aren’t guaranteed to be cheaper.
These figures are indicative only. Your actual premium depends on your specific circumstances and the insurer’s underwriting criteria. For an accurate quote, you’ll need to go through the full application process.
Need a tailored quote? Compare tools and equipment insurance options for your landscaping business and check quotes from multiple insurers online. Get a quote here.
Setting Up Your Cover
Step 1: Inventory Your Gear
Before you talk to any insurer, do a proper stocktake. Walk through your shed, ute, trailer, and workshop. List every tool, along with make, model, serial number (where applicable), purchase date, what you paid, and current replacement cost. Take photos of everything, especially high-value items. Store the inventory and photos off-site — if your gear gets stolen or destroyed, having this documentation ready makes the claim process smoother.
Step 2: Decide on Coverage Structure
Based on your inventory, work out whether you need specified items, blanket cover, or a mix. Rule of thumb: anything worth more than five thousand dollars probably deserves its own line on the policy. Everything else can sit under blanket cover.
Step 3: Check Existing Policies
Read through your current insurance — public liability, commercial vehicle, home and contents — and see what’s already covered. Some policies include small amounts of tools cover as a built-in extra. Knowing what you already have prevents paying twice for the same cover and highlights genuine gaps.
Step 4: Consider Add-Ons
Think about whether you need extensions like hired equipment cover, increased theft limits, or coverage for equipment in transit. Talk these through with your broker or insurer.
Step 5: Compare and Buy
Get quotes from several insurers. Cover varies meaningfully between providers, and price differences can be substantial for the same sum insured.
Ready to compare? Check tools and equipment insurance quotes from a range of Australian insurers and protect the gear your landscaping business depends on. Get a quote here.
Tools Cover and Your Broader Insurance Setup
Tools and equipment insurance works best as part of a broader strategy. Here’s how it interacts with your other policies.
Public Liability
PL covers injury or property damage you cause to third parties — not your own gear. You generally need both policies.
Commercial Vehicle Insurance
Your ute or truck policy primarily covers the vehicle itself. Some commercial motor policies include a limited tools extension — often capped at a thousand or two thousand dollars — but this is rarely enough for a landscaping business. Check your policy wording rather than assuming cover that isn’t there.
Business Interruption
If your gear gets stolen and you can’t work for two weeks while you replace it, tools cover replaces the equipment but not your lost income. Business interruption insurance fills that gap. Consider it if your business would struggle to survive a few weeks without income.
Home and Contents
If you store work gear at home, don’t assume your home and contents policy covers it. Most domestic policies exclude tools used for business purposes, or limit cover to a token amount, even if the gear is stored at home.
Common Landscaping Scenarios
Here are a few real-world situations to illustrate how a tools policy kicks in.
Scenario 1: The ute clean-out. You’re parked at a cafe grabbing lunch between jobs. The ute is locked, the hard tonneau cover is down, and your chainsaws, blowers, and brush cutters are inside. Someone jimmies the lock and makes off with about six thousand dollars’ worth of gear. Your tools policy responds, covering the theft (minus your excess), with payout based on your settlement type — ideally new-for-old.
Scenario 2: The shed fire. An electrical fault starts a fire in your storage shed overnight. Your zero-turn mower, two chainsaws, a ride-on spreader, and assorted hand tools are destroyed — around thirty-two thousand dollars to replace. Your tools policy covers the loss, provided fire is a listed insured event (it almost always is).
Scenario 3: The dropped equipment. You’re unloading a brush cutter from the trailer and it slips, falling onto concrete and cracking the housing beyond repair. Accidental damage during handling is generally covered, subject to your excess. New-for-old cover makes an obvious difference here — a five-hundred-dollar brush cutter replaced brand-new rather than at depreciated value.
Scenario 4: The hired stump grinder. You’ve hired a stump grinder for a two-day job. Overnight, it’s stolen from the site despite being chained to a tree. The hire company holds you liable for the replacement cost — around eight thousand dollars. If your policy includes hired equipment cover up to a sufficient sub-limit, it responds. If not, you’re paying out of pocket.
Scenario 5: The worn-out trimmer. Your line trimmer has done five years of hard commercial work and finally gives up — the engine’s lost compression, the shaft is worn. This is wear and tear, plain and simple. Your tools policy doesn’t respond, and it shouldn’t — this is an operating cost, not an insured event.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my public liability insurance cover my tools?
No. Public liability insurance covers damage or injury you cause to other people or their property — not loss or damage to your own equipment. You need a separate tools and equipment policy, or a business pack that includes portable equipment cover.
Are my tools covered if they’re stolen from my ute?
Yes, under a dedicated tools and equipment policy — provided you’ve met the policy’s security requirements, which typically include locking the vehicle and storing gear out of sight. Don’t rely on your commercial vehicle insurance for this; most motor policies have limited or no cover for portable tools.
What happens if I buy new gear mid-policy?
Most insurers let you add new items during the term — notify them as soon as practical. Some blanket cover policies automatically include new purchases up to a certain limit. Don’t wait until renewal to add that new mower; if it’s not on the policy and gets stolen, you’re not covered.
Does tools insurance cover hired equipment?
Many policies include or offer an optional extension for hired and borrowed equipment, usually up to a sub-limit. If you regularly hire expensive machinery like stump grinders, excavators, or chippers, confirm that your policy includes this extension and that the sub-limit is adequate.
What’s the difference between portable equipment cover and general property cover?
Portable equipment cover is for tools and gear you take from site to site — mowers, trimmers, chainsaws, hand tools. General property cover protects equipment that stays at your premises, like workshop machinery and office equipment. Know which category your gear falls into, because a portable policy won’t automatically cover your workshop fit-out.
The Bottom Line
Your tools are the engine of your landscaping business. Without them, you’re not earning. A well-structured tools and equipment insurance policy means that if the worst happens — theft, fire, an accident — you’re back on the tools in days, not weeks or months, and you’re not funding replacements out of your own cash flow.
The key decisions are straightforward: new-for-old over market value if you can afford the premium difference; specified items for the big-ticket gear, blanket cover for the rest; and make sure theft from vehicles is properly covered, because that’s where most claims happen.
And as always: this article provides general information about tools and equipment insurance for Australian landscapers. Policy terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions vary between insurers. Read the Product Disclosure Statement carefully before making any purchase decision, and consider speaking with a qualified insurance broker who understands the landscaping trade.