Disclosure: Jacky Barker is a co-founder of The Sydney Library of Things and handled the organisation’s insurance renewal described in this article.
The The Sydney Library of Things (TSLoT) is a library which lends out every day household items, such as tools, camping gear, party gear, games and more for a low yearly subscription of $85.00. Their view is why buy when you can borrow.
Don’t buy that item use it once, keep it in your garage and then years later put it in a council street collection. It is about reducing landfill. Most of the items you borrow have been donated. There are three branches Waverton, Lane Cove and the Northern Beaches. They are supported by local councils who are trying to reduce the waste that goes into landfill.
The Sydney Library of Things also runs two fix it hubs (where they fix for free items such as toasters, umbrellas, jewellery and repair clothes). There is the Fix It Hub at Waverton and The Fixery at Cromer in the Northern Beaches. They are held monthly.
The Sydney Library of Things operates the the Lane Cove Toy Library. Both branches are at 47 Burns Bay Road Lane Cove.
When The Sydney Library of Things (TSLoT) renewed its insurance in June 2026, it did what any small not-for-profit does. It paid the invoices, received its paperwork and a certificate of currency, and got on with lending drills, trestle table, ice buckets, camping gear and sewing machines to the community.
What the paperwork didn’t make obvious was that TSLoT’s public and products liability policy with QBE no longer covered the very thing the organisation exists to do.
At a Glance
- TSLoT renewed its QBE Business Pack on 2 June 2026 at an annual premium of $1,012.07.
- The policy contained exclusion W01, which removes cover for injury or damage arising from activities including hire and repair, TSLoT’s two core activities.
- The same exclusion was negotiated out of TSLoT’s policy in 2021.
- When TSLoT asked for the exclusion to be removed, QBE said it would no longer insure the organisation. Replacement cover was secured on 30 June 2026 and QBE refunded the premium. TSLOT has never made a public or products liability claim and all subscribers sign a waiver.
- QBE’s statement said underwriting decisions are based on each customer’s circumstances, but did not answer In the Cove’s specific questions.
- TSLoT wants libraries of things to get legal protection similar to that given to charitable food donors under the NSW Civil Liability Act 2002, and a national approach through the Standing Council of Attorneys-General.
The exclusion
TSLoT runs lending libraries and repair hubs across Waverton, Lane Cove and Cromer. Members borrow items instead of buying them, and volunteers help residents fix broken goods rather than throw them away.
Its QBE Business Pack, renewed on 2 June 2026 at an annual premium of $1,012.07, contained an exclusion known as W01. It removes cover for personal injury or property damage arising from service, repair, assembly, hire, importing or manufacturing, repacking, relabelling or decanting activities.
For an organisation whose two core activities are lending and repair, the effect was stark: the policy excluded cover for the risks TSLoT most needed insured.
This wasn’t a new problem. When TSLoT first arranged cover in 2021, the same exclusion appeared in its policy and was negotiated out.
By the 2026 renewal it was back, and the organisation’s broker. The renewal paperwork reached TSLoT only days before cover was due to lapse, following a staffing change at the broker.
TSLoT held a certificate of currency throughout. To anyone checking, such as a venue, council or partner organisation, the library appeared fully insured.
“No longer insuring”
When TSLoT discovered the exclusion and asked for it to be removed, QBE’s answer was not to fix it. The insurer advised it would no longer insure the organisation at all.
TSLoT had to find a new broker and insurer at short notice, securing replacement product and personal liability cover on 30 June 2026.
QBE refunded the premium.
QBE responds
In the Cove put a series of questions to QBE: what its current position is on insuring library of things and tool-lending organisations, whether its approach to the sector has changed, and why cover for such organisations has been withdrawn or restricted.
QBE’s media team supplied the following statement, attributable to a QBE spokesperson:
“As with all risks, underwriting decisions are based on the individual circumstances of the customer, including the nature and breadth of their business activities.”
The statement did not answer whether QBE insures library of things organisations, whether its approach to the sector has changed, or why an exclusion previously removed from TSLoT’s policy reappeared at renewal. QBE did not offer a spokesperson for further comment.
The green credentials
The withdrawal sits awkwardly alongside QBE’s own public sustainability commitments.
In its 2025 materiality assessment, QBE lists supporting the transition to a net-zero economy as one of seven material sustainability topics, saying it aims to play its part partly by supporting customers with relevant products and services. The same list includes “affordability and accessibility” and “responsible products and services”, under which QBE says fairness is embedded into its operations so customers and broker partners can make informed decisions.
QBE’s Group Environment Policy says the company aims to consider environmental sustainability across its business, including in its role as an insurer and within the community. Among the listed commitments is supporting local communities to address environmental challenges through the QBE Foundation. QBE is also a signatory to the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance, and says its approach to responsible underwriting is consistent with that status.
Libraries of things are a textbook circular-economy model. Every shared drill is a drill not bought, manufactured, shipped and eventually dumped. Every repaired toaster is one less item in landfill.
Yet the activities that make TSLoT environmentally valuable, lending and repair, are exactly the ones the W01 exclusion carved out.
QBE has also recently reassessed its commitment to reach net zero emissions across its underwriting and investment portfolios by 2050, describing its revised approach as focusing on actions within its control.
It appears The Sydney Library of Things, which has never had a product or personal liability claim since it began operating, will never know why QBE changed its mind.
Luckily, Aon insurance brokers worked very quickly to provide an alternative product or personal liability policy to ensure The Sydney Library of Things could continue to operate.
A legal fix already exists for food. Why not for drills?
TSLoT is calling on governments to give libraries of things the same kind of legal protection that already exists for food donors.
In 2005, NSW amended its Civil Liability Act 2002 to protect people and organisations that give away food for charity. Under Part 8A, a food donor does not incur any civil liability for death or personal injury resulting from eating the food, provided it was donated in good faith for a charitable or benevolent purpose, with the intention that the recipient would not pay, and the food was safe when it left the donor’s control. The reform recognised that fear of being sued was stopping surplus food from reaching people who needed it.
TSLoT argues a similar provision should cover not-for-profit lending and repair: items lent in good faith, for a community purpose, that are in good condition when they leave the library. TSLoT’s maintenance team tests and tags all electrical items.
TSLoT is also urging the federal government to take the issue to the Standing Council of Attorneys-General, so libraries of things across the country get consistent protection rather than a patchwork.
Without reform, the organisations doing some of the most practical work to cut consumption and waste remain dependent on insurers’ appetite for risk.
As TSLoT found, that appetite can disappear at a single renewal and without any prior notice.
Contact Details
Address:
Lane Cove – 47 Burns Bay Road Lane Cove 2066
Waverton – The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability 2 Balls Head Dr, Waverton NSW 2060
Northern Beaches Cromer – 150 Fisher Rd N, Cromer NSW 2099
Website: www.thesydneylibraryofthings.org.au
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: @thesydneylibraryofthings
Instagram: @thesydneylibraryofthings
But Wait, There is More……
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