Certificate of Currency: What Landlords, Councils and Venues Want From Your Gym

Every combat sports gym owner hits this moment. You’ve found the space, or locked in a venue for a fight night, and before anyone signs anything the landlord, council or venue manager says the same thing: “Send us your certificate of currency.” If you’ve never had to produce one, it’s easy to send the wrong thing, or the right thing too late. Here’s what the document is, what the person asking for it actually checks, and the snags that hold up leases and bookings.

What is a certificate of currency?

A certificate of currency is a short summary, issued by your insurer or broker, confirming that a policy is in force on the date it’s issued. “Currency” just means current. It is proof that cover exists, not the cover itself.

It usually shows:

• the insured’s name (your company, trust or sole trader name)
• the type of policy, for example public liability or professional indemnity
• the insurer and the policy number
• the period of insurance, with start and expiry dates
• the limit of liability, for example $20 million for public liability
• a short description of the insured business or activity
• sometimes, a party noted as having an interest in the policy

What it doesn’t show is the detail: exclusions, conditions, excesses and endorsements. Those live in the policy wording and schedule. That matters, because a certificate can say “public liability, $20 million” while the policy underneath sets out which activities are covered and which aren’t. More on that below.

Who asks for one, and when

In combat sports the requests come from a handful of places, usually at the point where someone else takes on risk by letting you use their space:

• Landlords, before you sign or renew a lease. Commercial leases commonly require the tenant to hold public liability insurance at a set limit and to show evidence of it each year.
• Venues for fight nights, interclubs, gradings and seminars. Many won’t confirm a booking until they’ve seen it.
• Councils, for outdoor sessions in parks, hall hire and event permits.
• Schools, PCYCs and community centres that hire out halls for classes.
• Promoters and sanctioning bodies you’re working with on an event.
• Gyms that engage you as a contract coach or PT, which want to see your own cover before you train their members.

The timing is the trap. The request usually lands days before you need the space, and if the certificate doesn’t match what they asked for, the back-and-forth eats the time you don’t have.

What they actually check

Whoever asks for your certificate is working through a list, usually from their lease, hire agreement or permit conditions. Ask for that list up front. It normally comes down to five things.

1. The name matches the contract

The insured name on the certificate needs to match the name on the lease or hire agreement. It’s an easy one to get wrong: the lease is in the company name (“Smith Combat Pty Ltd”) and the policy is in a trading name (“Smith’s Boxing”), or the other way round. Sort it before you sign, not after.

2. The limit meets their requirement

Most agreements name a minimum public liability limit, and $10 million and $20 million are both common. If your limit is below what the contract asks for, the certificate won’t be accepted. Our standard combined liability package is built around $20 million public liability and $5 million professional indemnity, subject to policy terms, but check the number in your agreement rather than assuming.

3. The dates cover the period

The period of insurance needs to cover the lease year or the event date. If your policy renews a fortnight before a fight night, the venue may want to see the renewed certificate. A certificate issued last year shows last year’s dates, even if the policy has since renewed, and will usually be knocked back.

4. The activity is described properly

A certificate describes the business in a line, for example “martial arts and boxing gym”. A landlord might not look twice at the wording; a fight-night venue will. If you’re running live bouts, hard sparring or a competition, the policy needs to cover that activity, and the person checking may want to see it reflected. This is where the gap between certificate and policy matters: what’s covered is set by the policy wording, not the one-line description.

5. Their interest is noted, if the contract says so

Some leases and hire agreements ask for the landlord or council to be noted on the policy as an interested party, and some ask for extra wording such as an indemnity to the principal. Whether a policy can do that, and how it shows on the certificate, depends on the insurer and the wording. Send the clause to your broker before you sign. Don’t assume.

Fight nights and events: start the paperwork early

Events add moving parts. The venue wants a certificate that covers the event date. Your state’s combat sports regulator, where there is one, may ask for evidence of insurance as part of a promoter’s permit or registration; the rules differ between states and change, so check the current requirements with the regulator directly. And if you’re putting on a one-off event rather than running your regular classes, your gym policy may not extend to it at all.

Give yourself time. Get the venue’s insurance requirements in writing when you book, check them against your cover, and ask for the certificate well before the date. Our guide for event organisers covers what event cover usually involves.

Coaches and PTs: you’ll be asked too

If you coach or train clients as your own business, whether that’s in someone else’s gym, a hired hall or a park, expect to be asked for your own certificate. A gym that lets a contractor run classes on its floor wants to know the contractor carries their own public liability and professional indemnity, so a claim against the coach doesn’t land on the gym. Self-employed coaches and PTs can arrange that cover for their coaching business; see PT insurance in Australia for what it typically involves.

The flip side: if you own the gym and engage contract coaches, ask for their certificate before they start, and diarise the expiry date.

Workers compensation certificates

You may also be asked for a workers compensation certificate of currency, usually by a venue, a principal contractor or a larger client that wants evidence your employees are covered. That certificate comes from your workers compensation insurer or your state’s scheme, not from your public liability policy, and how it’s issued depends on the state you operate in. If we arrange your workers compensation, ask us for that one as well.

Mistakes that hold things up

• Sending last year’s certificate after the policy has renewed.
• A name on the certificate that doesn’t match the lease or hire agreement.
• A limit below what the contract requires.
• Asking for the certificate the day before the event.
• Treating the certificate as the cover. If the policy doesn’t extend to an activity, a certificate won’t change that.
• Signing a lease with insurance clauses nobody has checked against the policy.

How to get a certificate of currency

You get a certificate of currency from whoever arranged your policy: your insurer or your broker. If you’re insured through Combat Sports Insurance, call us on 1300 266 228 or email team@combatsportsinsurance.au, tell us who needs it and forward their requirements, and we’ll arrange it. If the lease or booking needs a change to the policy first, such as a higher limit, a new location or a noted interest, we’ll work through that with you. Our policy handling page covers how we manage certificates, changes and renewals.

Insured somewhere else and want us to look after it? Send us the certificates of currency for the policies you’d like us to manage, and we’ll prepare a letter of appointment for you to sign. From there we manage those policies and review whether the cover still fits how you run things. Send us your current certificates.

If you’re not insured yet, the certificate comes after the policy. Start with a quote: tell us what you run, where you run it and what the landlord or venue requires, and we’ll look at options that fit. Request a quote.

The short version: get the requirements in writing, match the name, the limit, the dates and the activity, and give yourself time. A certificate is quick to produce when the policy already fits. When it doesn’t, you want to find out before you sign.

General information only, not advice. Cover is subject to eligibility and the policy terms, conditions, limits and exclusions.