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Home Warranty Insurance | Master Builders Insurance Brokers
Residential Builders' Warranty Insurance
Providing protection for your valued customers.
Cover for
Incomplete or defective works
Mandatory threshold
Value of work is over $12,000
Cover conditions
Death
Disappearance
Insolvency
What is Residential Builders’ Warranty Insurance?
Residential Builders’ Warranty Insurance is a statutory product, compulsory under relevant building legislation in the ACT for builders carrying out residential building work.
Residential Builders’ Warranty Insurance, or Home Warranty Insurance as it is referred to nationally, covers the homeowner (and subsequent owners) for completion of the building work and loss of deposit. The insurance responds should the builder die, disappear or become insolvent. The cover lasts up to 5 years from completion of the domestic building work or termination of the domestic building contract (5 years for structural defects and 2 years for non-structural).
Registered building contractors must take out a Residential Builders’ Warranty Insurance policy for contracts over $12,000 before accepting any payment or obtaining a building license or permit from the local government. The homeowner must also receive a copy of the insurance certificate.
MBIB has many years experience in dealing with the underwriters of Residential Builders’ Warranty Insurance in the ACT and has a designated team that are well placed to assist both new and existing builders through the eligibility and review processes.
For more information, visit the Department of Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate - Planning website.
Not in ACT? Please select your state: Victoria | New South Wales | South Australia | Western Australia | Tasmania | Northern Territory | Queensland
Our Eligibility team is unique within the market.
Our Eligibility team is responsible for assisting you with initial eligibility applications and ongoing eligibility reviews, as well as attending to your general queries about Home Warranty Insurance.
We are committed to providing you with a comprehensive service, ensuring that all eligibility enquiries actioned are within our service standards. We also conduct pre-submission quality assurance reviews to guarantee that all eligibility review submissions meet the requirements of the various states and territories.
Our recruitment for eligibility personnel focuses on financial literacy and experience, rather than just a general insurance background. We seek degree qualified, skilled professionals with experience in insolvency, accounting and finance.
This allows us to have effective conversations with you and your appointed accountants or financial advisors, so that we achieve quality and realistic outcomes for you.
We take a proactive approach that often involves an education element (for you and your accountant or financial advisor) to ensure you understand the Home Warranty Insurance process. We advise how you can position your business to balance your responsibilities under your state-specific scheme and your future plans for your business.
Why do you need our specialist advice?
Here's an example:
We received a job specific application from an NSW builder that, when processed, would put them 10% above their available open job limit.
On further investigation, we determined that the insufficient available limit was more of a timing issue due to delays on current projects.
Often in the building industry jobs are delayed due to council approval timeframes blowing out or projects being almost finished but not quite at practical completion (the stage at which the builder can then close the job off).
Working with the builder, we were able to provide the Insurer with a detailed explanation of what stage each outstanding project was at. Once home warranty is obtained, it can take 4-6 weeks to get the permit from the certifier. The Insurer approved the project based on the explanation provided because they could see and understand how the new project would overlap with outstanding projects.
This positive outcome ensured that the builder was able to keep working without having a 4-week gap until their next project.
Advice from our experts:
Home Warranty eligibility is a complex product and every builder’s business is different. With our expert knowledge and advice, we will help you navigate the complexities to get the best outcome possible for your business.
Sonia Kerr National Home Warranty Operations Manager
Before making any changes to your trading structure, contact one of our eligibility experts who will be able to advise you of the likely impacts on your eligibility facility. It could save you headaches later on.
To avoid problems later, a Home Warranty policy should always be taken out prior to any works starting.
Sonia Kerr National Home Warranty Operations Manager
Home warranty eligibility reviews can be stressful. To help make it easier, use our team’s expert knowledge – we can work directly with your accountant freeing up your time to focus on what you do best.
If a project includes any waterproofing works, then the project is considered to be a structural risk by Home Warranty insurers.
Sonia Kerr National Home Warranty Operations Manager
Why choose Master Builders Insurance Brokers?
