The Rockliff Liberal Government is delivering on our commitment to reintroduce a Home Warranty Insurance scheme for Tasmania.
Attorney-General and Minister for Workplace Safety and Consumer Affairs, Elise Archer has today tabled the Residential Building (Home Warranty Insurance Amendments) Bill 2023, which will amend our building regulatory framework to make it mandatory for building contractors to take out this important consumer protection on behalf of homeowners.
“We recognise that building a home is the most significant investment many Tasmanians will make,” the Attorney-General said.
“Our Home Warranty Insurance scheme will provide important protections to ensure that homeowners are covered for loss caused by incomplete or defective building work should unforeseen circumstances occur.”
The Bill will give effect to a Home Warranty Insurance Scheme by providing:
- a mandatory, last resort scheme for residential building work that requires builders to take out home warranty insurance for the benefit of a homeowner, and importantly, successors in title;
- insurance cover for homeowners for the loss of deposits, non-completion and defects, subject to various financial caps where a builder has died, disappeared or become insolvent; and
- an application trigger of $20,000, a six-year warranty period and a definition of residential building work that all align with the Residential Building Work Contracts and Dispute Resolution Act 2016.
“I would like to thank the many consumers, building companies and other interested stakeholders for their valuable engagement during the development and consultation on this important Bill,” Minister Archer said.
“This Bill corrects the damage done by Labor who abolished the requirement for home warranty insurance when they were in Government, leaving Tasmanians with limited protection or recourse if their builder became insolvent.”
