Hurry Up! Before NSW Home Building Insurance Disappears Completely

After blogging about how severely NSW Home Building Warranty & Insurance protections have been wound back over the last 10 years (see Shrinking NSW Home Warranty Insurance) and thinking things couldn't get much worse for home owners - they have.


Last week in NSW the Home Building Amendment Bill was passed into law and it reduces consumer rights over residential building work even further.


Amongst the various changes time limits for claims for breach of statutory warranties have been reduced.  The existing 7 year limits have come down to 6 years for structural defects and 2 years for everything else. The starting dates for these time limits have been tightened up and, in many cases, are earlier than before.  And, where building work is staged there will be staged time limit start and finish dates.


A positive thing is that developers are more clearly included as liable for Home Building Act breaches and the proportionate liability provisions of the Civil Liability Act have been excluded from Home Building Act claims.  But, if you can't take legal action because you're out of time that's not much help.


You can read more about the Bill (including what the Minister said about it) here. 


And, here's a short article in the SMH about the possible impact of the law changes and another one from the Brisbane Times about how this is happening in an environment where complaints against builders is increasing. 

So, regardless of anything else I'd suggest getting a taste of NSW Home Building protections sooner than later since at the rate they're shrinking there won't be anything left in a very short time.




Francesco ...