About NSW Home Warranty
Home Warranty provides protection for homeowners, including body corporates, as a result of losses arising from defective and incomplete work. This could be where the builder or developer becomes insolvent, dies, disappears or the license of the builder is suspended for failure to comply with a money (compensation) order in favour of the homeowner made by a Court or the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).
The certificate of insurance is required to be an original and issued by the insurer- either QBE or RBUA on behalf of HBCF. Furthermore, the recipient of the certificate should check that it includes the name of the builder, homeowner, property address and total value of the contract. Additionally, the builder’s name shown on the insurance certificate must reflect the same as that on the building contract and the builder’s license.
It is recommended that prior to making any payment under a sale or building contract, homeowners check the certificate of insurance validity. Homeowners and brokers will be able to check their builder’s insurance and previous claims via the HBCF Certificates Register.
Caution: A certificate of insurance is separate to a certificate of eligibility. A certificate of insurance is cover issued specifically for your project, but ‘eligibility’ merely means that the builder has been assessed by an approved insurance agent and has been granted the entitlement to apply for job-specific certificate of insurance. Homeowners should ensure that the certificate of insurance they receive is a job/project-specific certificate.
NSW Home Owners Warranty Product Information
Home Owners Warranty is a product to be obtained by any licensed trades person, entering into a residential building contract with a homeowner or body corporate in New South Wales where the value is greater than $20,000.
Home Warranty is applied on the start date of residential building work and is active past the declared completion date. It covers all structural defects declared on the building contract for a six year period.
As sourced from hbcf.nsw.gov:
The policy provides cover for loss and damage due to the insolvency, death or disappearance of the builder or where the builder’s licence has been suspended under the Home Building Act for failure to comply with a compensation order.
Additional coverage includes:
- Loss or damage incurred from faulty design that was provided by the builder
- Loss or damage because of early termination of the contract because of the builder’s wrongful failure/refusal to complete work
- The cost of alternative accommodation, removal and storage costs reasonably and necessarily incurred because of non-completion of work or breach of a statutory warranty
- The loss of a deposit or progress payment
- Legal or other reasonable costs incurred in seeking to recover compensation from the builder.
About Westcourt Home Warranty Hub
Westcourt General via the Home Warranty Hub provides a premium wholesailing facility to the wider brokering community assisting them with their clients Home Warranty needs.
The Home Warranty Hub offers general advice, assistance, broking services, invoicing, and quotes. The hub can also act as an intermediary between the Broker, Homeowner, Builder and the Insurance Agent.
Westcourt Home Warranty operates as a processing hub in the Home Warranty application process for both Westcourt brokers and non Westcourt brokers. Due to the processing hub’s unique position in the Home Warranty transaction, Westcourt has trained home warranty specialists that have a total understanding of the product from the Home Owner’s, Broker’s, Insurance Agent and government’s perspective. This allows the hub to provide quality service on all Home Warranty matters.
We offer a unique user-friendly service that includes a service time of 24 hours to respond to clients from the point of any application request. This includes all requests for eligibility, job application and general queries.
The Home Warranty Hub is a processing hub and does not compete with Brokers. Our primary objective is to processes all Home Warranty eligibility and job applications, along with other exclusive tasks. The Hub prioritises and maintains confidentiality for all tasks, queries and correspondence received. This resulting in all communications logged in secure servers and document management systems for our clients reassurance. Further to this, these can be forwarded to the broker at any time whilst adhering to data protection laws.
Westcourt provides an exclusive service at a competitive rate while focusing on the Home Owners Warranty product. Furthermore we provide a seamless application and administration support for you and your builders.
HBCF Homeowner & Builder FAQ’s
