HIA recommends the next Northern Territory Government:
- Introduce a modern alternate residential building insurance scheme that enables choice for Territory builders and home owners and aligns the Territory scheme better with other states and territories.
Building work on residential building in the Territory must be covered by complying residential building insurance. This is often referred to as warranty insurance or builder’s warranty insurance.
Currently, in the Territory, builders and homeowners only have a single option for insurance provided under the NT Fidelity Fund scheme.
Over several years, the current NT scheme has experienced a number of challenges and been subject to past government reviews that recommended alternate approaches to the current model.
- In other states and territories there is choice and flexibility in the market for insurance options and providers. For example, in the ACT, a comparably sized market, complying building warranty can be either:
- a certificate issued by an approved insurer stating that the insurer has insured the work under a residential building insurance policy; or
- a fidelity certificate for the work issued by the trustees of an approved fidelity fund scheme.
In past government reviews, it has recommended that the NT adopt a similar model to enable greater choice for builders and homeowners.
- This would also provide NT with a modern, flexible and robust scheme that is fit for purpose in responding to the challenging operating environment that builders have faced over the past 3 years.