- 13/979 Albany Hwy, East Victoria Park WA 6101
Sarre Insurance Broking is one of a limited number of brokers with direct access to place Home Indemnity Insurance (HII), also called Builders Warranty Insurance, in Western Australia.
If you are carrying out residential building work valued over $20,000, you must hold HII in the homeowner’s name before you take a deposit or start on site. We handle the eligibility application, set your job and turnover limits, and issue certificates so your settlements are not held up.
Beyond HII, our team has many years of experience across residential and commercial construction insurance, including contract works, public and products liability, plant and equipment, professional indemnity and management liability.
Also called Builders Warranty. Compulsory for most WA residential building work over $20,000, and it must be in place in the owner’s name before you take a deposit or start on site. Cover responds where the builder dies, disappears, becomes insolvent, or loses registration on financial grounds:
> up to $40,000 for lost deposit and up to $200,000 for completion or
> rectification, including defective work notified within six years of practical completion.
Also known as contractors all risk. Covers the works, and the existing structure where required, against physical loss or damage during construction.
This is the gap HII does not fill: HII responds only if you cannot finish, not to a storm, fire or theft mid-build.
Cover can extend to principal supplied materials, materials in transit and off-site storage.
Covers third party injury and property damage arising from your construction activities, on site and off.
Subcontractor policies are frequently inadequate, lapsed or carry exclusions you have not seen, and claims name the head contractor regardless of who was at fault.
Products liability extends to completed operations, where claims can surface years after handover.
We arrange cover across the main exposures a WA builder or contractor carries:
Compulsory for most residential work over $20,000, and required before you take a deposit or apply for a building permit. We hold direct access to place it.
Also called contractors all risk. Covers the works, and the existing structure where required, against physical loss or damage during construction. Applies at any project size, and can extend to principal supplied materials, transit and off-site storage.
Third party injury and property damage arising from your activities, on site and off. Products liability extends to completed operations, where claims can surface years after handover.
Owned plant, hired-in plant liability (including continuing hire charges while a damaged machine is off the road) and tools of trade.
Relevant if you work under design and construct contracts, engage consultants, or make specification and certification decisions. Covers claims alleging errors or omissions in that work.
Claims against you and your directors personally: employment practices, statutory fines and defence costs, and regulator investigations.
Yes, for most residential building work in WA valued over $20,000. It must be taken out in the owner’s name before you accept any payment or start work, and the Certificate of Insurance is lodged with the permit authority alongside the building permit application.
The permit authority can refuse the application without it. Some work is excluded, including associated work such as pools, kitchen cabinetry and landscaping, so check before you assume it applies.
Two are effectively non-negotiable: Home Indemnity Insurance for residential work over $20,000, and workers compensation, which is compulsory in WA.
Beyond that, most builders carry contract works, public and products liability, plant and equipment, and management liability. Professional indemnity applies if you work under design and construct
contracts or make specification decisions. The right mix depends on your contracts, your trades and who you build for, which is what we work through with you.
Before you can place individual jobs, the insurer assesses your business and sets an eligibility profile: a maximum value per job and a maximum value of open work at any one time.
This is based on your financials, experience and building performance. If a job exceeds your limits, it needs a separate approval, which takes time. We manage the application and the annual review, and we will tell you early if a project is going to push past your ceiling.
Contact us before anything expires. Contract works policies run for a set period of insurance, and if the build overruns without an extension being requested, cover can lapse mid-project.
A change to the contract value also matters: it affects your contract works sum insured, and for HII it needs a Certificate of Variation. Neither is automatic, and neither can be backdated once something has gone wrong.
They should carry their own public liability, and you should be collecting and diarising certificates of currency rather than taking their word for it. Be aware that unincorporated subcontractors can be deemed workers under WA workers compensation law, which means they may fall under your policy and show up at premium audit. We can review your subcontractor arrangements against both exposures.
We start with your actual contracts and exposures rather than a product list. What you build, who you build for, what your contracts require you to hold, and where the gaps sit between policies.
We then approach the relevant markets, including direct access to the scheme for HII, and set out the options with the differences in wording and excess explained. We disclose what we are paid.
Our claims advocacy team lodges the claim, presents it with the supporting information the insurer needs, and follows it through to a decision. We interpret the policy wording, push back where we think a position is wrong, and escalate to the insurer’s internal dispute resolution process or to AFCA where that is warranted. The insurer decides the claim, but you are not dealing with them on your own.
One conversation tells you what the cover actually does, whether the price is fair, and what the rest of the market says about both. No jargon and no sales pitch.
Call us now, most enquiries are settled in one conversation.
Answered 24 hours a day: a broker in office hours (8am–6pm Mon–Fri), and after hours we take your details and a broker rings you back from 8am on the next business day.
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ABN 71 150 896 610 | AFS Licence No 554587
The information on this website is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not a recommendation to acquire, hold or dispose of any insurance product. Consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement, policy wording and Target Market Determination, and seek advice from us about your own circumstances, before making a decision. Cover is subject to the terms, conditions, limits and exclusions of the policy issued by the insurer.
