I just received my Home Insurance renewal and there is a Supplementary Product disclosure statement attached negating your right to choose your own builder or supplier. That prompted me to go to the Choice website for an Insurance comparison which shows choice of repairer for AAMI as YES. Obviously this comparison is a few months older than my renewal. The other alarming issue (for me anyway) is that they will go with the cheapest Quote, so whilst you may insure your home for $1.1M because you built with a Custom builder and you want top quality, your Insurance company can go with a volume builder that you will have no control over just because they are cheaper. Insurance companies are always on about making sure you have the right cover, and are not backward in reflecting that cover in their premiums.
If they use a licensed tradesperdon to do the work, their work will also have a defect period (usually around 6-7 years) which should be covered by the tradesperson and/insurer.
Also, in the case of quote, the cheapest is not necessarily the worst. In the 2014 hail storm that hit Brisbane, quotes which were given for repairs had an enormous range. At this time it was likely that the cheapest quote was from a tradeperson whi had the time to do the work themselves, when other businesses may have been inundated with work. Those being inundated often inflated their prices so that they could not get more work than could be handled. …which may require for them to subcontract the work to others at additional cost should they still chose to be competitive.
If you have to get a quote for the work and provide these to the insurer, this gives one the chance to vet the tradespeople and only obtain quotes from those one thinks is suitably experienced and qualified to do the repairs.
Otherninsurers may also have a panel of contractirs6one csn select from as they havebeen prevetted and approved by the insurer. This does limit the opportunity for selecting anyone.
Some insurers used a project manager to arrange individual tradespeople to complete the work.under such circumstances one may have no influence of what tradies are ysed and whether they are best suifed for the particular repairs. Project manager usually comes with more expensive policies as it reduces the impact on the insured should an even occur. One pays for lowering the post event impacts.
Yes we have built many times… twice ending up in court because of defects, both times winning the case. But it still costs you unless you have the funds to fight the Building Insurance company for a fair settlement. We were out of pocket for legal costs, and what they allowed for rectification work wasn’t realistic. The builder walks away and continues with his shoddy work on other unsuspecting clients. This is in Victoria so not sure how that compares with other states.
It could not be worse than Qld where the QBCC is an absolute joke.
I agree @Fred123 .
I got dudded by the QBCC when they decided that it was OK for my home to leak across the width of our home where our builder had penetrated waterproofing membranes to fix handrails, because the builder had used Sikaflex in the holes which was the industry standard practice.
According to the QBCC Inspector, because industry standard practice was followed, the builder wasn’t responsible for the leaks, and it was my responsibility to have the leaks repaired at my cost.
[I was told that builder later went bankrupt leaving jobs incomplete; and owing money to clients, to tradesmen, and his friends.]
This seems to happen all too often here in the sunshine state.
Are there two different topics here?
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Choice of repairer on a standard home insurance policy. IE a policy that is for an existing property.
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Effectiveness or not of insurance and building construction contracts for owners paying a builder to construct a new home.
Getting repairs to a damaged home is often urgent, more so after a major event. Worst when you can’t continue to live in the home due to damage or total loss. It is also very different to how every day small repairs are handled under the same policy.
Building a home using a registered builder, is a whole different world of pain when it goes wrong. It is a State government area of responsibility. Each state has different requirements, legislation and approaches. Having built once with a builder we were lucky. Knowing others in Qld who had builders go bust half way through a build, demonstrated the system is not balanced or even handed. The owner looses out, as do others.
Perhaps they each deserve separate spaces?
The perils of ‘so-called master builders’ as compared to ‘master builders’ vis a vis so-called oversights has been discussed in this thread
Yes. Sorry, I did go off topic.
Mia culpa.
