When a recently built home is sold, its statutory warranties generally pass to the buyer for whatever time they have left, and in most places so does the home warranty insurance. Each state has its own paper that shows whether cover exists: a certificate, a statement or a search.
General informationGeneral information, not legal or insurance advice about any purchase. A conveyancer or solicitor reads the contract for a particular home, and the schemes’ own pages, such as the QBCC’s page for buyers and sellers and the Building and Plumbing Commission’s Notice of Cover page, set out how to check cover.
1What travels with the house
The warranties
In NSW, the statutory warranty protections stay with a home sold during the warranty period. Victoria’s apply for up to 10 years from the occupancy permit or certificate of final inspection, however many times the property sells. South Australia’s Building Work Contractors Act says a person who buys or otherwise acquires a house “succeeds to the rights” of the owner before them in respect of statutory warranties, and the ACT’s Building Act says each of the owner’s successors in title succeeds to the owner’s rights. In Tasmania the warranties pass to new owners and run until their six years end.
The insurance
NSW’s HBCF cover stays with the property and may protect later owners. Western Australia’s home indemnity policy is written in the owner’s name so that, if the home is sold within the six-year period, its benefit passes to the next owner. The ACT’s residential building work insurance covers the current owner and later owners. In South Australia, anyone entitled to the benefit of a statutory warranty can sue on the building indemnity policy in their own right.
2The paper each place points to
Each place names a different document, and in some the seller or the builder has to produce it.
- New South Wales
Where building work has started, a copy of the builder’s proof of Home Building Compensation cover must be attached to the contract of sale. If it has not started, the cover must be in place before construction begins, the developer must give the buyer proof within 14 days, the buyer may cancel if it does not arrive in that time, and those conditions must be written into the contract.
- Victoria
A prospective purchaser can ask the Building and Plumbing Commission for an Insurance Information Statement, which shows whether any Home Warranty Notice of Cover has gone out for work on the property since 1 July 2026, when that cover ends, and the most it can pay. As at October 2026 the fee is $51.80, and it is not refunded if no Notice of Cover is found. Separately, where section 137B of the Building Act 1993 applies to the home, the vendor’s section 32 statement must give particulars of any cover under the statutory insurance scheme.
- Queensland
A buyer, or their legal agent, can search whether home warranty insurance is attached to the property.
- Western Australia
An owner-builder who sells within seven years of the building permit must have home indemnity cover in place for the new owner for the rest of that period, and the fact sheet says the buyer is to receive a valid certificate of insurance before the sale contract is finalised. A registered builder who built their own home without the insurance must take it out if they sell within seven years of the permit.
- South Australia
A seller must disclose whether indemnity insurance is in place. An interested buyer can ask for a copy of the certificate of building indemnity insurance, and for details of the builder, or of the tradespeople where the owner built it, and SA.GOV.AU suggests confirming the policy with the insurer.
- ACT
The builder gives the first owner evidence of the residential building work insurance, and the government suggests checking the policy or fidelity fund certificate in full, down to the builder’s name and the cost of the work.
- Northern Territory
Owners of new homes must have residential building cover. For work since 2013 the territory’s page points to a fidelity fund certificate, and for work between 1993 and 31 December 2012 to the home building certification fund.
- Tasmania
Building Standards Tasmania’s page describes the statutory warranties, which pass to a new owner until their six years from practical completion end.
3Where a buyer’s cover runs thin
Defects the buyer already knew about
In Queensland, the Home Warranty Scheme covers defects in a newly bought house only if the buyer did not know about them before buying, so a defect or subsidence the buyer knew of cannot later be claimed.
Cover that has already run out
Queensland cover lasts 6 years and 6 months from the earlier of the contract or the premium being paid, and can be extended if construction took more than six months. For a house built or renovated more than 6 years ago, the QBCC says the cover has a good chance of having expired, and a search will show no details.
A limit shared with the owners before
In NSW, the maximum claim on an HBCF policy is the total for the property, counting any claims made by previous owners.
Older Victorian cover, narrower in scope
Victorian work under a contract signed before 1 July 2026 that has a DBI certificate of insurance stays under domestic building insurance, which was required for work valued over $16,000. The Building and Plumbing Commission sets it apart from Home Warranty, which is not confined to a builder’s death, disappearance or insolvency. Its first step for a buyer with a problem is the builder, whose details the local council can supply.