Domestic Builders Insurance in Western Australia

If you build residential homes in Western Australia, your insurance programme has to do more than tick the Home Indemnity requirement — it has to protect you against the exposures that actually sit inside a WA residential job: defect claims, design liability on contemporary D&C work, director exposure under evolving WA safety and consumer legislation, and the growing cyber risk that comes with running a modern construction business on cloud systems.

Silverback Insurance is a specialist construction broker that arranges the complete programme for WA residential builders — Home Indemnity Insurance (HII), Professional Indemnity, Management Liability and Cyber Protection — placed as one coordinated programme rather than four disconnected policies. Our Director Petara Tanuvasa was named an Insurance Business Elite Broker 2026 and brings dual-industry experience — insurance and construction — to every WA builder we work with.

Home Indemnity Insurance (HII) — WA’s Statutory Requirement

Home Indemnity Insurance is mandatory for residential building work in WA valued at $20,000 or more under the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (WA), administered by Building and Energy within the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS). The certificate must be in place before you take any money from the owner — including the deposit — and before work starts on site.

The essentials:

• HII is required for home-building work valued at $20,000 or more where a building permit is required
• Cover protects the homeowner if the builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent and can’t complete the work or fix structural defects
• The cover period runs for six years from Practical Completion
• QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited is WA’s long-standing approved Home Indemnity Insurance provider — placed through brokers with a facility in place
• The obligation sits with the registered building contractor, not the owner — owner-builders cannot take out HII for their own work
• You must hold a current Building Services Board registration appropriate for the class of work

Builders should confirm the current statutory minimum cover figure with Building and Energy, as the regulated minimum per home is reviewed from time to time. The practical point is that HII is a facility-based product — you need an eligibility facility in place with the insurer before any single project certificate can be issued, and the facility capacity is what determines the scale of work you can lawfully contract for at any one time.

Professional Indemnity for WA Residential Builders

Standard builders insurance programmes often miss the professional indemnity exposure that modern WA residential work carries. If you take on Design & Construct scope — carrying design responsibility under a D&C contract rather than relying on a separate architect or engineer — standard PI wordings typically exclude design liability arising from building work. The exposure sits uninsured until a defect emerges years post-completion.

What we check for WA residential builders:

• Whether your current PI wording responds to design liability performed as part of your construction contract (most standard wordings don’t)
• Whether the limit of indemnity matches the contract value and aggregates of D&C work across your project pipeline
• Whether run-off provisions are in place to cover claims notified after you stop writing D&C work
• Whether the retroactive date covers your historical D&C contracts, not just future ones

For WA builders moving from standard contract work into D&C for custom homes, dual-occupancy and medium-density residential, Design & Construct PI needs to be a deliberate placement — not an afterthought on the SME insurance package bound three renewals ago. See our Design and Construct Insurance and Professional Indemnity Insurance pages for the full breakdown.

Management Liability for WA Construction Businesses

Management Liability is the cover that protects the directors, officers and the business itself against claims arising from how the company is run — not what it builds. For WA construction businesses specifically, the exposure sits across:

• Directors & Officers (D&O) — personal liability of directors for decisions made in managing the company, including insolvent trading, misleading conduct and breaches of directors’ duties under the Corporations Act 2001
• Employment Practices Liability (EPL) — claims from employees or contractors for unfair dismissal, discrimination, harassment or bullying under WA’s industrial relations framework
• Statutory Liability — fines and penalties under WA legislation including the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA), consumer protection law and building legislation (where insurable)
• Crime cover — theft of money, goods or property by employees — a real exposure for builders carrying deposits and progress payments
• Tax audit cover — professional costs responding to an ATO or state revenue audit

WorkSafe WA has significant investigative powers under the WHS Act 2020 (WA), including industrial manslaughter provisions. Management Liability is often where the professional fees to respond to a WorkSafe WA investigation sit, where they’re insurable. For the full product breakdown see Management Liability Insurance.

Cyber Protection for WA Builders

Construction businesses have become high-value cyber targets. The reason is simple: builders hold customer deposits, make and receive large progress-payment transfers, hold subcontractor banking details, run project management software (Procore, Wunderbuild, Buildxact, Databuild and similar) and increasingly manage regulatory submissions online. Phishing attacks that redirect a $50,000 progress payment to an attacker’s account are the most common WA construction cyber loss we see.

What Cyber Protection responds to for a WA residential builder:

• Business email compromise and funds transfer fraud — including invoice redirection losses
• Ransomware attack response, including forensic investigation and recovery costs
• Data breach notification costs if customer or subcontractor personal information is exposed
• Business interruption from systems being unavailable mid-project
• Third-party liability for privacy breach claims
• Regulatory response support where the breach involves notifiable information under the Privacy Act

For WA builders running Procore, Xero, HubSpot or any cloud-based construction stack, cyber cover is no longer discretionary. For the full breakdown see Cyber Protection Insurance.

How Silverback Helps WA Residential Builders

One programme, four coordinated policies. HII, PI, Management Liability and Cyber placed as a single construction insurance programme — renewal timing aligned, exclusions read against each other, and gaps between policies closed rather than left for a claim to find.

HII facility advisory, not just form lodgement. Our Director Petara Tanuvasa started his career in insurance — claims, sales and service, then placement work for established brokers — before taking a step of faith into one of Melbourne’s top builders as a contract administrator. COVID-19 was the catalyst to combine both industries into Silverback. We read your financials the way the HII assessor will, help you time limit-increase applications to your strongest quarter, and support the growth strategy that lets you take on bigger WA contracts without HII becoming the bottleneck.

Design & Construct PI before the gap bites. For WA builders moving into contemporary D&C residential work, we read your contracts and your PI wording together — not in isolation — and lift cover before a defect three years post-completion exposes the gap.

Direct underwriter relationships. We hold direct placement relationships for WA HII, Management Liability and Cyber — questions about your eligibility, conditions or limits get answered by the people making the decision, not through a distributor queue.

We work with residential builders across Perth and regional WA — new home builders, custom-home builders, dual-occupancy and medium-density specialists, and contractors scaling from standard contract work into D&C.

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Call: 0410 152 835 | Email: [email protected]

WA Residential Builder Insurance FAQs

When do I need Home Indemnity Insurance in WA?

For residential building work valued at $20,000 or more where a building permit is required. The HII certificate must be in place before you take any money from the owner — including the deposit — and before work starts on site. The obligation is on the registered building contractor under the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (WA).

Who provides Home Indemnity Insurance in WA?

QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited is WA’s long-standing approved HII provider, placed through brokers rather than direct. The facility sits with the builder’s business, and individual project certificates are issued against the facility as you win contracts. Silverback arranges the facility and manages your eligibility across the lifecycle of your builder’s registration.

How is HII different from NSW HBCF or SA Building Indemnity?

Each state has its own residential builder warranty regime under different legislation and with different providers — NSW uses Home Building Compensation (HBCF, through icare), SA uses Building Indemnity Insurance (SAFA scheme or private-market Credeq), VIC uses Domestic Building Insurance (VMIA), and WA uses Home Indemnity Insurance (primarily QBE). If you build across state lines we manage the requirements together — see our state-specific product pages for the detail.

Does my standard PI policy cover me for Design & Construct work?

Most standard PI wordings do not — they’re written for design consultants (architects, engineers, project managers) and typically exclude design liability arising from building or contracting work. If you win D&C contracts under standard PI, the design exposure of the contract is uninsured. The fix is Design & Construct PI sized to your largest D&C contract and reviewed at each renewal against your live contract pipeline.

Why does a WA residential builder need Cyber cover?

Because builders hold customer deposits, make large progress-payment transfers, hold subcontractor banking details and run cloud-based construction systems — all of which are attractive to attackers. The most common construction cyber loss we see is business email compromise redirecting a progress payment to an attacker’s account; cover responds to the loss and the forensic work to investigate and prevent repeat.

Can Silverback place all four covers as one programme?

Yes. Our standard engagement for a WA residential builder bundles HII, PI, Management Liability and Cyber with aligned renewal dates and a single annual review. One broker, one renewal conversation, four policies reading against each other.

Related Cover

Home Warranty & Latent Defect Insurance
Professional Indemnity Insurance
Design and Construct Insurance
Management Liability Insurance
Cyber Protection Insurance
Contract Works & Public Liability

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Silverback Insurance Pty Ltd (CAR 1283436 | ABN 74 643 561 746) is a Corporate Authorised Representative of Australian Broker Network Pty Ltd (AFSL 253131), a member of the Steadfast Group. Petara Tanuvasa is the individual Authorised Representative (AR 1283437). The information on this page is general advice only and has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and policy wording before making any decision about insurance. Terms, conditions, limits and exclusions apply. WA Home Indemnity Insurance requirements are governed by the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (WA) and administered by Building and Energy (DEMIRS); builders should confirm current statutory limits and conditions with Building and Energy and their broker.