Building Indemnity Insurance (South Australia)

What the scheme requires

• Work value threshold: Building indemnity insurance is required for domestic building work needing council approval valued at $20,000 or more — raised from $12,000 on 10 November 2025 under the Building Work Contractors Regulations. GST treatment of the threshold is not stated. SA · effective 2025-11-10 SAFA · 2026-08-13
• Who pays premium: The building work contractor must arrange and pay for the insurance, taken out on behalf of the homeowner before any physical work starts; where a contract predates development approval, cover must be taken out before applying for approval. SA · effective 2026-08-13 Government of South Australia · 2026-08-13
• Premium basis: The builder pays the premium and usually passes it to the homeowner under the contract. SAFA underwrites the product through a reinsurance arrangement with QBE; Assetinsure and AB Phillips also sell it. No published rate table is stated. SA · effective 2026-08-13 SAFA · 2026-08-13
• Certificate issued to: Called the certificate of insurance; the policy is issued in the homeowner's name. Work cannot start until the builder has taken out the insurance and both the homeowner and the council have received a copy of the certificate. SA · effective 2026-08-13 Government of South Australia · 2026-08-13
• Cover scope: Covers homeowner losses up to the policy limit if the builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent before completion or before defects are fixed; defect claims up to 5 years after completion. Limit $250,000 for policies from 10 November 2025 (previously $150,000). SA · effective 2025-11-10 SAFA · 2026-08-13

Tracked, not yet verified

These are the fields this page will carry. None of them has been checked against its source yet, so no value is shown and this page is deliberately kept out of the sitemap. The source to open is named on each row.

• Variation treatment SA — not verified Consumer and Business Services SA · 2026-08-13

Who administers it

• Consumer and Business Services (SA) — Licenses building work in South Australia and administers its building indemnity requirements.

What this scheme does not do

Scheme cover and a business’s own insurance answer different questions. A residential building scheme protects the homeowner when work is defective or unfinished; it does not cover the contractor’s liability to third parties or the contractor’s own losses.

• Insuring the works or insuring liability
• What builders commonly hold alongside

Sources

• SAFA — South Australian Government Financing Authority — building indemnity insurance
• Government of South Australia — sa.gov.au — building indemnity insurance
• Consumer and Business Services SA — Consumer and Business Services (South Australia)