Selling your Owner Builder built home is no longer covered by insurance.

WARNING: Insurance under the Home Building Compensation Fund is no longer available for building works carried out by an owner builder. Should an owner builder’ or a successor in title to that (owner builder) person decide to sell their home within seven (7) years and six (6) months after an Owner Builder Permit was issued, the Contract Of Sale must include a note (a consumer warning) stating that “an Owner Builder Permit was issued in relation to the land on (the date that Permit was issued)”.

Work done under an Owner Builder Permit is not required to be insured under the Home Building Act 1989 unless the work done by a contractor, or contractors, to the owner builder individually is worth more than $20,000 each. Then that Home Building Act insurance cover is provided by the proper engagement and payment of the licensed contractor or company.

If the consumer warning is not included in the Contract of Sale, the purchaser can void the Sale Contract before Settlement.

WARNING: As an Owner Builder you are guaranteeing the work you undertake if you sell within 7.5 years. The next immediate owner of the property is entitled to the benefit of the statutory warranties set out in the Home Building Act 1989, and can take you, the owner builder, to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal to enforce their statutory warranty rights. This may result in a money order against you.