INSIGHT · LICENSING & COMPLIANCE

Home warranty thresholds moved in two states.
Each is stated by contract date.

9 October 2026

Home warranty insurance, or its state equivalent, is required above a value threshold that differs by state, and in two states the threshold is stated by contract date (South Australia's Regulations; for Victoria, the BPC). As read on 9 October 2026: NSW, contract price over $20,000 inclusive of GST; Victoria, more than $20,000 for contracts from 1 July 2026; Queensland, insurable value over $3,300; South Australia, from $20,000 for contracts made on or after 10 November 2025 ($12,000 before); WA, cost over $20,000; ACT, from $12,000.

A red tiled roof against a clear blue sky

Analysed 9 October 2026 · Home Building Act 1989 and Home Building Regulation 2014 (NSW) · Building Act 1993 (Vic), Authorised Version 152 as at 16 September 2026, and Building and Plumbing Commission pages last updated 30 June to 23 July 2026 · QBCC Act 1991 (Qld), current from 1 February 2026 · Building Work Contractors Act 1995 and Regulations 2026 (SA) · Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (WA) · Building Act 2004 (ACT), Republication 56 · all read 9 October 2026, the NSW and SA registers and BPC pages through a rendering proxy because the sites block automated access.

Key takeaways

Six schemes, three numbers: $20,000 in NSW (inclusive of GST), Victoria, South Australia (for contracts from 10 November 2025) and WA; $3,300 in Queensland; $12,000 in the ACT. The comparison words differ: NSW excludes a price that does not exceed $20,000, Victoria and Queensland use more than, South Australia and the ACT exclude work below the line, and WA excludes the minimum amount or less.
Two thresholds reset in the last year: South Australia's minor-work threshold, below which the insurance requirement does not apply, rose from $12,000 to $20,000 for contracts made on or after 10 November 2025. The BPC states Victoria's Home Warranty applies to work valued at more than $20,000 under contracts signed on or after 1 July 2026, when Part 9A commenced; the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) states the earlier Domestic Building Insurance was required for work valued over $16,000.
Cover is tied to different events: NSW: before work and before any payment, including a deposit. WA: certificate to the owner before a demand for any payment, including a deposit. Victoria and Queensland: premium paid within 10 business days of the contract or before work starts, whichever is first. ACT: with the application for a building commencement notice.
Owner-builders sit outside, in different ways: NSW states insurance cannot be entered into for owner-builder work by an owner-builder. Queensland excludes work for an owner-builder permit holder. The ACT's Part 6 does not apply where an owner-builders licence has been granted. WA instead restricts an owner-builder's sale within 7 years unless a policy is in force.
We would store the threshold with the contract date: A system-design recommendation: each contract record carries the state, the contract date, the value measure the threshold uses, the threshold in force on that date, and the certificate or notice of cover reference.

The thresholds, as each Act words them

The schemes have different names and different value measures. A contract price, an insurable value and a cost of the work are not the same number, and the comparison word changes too.

Victoria's own Act words its $20,000 line two ways: a contract is insurable where the builder will receive more than $20,000, and the scheme does not apply to work the cost of which is less than $20,000. The BPC page says more than $20,000. We report both and do not reconcile them. The Act's "Authority" is the Victorian Building Authority, which the BPC site states trades as the Building and Plumbing Commission.

State and scheme	Threshold as published	Value measure	Provision
NSW: insurance under Part 6, Home Building Act 1989	Not required if the contract price does not exceed $20,000 (inclusive of GST)	Contract price; staged contracts between the same parties are added together	s 92(3), (4); Home Building Regulation 2014 cl 53
Victoria: statutory insurance scheme (Home Warranty, per BPC)	Builder will receive more than $20,000; scheme does not apply to work costing less than $20,000	Amount the builder will receive; cost of the work	Building Act 1993 s 3(1), s 137J(d)
Queensland: statutory insurance scheme	Insurable value of the work more than $3,300	Insurable value: the reasonable cost to the insurer of having the work carried out by a licensed contractor	QBCC Act 1991 s 67WC
South Australia: building indemnity insurance	Not required for minor domestic building work: a cost to the building owner below $20,000 (contracts on or after 10 November 2025) or $12,000 (contracts from 15 October 2001 to before that date); and only for work needing development approval	Cost to the building owner	Building Work Contractors Act 1995 ss 3, 33; Regulations 2026 reg 4(4)
WA: home indemnity insurance	Excludes work where the cost is the minimum amount, $20,000, or less; and work needing no building permit	Cost of the building work	Home Building Contracts Act 1991 ss 25A, 25B(4A); Regulations 1992 reg 7
ACT: residential building work insurance	Part 6 does not apply if the cost of the work is less than $12,000	Cost of the work, as fixed by the contract	Building Act 2004 ss 86, 87; Building (General) Regulation 2008 s 37

When the cover has to be in place

The thresholds decide whether the obligation exists. A second set of provisions decides when it bites, and the trigger event is different in each state.

NSW s 92(2) and WA s 25C(2) each name the deposit. Above each Act's threshold (NSW over $20,000 inclusive of GST, WA over $20,000), a deposit invoice raised before the certificate is in the owner's hands is the event both Acts name.

State	The obligation, as the Act states it	Provision
NSW	No residential building work under a contract, and no demand or receipt of any payment, deposit or otherwise, unless a policy is in force and a certificate in the approved form has been provided to the other party	s 92(1), (2)
Victoria	Builder pays the premium to the Authority before the first of: 10 business days after the contract is entered into, or the work starts. s 137R(1) states the cover provisions apply whether or not the premium has been paid	s 137O(1), s 137R(1)
Queensland	Licensed contractor collects the premium from the consumer and pays it to the commission before the first of: 10 business days from the contract, or the work starts	s 68B(2)
South Australia	No building work unless a complying policy is in force and the owner has been provided with a certificate that complies with the regulations	s 34
WA	No work unless a policy or approved-fund cover is in force, and the owner has been furnished with a certificate before a demand for any payment, including any deposit	s 25C(1), (2)
ACT	An application for a building commencement notice for insurable residential building work must be accompanied by the policy, an insurer's certificate or a fidelity certificate; the notice ends if the work is no longer insured	ss 37(4), 38

Who sits outside the scheme

Each Act carves out owner-builders and, in most states, taller buildings. The carve-outs are worded differently enough that one exclusion list will not cover them.

Owner-builders: NSW s 95: a contract of insurance cannot be entered into for owner-builder work carried out by an owner-builder, though s 92(6) still requires insurance for work a contractor does for an owner-builder under a contract. Queensland s 67WB(1)(b): work by a building contractor for the holder of an owner-builder permit covering the work is not eligible. Victoria s 137L(c): a person required to obtain a certificate of consent is not entitled to assistance for that work. ACT s 87(b): Part 6 does not apply where an owner-builders licence has been granted. WA s 25F: an owner-builder must not enter a sale contract within 7 years unless a policy is in force and the purchaser has a certificate.
Taller buildings: NSW cl 56: exempts a multi-storey building, one with a rise in storeys of more than 3 that contains 2 or more separate dwellings. Victoria s 137J(c): the scheme does not apply to construction of a residential apartment building. ACT: an insurable residential building has no more than 3 storeys at any point, excluding storeys used only for parking. South Australia's prescribed notice states contractors have not been required to insure multi-storey residential buildings since 1 September 2002.
Speculative work: Victoria and Queensland both bring a builder's own speculative work into the scheme and require the premium before the work starts (Victoria s 137O(3), Queensland s 68B(3)), while stating the builder itself is not entitled to assistance for it.

Two thresholds that depend on the date

A threshold stored as a constant will be wrong for part of a portfolio. Two states changed theirs within the last year, and in both the contract date, not the date of the check, decides which number applies.

A variation can also move a contract across a line. In Victoria, s 137O(2) requires the premium within 10 business days after a variation that makes the contract insurable. In NSW, s 92(4) adds together the prices of staged contracts between the same parties.

State	Before	After	Date that decides
South Australia, minor domestic building work	$12,000 (contracts from 15 October 2001)	$20,000	Contract made on or after 10 November 2025 (Regulations 2026, reg 4(4))
South Australia, minimum insurer liability per dwelling	Not less than $80,000	Not less than $250,000	Policy entered into on or after 10 November 2025 (reg 20(1))
Victoria, scheme and threshold	Domestic Building Insurance, required for work valued over $16,000 (as BPC describes it)	Home Warranty, more than $20,000	Contract signed on or after 1 July 2026 (BPC); Part 9A commenced 1 July 2026 (Act endnotes)

What links a contract
to its certificate.

Insurance is evidenced by a document issued once, while the contract it covers keeps changing. The states name different documents and different fields.

In NSW and WA the builder provides the owner with a certificate in a form approved by the Authority or the Minister, and NSW s 92A separately requires the builder to tell the insurer the identity of the contractor and the other party and the address of the premises. South Australia prescribes the certificate's fields in Form 2 of the 2026 Regulations: certificate number, insurer, building owner, a brief description of the work, the address of the premises, and the contractor's name and licence number.

In Victoria and Queensland the scheme itself issues a notice of cover once it accepts the premium (Victoria s 137T, Queensland s 68F). The BPC lists what an owner should check on a Victorian notice: the builder's name, registration number and ABN or ACN, the site address, the work covered, the assessed insurable value, the premium paid, when cover starts and claim timeframes. Those are the fields a builder's own record would need to match.

What we would put in a system

For each residential contract, we would test for five fields.

Where agents help here is narrow. A compliance agent can read a signed contract and a certificate or notice of cover, extract the parties, address, values and dates, flag a first payment demand dated before the certificate, and draft the record, and a person confirms it. No agent decides whether work is insurable, whether a threshold is met, or whether a policy complies. Those are determinations for the scheme, the insurer, the regulator and your advisers.

Field	Why it is load-bearing
State, contract date and the threshold in force on that date	South Australia and Victoria changed their thresholds within the last year; the SA Regulations and, for Victoria, the BPC state each threshold by contract date.
The value measure used and its amount	Contract price, insurable value and cost of the work are different numbers, and NSW adds staged contracts together.
Certificate or notice of cover reference, issuer and date	The document that evidences cover, matched to the contract by site address, owner and builder registration.
Date the certificate reached the owner, and date of the first payment demand	NSW and WA tie the obligation to payments including the deposit; Victoria and Queensland to a 10 business day clock.
Variations that changed the value	A variation can make a Victorian contract insurable and starts its own 10 business day clock.

Questions worth asking
of your own contract records

For a builder in NSW or WA: was any deposit invoice dated before the insurance certificate reached the owner?

Both Acts name payments, including the deposit, as the trigger. A record that stores the certificate date and the first payment demand date answers this directly.

For a South Australian builder: which open contracts between $12,000 and $20,000 were made before 10 November 2025?

Regulation 4(4)(b) prescribes $12,000 for contracts made on or after 15 October 2001 but before 10 November 2025. The contract date is the field that decides it.

For a Victorian builder: which contracts crossed $20,000 through a variation after 1 July 2026?

Section 137O(2) of the Building Act 1993 starts a 10 business day premium clock from the variation. Tracking the contract value after each variation shows them.

For a building group: can you produce, for every contract, the certificate or notice of cover and the threshold in force on its contract date?

Across six schemes with different documents and different value measures, that is a query only if the fields were stored when the contract was signed.

Questions people ask
about home warranty insurance

When does a builder need home warranty insurance in NSW?

Section 92 of the Home Building Act 1989 bars residential building work under a contract, and any payment including a deposit, unless a policy is in force and a certificate has been given to the other party. It does not apply where the contract price does not exceed $20,000 inclusive of GST (Home Building Regulation 2014, cl 53), as read on 9 October 2026.

What is the home warranty insurance threshold in Victoria?

For contracts signed on or after 1 July 2026, the Building and Plumbing Commission states Home Warranty applies to eligible domestic building work valued at more than $20,000. The Building Act 1993 defines an insurable domestic building contract by the builder receiving more than $20,000 (Authorised Version 152; Part 9A commenced 1 July 2026). BPC states the earlier Domestic Building Insurance applied to work valued over $16,000.

What value of work needs QBCC home warranty insurance?

Section 67WC of the QBCC Act 1991 defines primary insurable work by an insurable value more than $3,300, the regulated amount, for work such as building a residence or work within its building envelope. The contractor collects the premium and pays it before the first of 10 business days from the contract or the start of work (s 68B(2)), in the version current from 1 February 2026.

Is building indemnity insurance required in South Australia for small jobs?

The Building Work Contractors Act 1995 does not require it for minor domestic building work or for work needing no development approval. For contracts made on or after 10 November 2025, minor work is a cost below $20,000; for earlier contracts from 15 October 2001, below $12,000 (Building Work Contractors Regulations 2026, reg 4(4)).

Do owner-builders get home warranty insurance?

In NSW, s 95 of the Home Building Act 1989 states a contract of insurance cannot be entered into for owner-builder work carried out by an owner-builder. In WA, s 25F of the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 instead bars an owner-builder's sale within 7 years unless a policy is in force and the purchaser has a certificate.

What this analysis
does and does not show.

Evidence note

What it shows: The value threshold, the trigger event, the owner-builder and building-height carve-outs and the evidencing document for home warranty insurance or its equivalent in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, WA and the ACT, as read on 9 October 2026 on each jurisdiction's legislation register and, for Victoria's transition, the Building and Plumbing Commission's pages.
Key facts quoted: NSW over $20,000 inclusive of GST, s 92(1), (2), (4); Victoria more than $20,000, s 137O(1), (2), Part 9A from 1 July 2026, BPC: earlier DBI over $16,000; Queensland insurable value over $3,300, s 68B(2); SA minor work below $20,000 from 10 November 2025 and $12,000 before, minimum liability $250,000 from 10 November 2025 and $80,000 before; WA over $20,000, s 25C(2); ACT from $12,000, s 37(4).

We read the legislation and, for Victoria only, the BPC's pages. The NSW and SA registers and the BPC pages were read through a rendering proxy on 9 October 2026 because the sites block automated access; the texts are saved with the article.
Victoria's earlier $16,000 figure is the BPC's description. We did not read the Ministerial Order that set it.
Tasmania and the Northern Territory are not covered. We did not verify their requirements from a primary source.
Premiums, eligibility criteria, insurer or scheme capacity limits, and claim periods are not covered.
The trigger events are stated as the Acts word them. We do not state when a particular contract's obligation arose.
Nothing here is legal or insurance advice, and it does not determine whether any work is insurable, eligible or exempt.

Bring us one signed contract and its certificate.

Send us a residential contract, its insurance certificate or notice of cover, and the first payment invoice. We will show you which threshold the legislation lists for its contract date, and whether your records hold the dates of the certificate and the first invoice.

This article is general information about published legislation and scheme guidance. It is not legal or insurance advice and it does not determine whether any work is insurable, eligible or exempt. It covers NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT only. All provisions are as read on 9 October 2026 at the versions listed in the sources.

Send us the contract · Compliance

Sources

Suggested citation: Home Building Act 1989 (NSW), Building Act 1993 (Vic) Part 9A, QBCC Act 1991 (Qld) Part 5, Building Work Contractors Act 1995 (SA), Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (WA) and Building Act 2004 (ACT), at the versions listed, with Building and Plumbing Commission pages, as read 9 October 2026. Derived figures: none.

Home warranty thresholds moved in two states. Each is stated by contract date.