Published 3 Aug 2026 · Updated 16 Sept 2026
Home warranty insurance schemes are administered separately by each Australian jurisdiction. All jurisdictions except Tasmania currently have a scheme in force. Among the sources reviewed, Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia publish usable home-warranty claims figures.
Queensland received 1,964 claims in 2024-25, down 28% from a peak of 2,745 in 2022-23. Large builder insolvencies also had a substantial effect on claims activity in Victoria and South Australia.
What home warranty insurance covers in Australia: state-by-state rules, limits and claim triggersHome warranty insurance requirements vary substantially across Australia. Cover becomes compulsory above $3,300 of building work in Queensland and at or above $25,000 in the Northern Territory. Betwee…
Home warranty insurance by state: thresholds, cover and maximum payouts across AustraliaSeven of Australia's eight states and territories run an active last-resort scheme for homeowners whose builder fails partway through a job. However, the protection available depends heavily on where…Section 01 · Overview
Home warranty insurance claims by state and territory
Four of Australia’s eight states and territories publish usable home warranty insurance claims data: Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. However, the figures use different measures and cannot be combined into a national total or used to rank scheme performance.
Queensland publishes the most complete series: received claims rose from 1,537 in 2020-21 to a peak of 2,745 in 2022-23, then fell 28% to 1,964 in 2024-25. Victoria received 14,342 claims over the five years to 2023-24. New South Wales’ combined notifications and claims rose from 769 to 928 between 2017-18 and 2018-19. South Australia paid a record $18.7 million in claims in 2024-25, largely linked to a single builder’s insolvency.
Every jurisdiction except Tasmania has some form of home warranty or building indemnity insurance scheme in force. Each state and territory administers its own scheme, under its own name, with its own rules. The figures are not directly comparable because they cover different reporting periods, use different claim definitions and reflect different scheme structures and reporting methodologies.
Home warranty insurance claims dashboard: all states and territories
QUEENSLAND
1,964 received claims, 2024-25
Queensland Home Warranty Scheme. Exact annual series, 2020-21 to 2024-25: received claims peaked at 2,745 in 2022-23 and fell to 1,964 in 2024-25.
Source: QBCC
VICTORIA
14,342 claims received, 2019-20 to 2023-24
Domestic Building Insurance, transitioning to Home Warranty from 1 July 2026. 14,342 claims received, 2019-20 to 2023-24 (historical DBI).
Source: VAGO
NEW SOUTH WALES
928 combined notifications and claims, 2018-19
Home Building Compensation scheme (icare Home Building Compensation Fund). Combined notifications and claims rose from 769 to 928, 2017-18 to 2018-19 (historical; current data is interactive only).
Source: SIRA
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
$18.7m paid in claims, 2024-25
Building Indemnity Insurance. $18.7 million paid in claims in 2024-25; 251 claims linked to a single builder’s 2023 insolvency.
Source: Consumer and Business Services (SA)
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Not published
Home Indemnity Insurance
No reliable official claims statistics were found in the sources reviewed.
Source: Building and Energy (WA)
TASMANIA
No scheme in force
Abolished 2008; 2023 replacement not commenced
Not applicable; No home warranty insurance claims can be made while no scheme is in force
Source: Tasmanian Department of Justice; Tasmanian Legislation
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Not published
Residential building work insurance or Fidelity Fund
No reliable official claims statistics were found in the sources reviewed.
Source: ACT Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate
NORTHERN TERRITORY
Not published
Residential Building Cover (Fidelity Fund NT)
No reliable official claims statistics were found in the sources reviewed.
Source: Northern Territory Government; Fidelity Fund NT
Source · QBCC, VMIA, VAGO, SIRA, Consumer and Business Services (SA), and government scheme pages for Western Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.
The schemes also differ in structure, not just in the data they publish. Some rely on a government monopoly insurer, others on privately underwritten policies, and Tasmania currently has no scheme at all.
Different triggers
Claims are triggered by different events across states: incomplete or defective work in Queensland, builder death, disappearance, insolvency or failure to comply with an eligible tribunal order under Victoria’s historical DBI terms, and death, disappearance, insolvency or licence suspension following non-compliance with a court or NCAT money order in New South Wales.
A defect claim and an insolvency-triggered claim are not the same event, so counting them the same way across states would combine genuinely different risks.
Different cover periods
Cover periods and claim thresholds vary by state and by defect type, so a claim reported this year can relate to work insured under different rules in different states.
Home warranty cover is multi-year and long-tail everywhere, but the exact number of years and the value thresholds that trigger cover differ by jurisdiction.
Different published measures
“Received”, “resolved” and “notifications combined with claims” are three different measures, and each state publishes a different one as its headline figure.
Queensland publishes received claims. Victoria publishes resolved claims alongside a separate five-year received aggregate. New South Wales’ most recent downloadable report combines notifications with claims into one number.
Different denominators
Queensland is the only reviewed source providing exact issued-policy counts alongside exact claims counts across the same years, so an exact same-year claims-to-policies activity ratio can only be calculated for Queensland.
VMIA reports over 74,000 certificates and over 3,500 resolved claims for Victoria in 2024-25, but these are lower-bound figures on a different claims measure (resolved rather than received), so they cannot be combined with Queensland’s exact received-claims ratio into a single comparable rate.
Section 02 · Insolvency
How builder insolvencies affect home warranty insurance claims
Builder insolvency is the trigger most consistently linked to home warranty claim spikes in the sources reviewed. New South Wales’ regulator, SIRA, states that insolvency is the primary cause of home building compensation claims.
Porter Davis Homes collapsed in March 2023, generating 1,932 claims by June 2023. VMIA describes this as equivalent to approximately one year’s worth of claims in a single event, and one of Australia’s largest builder insolvencies.
Insolvencies fell to a low of 49 in 2020-21, then nearly doubled to 93 by 2022-23, the year of the Porter Davis collapse. The insolvency and claims figures provide related context, but they do not establish a direct annual relationship. One large builder failure can materially affect claims without producing a comparable increase in the number of insolvencies.
2017-18 to 2019-20
Victorian builder insolvencies increased before the Porter Davis collapse
Builder insolvencies rose from 59 in 2017-18 to 82 in 2019-20, according to the Victorian Ombudsman.
March 2023
Porter Davis Homes collapse
VMIA received 1,932 claims by June 2023 following what it describes as one of the largest builder insolvencies in Australia’s history. Victorian builder insolvencies (93) were highest in this same year of the seven years shown.
2024-25
Shangri-La insolvency increased Victorian claims
VMIA’s 2024-25 annual report states that DBI claims significantly exceeded expectations in 2024-25, driven mainly by the Shangri-La insolvency. VMIA does not publish an exact claims count for this event, unlike Porter Davis.
2024-25
NSW construction insolvency figures
SIRA’s 2024-25 Annual Report shows that 1,567 NSW construction companies entered external administration for the first time in 2024-25, an 11% increase, against a national increase of 20.8%.
2023 to 2025
South Australian builder insolvencies
The South Australian Government paid $18.7 million in Building Indemnity Insurance claims in 2024-25, describing it as a record. A single builder’s 2023 insolvency alone generated 251 claims, and over 100 further claims followed from other builder collapses in the 12 months to July 2025.
2024-25
ASIC construction insolvency reports
ASIC recorded 2,361 initial external administrators’ and receivers’ reports for the construction industry nationally, including 1,128 in New South Wales and 651 in Victoria. This is a broader measure of company failure across the construction sector, not a count of insured home builders or home warranty claims.
Section 03 · Claim rates
Can Australian states be compared by home warranty claim rate?
Queensland is the only reviewed jurisdiction that provides an exact same-year claims-to-policies activity ratio. Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia publish claims volumes or event-linked figures without a comparable exposure base, so the available data does not support a true state-by-state home warranty claim-rate ranking.
Queensland
Queensland provides the most complete data for calculating a same-year activity ratio, pairing an exact received-claims count with an exact issued-policy count in the same publication. Its same-year activity ratio was 1.20 claims per 100 policies in 2024-25, down from a peak of 1.83 in 2022-23. This is an activity indicator only, not an actuarial claim rate, because home warranty claims are long-tail and can relate to policies issued in earlier years.
Victoria
Victoria does not publish a directly comparable rate. VMIA reports over 74,000 certificates issued and over 3,500 resolved claims for 2024-25, but these are lower-bound figures on a different measure (resolved rather than received) and cannot be converted into a same-year claims-to-policies activity ratio.
New South Wales
New South Wales’ most recent downloadable figures, combined notifications and claims rising from 769 in 2017-18 to 928 in 2018-19, are not published alongside an issued-policy count for those years, so no rate can be calculated.
South Australia
South Australia’s figures, $18.7 million paid in claims in 2024-25 and 251 claims linked to a single builder’s 2023 insolvency, are tied to specific events rather than a published policy base, so they also cannot be converted into a rate.
Section 04 · Queensland
Queensland’s Home Warranty Scheme explained
The Queensland Home Warranty Scheme is a government monopoly administered by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC), covering residential building work valued at more than $3,300, including labour, materials and GST.
Unlike most other Australian schemes, Queensland operates a first-resort model. A homeowner can claim for incomplete or defective work, without first needing the builder to die, disappear or become insolvent. Standard cover is $200,000, with up to $300,000 available through optional additional cover.
| Queensland Home Warranty Scheme claims and exposure indicators, 2020-21 to 2024-25 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Financial year | Received claims (issued policies) | Approved claims $m (premiums $m) |
| 2020-21 | 1,537 (168,468) | $31.3m ($140.9m) |
| 2021-22 | 1,856 (150,171) | $35.1m ($142.7m) |
| 2022-23 | 2,745 (150,164) | $68.6m ($150.3m) |
| 2023-24 | 2,299 (150,825) | $88.7m ($169.1m) |
| 2024-25 | 1,964 (164,050) | $60.7m ($198.3m) |
Source · Queensland Building and Construction Commission, Annual Report 2024-2025, Table 21.
Queensland’s same-year activity ratio was 1.20 claims per 100 policies in 2024-25, down from a peak of 1.83 in 2022-23. This is an activity indicator only, not an actuarial claim rate, because home warranty claims are long-tail and often relate to policies issued in earlier years.
Issued policies fell from 168,468 in 2020-21 to around 150,000 across the following three years, before rising to 164,050 in 2024-25. Premiums increased every year from $140.9 million to $198.3 million, an increase of 41%, while received claims declined after the 2022–23 peak.
Queensland’s approved claim costs rose from $31.3 million in 2020-21 to $88.7 million in 2023-24, up 183%, before falling 32% to $60.7 million in 2024-25.
Non-completion accounted for most approved claim costs during the peak years. It represented an estimated 69% of approved costs in 2022-23 and 71% in 2023-24, before falling to 52% in 2024-25 as defective-work costs rose to 39% of the total. These shares are calculated from the published dollar figures by cause.
The published cause categories do not always sum exactly to the stated total. In 2021-22, defective work, non-completion and subsidence sum to $36.0 million against a published total of $35.1 million, a $0.9 million difference the source does not explain. Both figures are retained as published.
Section 05 · Victoria
How many home warranty insurance claims are made in Victoria?
Victoria’s historical Domestic Building Insurance (DBI) scheme received 14,342 claims between 2019-20 and 2023-24. This is a five-year aggregate rather than an annual series, and a homeowner may lodge more than one claim.
DBI is a last-resort scheme: existing policies cover loss where a builder died, disappeared, became insolvent or failed to comply with an eligible tribunal order. From 1 July 2026, Victoria’s new Home Warranty scheme applies to eligible contracts signed on or after that date. It may cover incomplete, defective or non-compliant work where the builder fails or refuses to complete or fix it, which is broader than historical DBI claim triggers. The Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) administers both schemes; VMIA administered DBI historically.
At least half of accepted claims had settlement amounts at or below the $34,942 median. The $61,698 mean was 76.6% higher, consistent with higher-value settlements lifting the average.
Victoria resolved over 3,500 claims in 2024-25. However, this annual resolved-claims figure is not directly comparable with the five-year received-claims total above.
Section 06 · New South Wales
New South Wales home warranty insurance claims and payments
New South Wales’ Home Building Compensation (HBC) scheme is delivered through icare’s Home Building Compensation Fund and regulated by the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA). It is a last-resort scheme: a claim requires builder death, disappearance, insolvency, or licence suspension following non-compliance with a court or NCAT money order.
Insurance is required for work valued at more than $20,000, including GST, with a statutory minimum cover of $340,000.
Major defect claims accounted for 174 of the 928 combined notifications and claims reported in 2018-19. Current claims are published via an interactive dashboard, not a downloadable annual count.
New South Wales · 2018-19
$49m total payments
All home building compensation claim payments in 2018-19, the most recent year this cause breakdown was published as a downloadable report.
Source: SIRA, 2018-2019 scheme report. Official · historical comparator
NSW · major defect share
72% ($35m)
Major defect claims accounted for 72% of 2018-19 claim payments, with incompletion claims accounting for a further 18% ($9m).
Source: SIRA, 2018-2019 scheme report. Historical · 2018–19 data
Current NSW cause breakdown
Not published as a downloadable series
Current NSW claims data is published via an interactive dashboard rather than a report with a cause-of-payment breakdown.
Source: SIRA HBC open data.
Section 07 · Coverage comparison
Home warranty insurance thresholds and coverage limits by state
Home warranty insurance thresholds and coverage limits vary across Australia.
Coverage caps range from $200,000 in several states to $400,000 under Victoria’s incoming Home Warranty scheme, and eligibility thresholds range from $3,300 in Queensland to $25,000 for newer Northern Territory certificates.
Thresholds and cover amounts change periodically as governments review their schemes.
| Home warranty insurance eligibility and coverage requirements across Australia | ||
|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Insurance required for work valued at | Coverage requirement |
| Queensland | More than $3,300, including labour, materials and GST, for most eligible residential building work | $200,000 standard cover; $300,000 available with optional additional cover |
| Victoria | More than $20,000 for eligible contracts signed from 1 July 2026 | $400,000 total cover per home under Home Warranty |
| New South Wales | More than $20,000, including GST | $340,000 statutory minimum cover |
| Western Australia | More than $20,000, subject to statutory exemptions | $200,000 for incomplete or defective work; $40,000 for lost deposits |
| South Australia | More than $20,000, following an increase from $12,000 in November 2025, and development approval is required | $250,000 policy limit for new QBE policies issued from 1 October 2025 (existing QBE policies retain the $150,000 limit) |
| Tasmania | Not applicable; no scheme in force | Not applicable |
| Australian Capital Territory | $12,000 or more, for approval-required work of three storeys or fewer | $200,000 minimum cover for certificates issued from 1 January 2025 |
| Northern Territory | More than $25,000 for certificates issued after 30 March 2026; the former $12,000 threshold applies to earlier certificates | Cover capped at $200,000 for non-completion and defects combined |
Source · as cited above for each jurisdiction. Thresholds and cover amounts change periodically; figures are dated to the source reviewed and may not reflect later changes.
| Home warranty scheme rules across Australian states, current schemes as at 29 July 2026 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Scheme name & administration | Main claim trigger |
| Queensland | Queensland Home Warranty Scheme; government monopoly administered by the QBCC | Incomplete or defective work (first-resort model) |
| Victoria | Home Warranty from 1 July 2026 (previously Domestic Building Insurance); administered by the Building and Plumbing Commission | Builder unable or unwilling to complete or rectify work; historical DBI terms covered death, disappearance or insolvency, or failure to comply with an eligible tribunal order |
| New South Wales | Home Building Compensation scheme; government insurer icare, regulated by SIRA | Builder death, disappearance, insolvency, or licence suspension following non-compliance with a court or NCAT money order |
| Western Australia | Home Indemnity Insurance; privately underwritten, administered by Building and Energy | Builder death, disappearance or insolvency; cancellation or non-renewal of registration where the builder failed the prescribed financial requirements |
| South Australia | Building Indemnity Insurance; privately underwritten with government reinsurance, regulated by Consumer and Business Services | Builder death, disappearance or insolvency |
| Tasmania | No scheme currently in force; the previous scheme was abolished in 2008, and a 2023 replacement had not commenced in the sources reviewed | Not applicable |
| Australian Capital Territory | Residential building work insurance or Master Builders Fidelity Fund; privately administered with government oversight | Builder insolvency, death or disappearance |
| Northern Territory | Residential Building Cover via Fidelity Fund NT; an industry-run trust underwritten by the NT Government | Builder bankruptcy, death, disappearance or deregistration |
Source · QBCC; VMIA and BPC; SIRA; Building and Energy (WA); Consumer and Business Services (SA); Tasmanian Department of Justice and Tasmanian Legislation; ACT Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate; Northern Territory Government and Fidelity Fund NT.
Tasmania has no home warranty insurance scheme in force
Tasmania abolished its previous scheme in 2008. Replacement legislation was passed in 2023, but no commencement proclamation was identified in the sources reviewed.
A separate government Financial Assistance Package may apply to eligible consumers affected by certain builder deaths, disappearances or insolvencies since 1 July 2021. The package is not home warranty insurance, and its payments are not included in this article’s claims figures.
Section 08 · Consumer protection
How home warranty claims data is published across Australia
Scheme design differs across Australia. Queensland operates a first-resort model, allowing claims for eligible incomplete or defective work. Most other jurisdictions use last-resort schemes, where claims generally depend on events such as builder death, disappearance or insolvency.
The table below shows what claims data each jurisdiction publishes and the main measure available.
| Home warranty claims data publication across Australian states, as at 29 July 2026 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Publisher & format | Main measure & currency |
| Queensland | QBCC annual report table | Received claims and approved claim dollars; exact five-year series, current to 2024-25 |
| Victoria | VMIA annual report; VAGO and Ombudsman oversight reports | Mixed measures: resolved claims, five-year aggregates, event-specific figures (historical DBI) |
| New South Wales | SIRA; historically an annual PDF report. The SIRA Board approved open-data publication in May 2025, with new arrangements from 2025-26 | Current data is interactive only; the last downloadable cause breakdown is 2018-19 |
| South Australia | Consumer and Business Services; a media release, not a regular report | Total claims paid in dollars, and claim counts tied to specific builder insolvencies; not a recurring series |
| Western Australia | Building and Energy scheme pages reviewed | No claims figures identified in the sources reviewed |
| Tasmania | No scheme in force; not applicable | No claims figures possible while no scheme operates |
| Australian Capital Territory | ACT Government scheme pages reviewed | No claims figures identified in the sources reviewed |
| Northern Territory | Northern Territory Government and Fidelity Fund NT pages reviewed | No claims figures identified in the sources reviewed |
Source · QBCC, VMIA, VAGO, Victorian Ombudsman, SIRA, Consumer and Business Services (SA), and government scheme pages for Western Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, reviewed as at 29 July 2026.
References
- Queensland Building and Construction Commission: Annual Report 2024-25 · qbcc.qld.gov.au
- Victorian Managed Insurance Authority, Annual Report 2024-25 · vmia.vic.gov.au
- Victorian Auditor-General's Office, Domestic Building Insurance (2025) · audit.vic.gov.au
- Victorian Ombudsman, Investigation into VMIA's management of domestic building insurance claims · parliament.vic.gov.au
- Building and Plumbing Commission Victoria – Domestic Building Insurance and Home Warranty · bpc.vic.gov.au
- State Insurance Regulatory Authority, Home building compensation scheme report for the year 2018-2019 · sira.nsw.gov.au
- State Insurance Regulatory Authority, Annual Report 2024-25 · sira.nsw.gov.au
- State Insurance Regulatory Authority, Home Building Compensation open data · sira.nsw.gov.au
- Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), Greater protection for home builders — media release, 11 July 2025 · cbs.sa.gov.au
- Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety (WA): Home indemnity insurance factsheet · wa.gov.au
- Tasmanian Department of Justice, Regulatory Impact Statement: Home Warranty Insurance · justice.tas.gov.au
- Residential Building (Home Warranty Insurance Amendments) Act 2023 (Tas), s.2 · legislation.tas.gov.au
- ACT Planning – Residential building work insurance · planning.act.gov.au
- Northern Territory Government, Residential building insurance · nt.gov.au
- Fidelity Fund NT: For Homeowners · fidelityfundnt.com.au
- Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Insolvency Statistics Series 3.2: selected industries, 2024-25 · download.asic.gov.au
