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A reminder to building practitioners about domestic building insurance (DBI)

As a building practitioner, you have obligations to your clients to have a valid domestic building insurance (DBI) policy before taking a deposit or any other money.

The Victorian Building Authority (VBA) and Consumer Affairs Victoria remind you of your DBI obligations:

  • If a contract to do domestic building work in Victoria is worth $16,000 or more, you require DBI.
  • It is your responsibility to purchase DBI for the building project on behalf of your client.
  • You should not enter into a domestic building contract for over $16,000 without the contract being in writing and without either:
    • taking out the required domestic building insurance first, or
    • ensuring there is a clause in the contract that your client does not have to pay any money under the contract until domestic building insurance is taken out.
  • You should give your clients a copy of the DBI certificate of insurance within seven days of receiving the policy documents.
  • You must not carry out, manage or arrange the carrying out of domestic building work under a major domestic building contract unless you are covered by the required insurance.

Required insurance
The VBA requires evidence of the required insurance before granting or renewing a building registration. There are three types of insurance for registered building practitioners:

  • DBI
  • professional indemnity insurance
  • public liability insurance.

If you are found to no longer be covered by the required insurance, the VBA must suspend your registration.

A suspended building practitioner is unable to work as a registered practitioner for the duration of their suspension and any building permits issued in their name are suspended.

Penalties

Penalties for carrying out, managing or arranging the carrying out of domestic building work under a major domestic building contract without the required insurance are up to:

  • 500 penalty units for a person
  • 2,500 penalty units for a corporation.

The same penalties apply if you tell or otherwise represent in some way to your client that DBI is in place when it is not.

Buying DBI

Visit the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority’s BuildVic portal to:

  • buy domestic building insurance
  • view certificates of insurance
  • access your letter of eligibility.

To register for access to BuildVic, contact one of the DBI distributors.

For more information about building insurance requirements and DBI, visit the:

Yours sincerely,

Victorian Building Authority & Consumer Affairs Victoria