ABC 7.30 Report: Home Owners Warranty

Consumers demand changes to building insurance. Building a house can be one of the most expensive and stressful periods in a person's life, especially when things go wrong. For the past four years, many people have been discovering that when it comes to getting builders to repair faulty work, they're on their own, despite having paid for home warranty insurance they thought would cover them. But since the collapse of HIH things have changed. That's when the so called last resort system was introduced, as a way of attracting insurers back into the market. Now, consumers are discovering it was done at the expense of their own protection. Instead they're left to the justice system, in some cases for years, battling highly paid legal teams funded by insurance companies while still waiting for their homes to be finished. Now consumers - and builders as well - are demanding change. Builders Collective: http://www.builderscollective.org.au Senate Economic Committee http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/economics_ctte/home_warranty_08/