New South Wales Consolidated Acts

HOME BUILDING ACT 1989 - SECT 92

92 Contract work must be insured

(1) A person must not do residential building work under a contract unless--

(a) a contract of insurance that complies with this Act is in force in relation to that work in the name under which the person contracted to do the work, and

(b) a certificate of insurance evidencing the contract of insurance, in a form approved by the Authority, has been provided to the other party (or one of the other parties) to the contract.

: Maximum penalty--1,000 penalty units in the case of a corporation and 200 penalty units in any other case.

Note--: Part 6B (see section 104B) provides that the requirement to obtain insurance under this section may be met by obtaining coverage through an alternative indemnity product.

(2) A person must not demand or receive a payment under a contract for residential building work (whether as a deposit or other payment and whether or not work under the contract has commenced) from any other party to the contract unless--

(a) a contract of insurance that complies with this Act is in force in relation to that work in the name under which the person contracted to do the work, and

(b) a certificate of insurance evidencing the contract of insurance, in a form approved by the Authority, has been provided to the other party (or one of the other parties) to the contract.

: Maximum penalty--1,000 penalty units in the case of a corporation and 200 penalty units in any other case.

(2A) An individual who is convicted of a second or subsequent offence under subsection (1) or (2) is liable to a penalty not exceeding 500 penalty units or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both.

(3) This section does not apply if the contract price does not exceed the amount prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this section or (if the contract price is not known) the reasonable market cost of the labour and materials involved does not exceed that amount.

(4) If the same parties enter into two or more contracts to carry out work in stages, the contract price for the purposes of subsection (3) is taken to be the sum of the contract prices under each of the contracts.

(5) A contract of insurance that is in force in compliance with this section in relation to residential building work (the
"original work" ) done by a person extends to any residential building work done by the person by way of rectification of the original work.

Note--: Accordingly, this section does not require a separate contract of insurance in relation to the rectification work.

(6) To avoid doubt, this section extends to residential building work that is also owner-builder work (when the work is done under a contract between the person who contracts to do the work and the owner-builder).