BSA's home warranty insurance scheme pays 98.8 percent of claims

Minister for Public Works and Information and Communication Technology
The Honourable Robert Schwarten
29/10/2009
BSA's home warranty insurance scheme pays 98.8 percent of claims
 
The Queensland Building Services Authority (BSA) paid out an impressive 98.8 percent of valid insurance claims under its Statutory Home Warranty Insurance Scheme during the 2008-09 financial year.

Public Works Minister Robert Schwarten said the impressive figure was contained in the BSA's annual report released today.

"This shows that the BSA's Home Warranty Scheme is a very effective consumer protection mechanism," Mr Schwarten said.

"When things don't go right in the building process, consumers are thankful that here in Queensland we run the best Home Warranty Insurance Scheme in the country.

"The Queensland scheme is truly unique - it is the only Home Warranty Insurance product that offers first resort insurance.

"Homeowners are able to claim for non-completed work, or defective work, without the builder having to be insolvent.

"In every other state, consumers must fend for themselves in the private arena as claims are only a ccepted as a last resort - where the contractor is either dead, has disappeared or is insolvent."

Mr Schwarten said the annual report also showed that the BSA had 81,277 licensees by 30 June 2009, with more than 15,000 licence applications received during the financial year.

"This is an increase from the 10,663 applications received in the previous year and shows the continued strength of the Queensland building and construction industry, and also the uptake of the new Site Supervisor licence," he said.

Mr Schwarten said the BSA's on-line licence search was used to conduct 358,392 licence searches, which was up from 319,706 the previous year.

"This twelve percent increase in on-line searches reflects a heightened awareness of BSA's licensing system and its on-line services," he said.

"Consumers are now checking contractors' histories before engaging them to perform building work, and industry awareness of the on-line licence search fac ility has also increased since it became an offence for builders to engage unlicensed sub-contractors."