Owner Builders Australia
When constructing your dream home or renovating or remodelling your existing property, it’s common for those from construction and engineering backgrounds to take charge of the project themselves.
Why do people take on the roles of owner builders?
Complete control and accountability
Being an owner builder allows you to take full charge of your project, putting you firmly in the driving seat of all aspects from architectural design to material sourcing to budget management to contractor management and more. You can ensure the delivery of a project that meets your specific creative desires and quality levels.
Save on financial costs
A home owner builder with a relevant skillset and experience can save big on costs through management of their own home build project. Saving on financial costs is perhaps the key reason to take on the role as builder fees can often constitute up to 35% of total costs.
Some owner builders will also take on all physically handling all of the work by themselves while others will employ sub-contractors to undertake some or all of the work.
Ultimate satisfaction
There is no achievement for a family quite like the completion of the build of their own home. Even managing the completion of a restoration, extension or remodelling project on your own home is no mean feat and so will deliver a deep sense of pride and achievement to the owner builder when the final project is finally unveiled.
But, and there’s always a but…
Owner building a house means assuming all of the risks of a construction company, which include;
- Bearing possible and unforeseen person and financial risk
- Bearing the brunt of public liability claims through visitor or employee injury
- Dealing with claims of environmental disruption should your project impact the local community
- Replacing lost or stolen materials, fittings or appliances or equipment
- Experiencing financial downfall in the event of property loss or damage or loss or damage to neighbouring properties
Mitigating key risks
You can do it, you can be an owner builder. However, you need to protect yourself against these key risks. If owner building, you need to take out adequate insurance protection or the risks can potential ruin the rewards of managing your own home build.
Any owner builder Australia wide protect their investment of time, money and energy into their home build by taking out owner builder insurance.
With Qtrust, your specific financial and risk needs are matched with a policy that offers the cover, expertise and capabilities you require.
We don’t sell insurance; we solidify the protection you need. If you are concerned about protecting you and your family financially against any claims resulting from your home build project, contact the Qtrust team today on 1300 798 991 or contact us online via our website. We’re here to help you reap the rewards of self-building!
What Should Owner Builders Insurance Cover?
When owner builders are looking for insurance for their projects, they should bear in mind the fact that whilst many different companies offer owner builder insurance policies, not all of these policies provide the same coverage.
If you’re currently trying to decide between different insurance policies, there are a few crucially important things you should look out for. These include:
- Subcontractor and worker to worker injury
- Subcontractor actions
- Storm, wind, water and rain events
- Vandalism and malicious damage
- Theft and burglary
- Fire including bushfire
- Personal accident/injury
- Voluntary worker insurance optional
As well as all of the above, you should also make sure that your chosen policy includes public liability insurance. When you’re a home owner builder, you have a duty of care towards anyone whom you either directly or indirectly invite onto your premises.
Should anything happen to them while they’re on your property, the legal responsibility for the damages will be yours – so it’s vital to make sure that you have adequate insurance covering incidents involving third parties.
Why to Choose Home Owner Builder Insurance
If you’re an owner builder, Australia offers a wealth of different options when it comes to finding the right insurance for you and your project. But whilst some owner builders choose to get standard builders insurance, there are many benefits to investing instead in specialist insurance designed specifically with owner builders in mind.
For one thing, many insurance policies designed for builders include protection for highly specialist professional equipment and tasks which very few – if any – owner builders are involved with.
As a result, people who choose to go with standard builder insurance tend to end up paying a premium for protection against the costs associated with challenges they’re simply never going to face.
Furthermore, an owner builder in Australia who chooses to work with a reputable, bespoke owner builder insurance specialist like QTrust can always be confident that they’ll receive a policy that is tailored to their particular requirements and the specific challenges their project poses.
The Qtrust Way
At Qtrust, we’re proud to provide our customers with more than just a standard owner builder insurance scheme.
Because our years of experience in the industry have enabled us to understand that each and every project is unique, we’re committed to working closely with each individual customer to gain a deep understanding of the particular nature of their project – allowing us to provide them with a personalised scheme that guarantees them maximum protection and security.
Being an owner builder can sometimes be stressful, but with the peace of mind that a Qtrust insurance plan provides, our customers can go forward and throw themselves into their building projects, ensuring they end up with a finished result that makes all their hard work totally worth it.
Qtrust provide owner builder insurance for all owner builders in Australia. If you need owner builder warranty insurance or home renovation insurance, give us a call and let us talk you through your best options. We specialise in services for owner builders in NSW, Victoria, QLD and WA.
