Browse Forums Owner Builder Forum Re: Owner Builder Insurance 21Apr 25, 2009 2:18 pm You would think that PL would be compulsory wouldn't you? Apparently not however. Although the majority of banks will not lend without it: http://www.buildersbroker.com.au/index-inc-mainmenuitem-id-1015.html Re: Owner Builder Insurance 22Apr 25, 2009 4:14 pm as far as im aware the only insurance that is compulsory is homeowners warranty insurance which is only needed should you sell your house within 6 1/2 years of building it. all other insurances are optional and cannont be inforced. stay safe happy building Re: Owner Builder Insurance 24Apr 27, 2009 4:56 pm Insurance is required when the banks are lending money. I certainly think insurance is worthwhile, imagine a couple of 10 year olds kids exploring in your house and playing and they knock something over one of them is severly injured. The family will sue you to high heavens as that is the way people are these days. At least if you have public Liability insurance you would be covered. Re: Owner Builder Insurance 25Apr 27, 2009 6:09 pm hunts01 Insurance is required when the banks are lending money. I certainly think insurance is worthwhile, imagine a couple of 10 year olds kids exploring in your house and playing and they knock something over one of them is severly injured. The family will sue you to high heavens as that is the way people are these days. At least if you have public Liability insurance you would be covered. provided you have fencing and signage up then they are trespassing and will not be able to sue you.however i keep my site extremely clean with nothing on the ground at all the only thing i could see is if they actually climbed on the roof and jumped off stay safe happy building Re: Owner Builder Insurance 26Apr 27, 2009 7:13 pm I can guarantee you 100% that having a sign that says no tresspassing and a fence will not cover you at all if an accident occurs on or in the immeadiate vicinity of your property and is caused by negligence. This can be as simple as having a pit dug and no fencing and someone falls in it. An example is a bridge that had a "no diving sign" on it and somebody dives off it and breaks there neck on a submerged log, you can't idemnify yourself just by saying someone shouldn't do it. The diving example happened in Albury a few years ago and the bloke got 10 million or something from the council. If it was as easy as locking up your site and putting a sign on it, there wouldn't be a need for public liabilty insurance at all, as workers are covered under their workers insurance. From the rural position you look to be building in Shelley I probably would weigh up the cost v benefit and the chance of somehting happening would be minute. However for the sake of a few hundred dollars IMHO Public Immunity insurance is well worthwhile, as if something did happen you would be paying it off for life (or go bankrupt!). Lastly, I am not fully up to date with this component, but what if you injured yourself seriously whilst working on the block, is there any insurance to cover injury / loss of income? What do others think?? Re: Owner Builder Insurance 27Apr 27, 2009 8:42 pm yeah i see your point i just know to many people who have paid insurances their whole lives and finally put in a claim to be told tuff we arent paying it. no one has the money to fight these insurance guys you just have to accept it and move on there should be an insurance to cover yourself if an insurance company wont pay you lol stay safe happy building Re: Owner Builder Insurance 29Apr 27, 2009 10:13 pm I like your thinking Shelley!! Well, we are getting PL, construction (ie theft and mal damage etc) and personal accident in order to cover us if either of us gets hurt but we are also extending that cover to friends and family who volunteer to work with us. I can't imagine anything worse than one of our mates helping us, having a horrendous accident/injury and not being able to support his family etc. Even if no one sued, can you imagine the guilt you would feel?? So hence, this is the cover we are going with. L Re: Owner Builder Insurance 30Apr 28, 2009 8:18 pm loretta I like your thinking Shelley!! Well, we are getting PL, construction (ie theft and mal damage etc) and personal accident in order to cover us if either of us gets hurt but we are also extending that cover to friends and family who volunteer to work with us. I can't imagine anything worse than one of our mates helping us, having a horrendous accident/injury and not being able to support his family etc. Even if no one sued, can you imagine the guilt you would feel?? So hence, this is the cover we are going with. L Re: Owner Builder Insurance 31Apr 28, 2009 10:20 pm We endeavoured to get PL prior to building our house, & at that stage only had our shed. Couldn't get anyone to provide PL without having house insurance. Don't know if we were asking for the wrong thing, but had all sorts of trouble. Now we are speaking to a broker about arranging a rural package. Life's too short too drink bad wine Re: Owner Builder Insurance 32Apr 29, 2009 6:11 am It was a while back but I do recall that I needed PL insurance. May have been a council requirement though. In an ideal world we would not need PL insurance however in a matter of a minute my partner who builds houses for a living gave me half a dozen examples where something could go wrong. He could of kept going with the examples also. My partner did remind me that as an OB you have the same responsibilities as a reg builder. He did say that with the examples provided if he were to injure himself he could sue. Remembr that many tradies charge out at over $40 p/h so it could be costly. My partner also said that it's likely that even if he went through his insurance that they will most likely sue the builder to cover the costs. Just some food for thought. Re: Owner Builder Insurance 33Apr 29, 2009 9:01 am The other question with PL is whether to go $5m or $10m. I was thinking $5m would be more than enough however I have heard some horror stories regarding what courts can make you pay if you are found liable for something and of course you also have to pay the other side's legal costs. The other thing to think about is the increase in costs of materials and labour. If a matter isn't settled until 5 years later, I imagine that costs may well increase by 15-20%. Re: Owner Builder Insurance 34Apr 29, 2009 9:42 am loretta The other question with PL is whether to go $5m or $10m. I was thinking $5m would be more than enough however I have heard some horror stories regarding what courts can make you pay if you are found liable for something and of course you also have to pay the other side's legal costs. F D Beck quoted us $60 more premium for $10million than for $5million. JB Re: Owner Builder Insurance 35May 01, 2009 2:19 pm [quote="loretta"]The other question with PL is whether to go $5m or $10m. I was thinking $5m would be more than enough however I have heard some horror stories regarding what courts can make you pay if you are found liable for something and of course you also have to pay the other side's legal costs. I am pretty sure no matter how much insurance you have. If you have are negligent the insurance company have every right to can and chase you for the money. Public Liability protects the community not the owner. Re: Owner Builder Insurance 36May 07, 2009 3:53 pm FD Beck seems to be the winner then Anyone ever had to claim anything with them and if so were they easy to deal with? Re: Owner Builder Insurance 38May 07, 2009 4:56 pm Hi gettingthere it depends entirely on the value of your build - you will probably find that if you are insuring your build for $350 then obviously 35k is 10% and so much of a muchness. L Re: Owner Builder Insurance 39May 07, 2009 4:59 pm loretta Hi gettingthere it depends entirely on the value of your build - you will probably find that if you are insuring your build for $350 then obviously 35k is 10% and so much of a muchness. L Duhhh! What was thinking?!?! LOL Thanks for that Hi All, I just wanted to close this topic out with an update. So we ended up agreeing to a number with the insurance company, and after an extensive amount of hand… 8 24890 Hi VK, Think it's worth investing time in an Owner Builder course to equip you with basic knowledge on Australian Building Industry and its regulations. Also, I suggest… 11 25297 Hi all. Anyone know when the $11,000 limit was set in legislation for renovations in QLD? Ive been renovating for 5 years now and this was the limit back then. As we know,… 0 4898 |