SIRA welcomes IPART's home building compensation report

The State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) has shown its support for the final report of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) New South Wales (NSW) on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Home Building Compensation Fund (HBCF).

The HBCF scheme provides homeowners with up to $340,000 of cover for houses and low-rise apartments if their builder cannot complete a project or fix defects because they are insolvent or have disappeared.

IPART's report outlines four key recommendations, which are:

• To reduce the average value of claims on the scheme;
• To make it easier for new entrants to compete with the NSW government insurer icare to offer HBC;
• To enable faster dispute resolution between homeowners and builders; and
• To regulate icare’s prices and service more tightly.

SIRA said in a release that it looks forward to working with stakeholders to deliver improved customer outcomes and experience. It has started working on implementing some of IPART's recommendations and conducting further analysis and consultation to inform advice to the Minister for Customer Service. It will provide further updates on its approach and actions throughout 2021.