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Victoria bolsters home owner protections after string of botched tradie jobs
New measures will further protect Victorian home owners against dodgy tradie work, following a string of recent shoddy and incomplete building and renovation jobs.
Victoria has announced new safeguards for home owners in the case of dodgy tradie work, providing stronger protections than the current domestic building insurance (DBI).
The new Home Warranty insurance will begin on 1 July 2026, applying to contracts signed from that date on, providing stronger protections than the current domestic building insurance.
The measures will allow property owners to make claims sooner for incomplete, defective, faulty or non-compliant work, even if the builder is still trading.
The protections will cover homes up to three storeys and apply to contracts that are worth more than $20,000.
Cover will be available at every stage of the build: before work starts, during construction, and after completion, with owners able to claim up to 5 per cent of their deposit if work hadn’t started.
They may also get support for accommodation, removal and storage costs if they face extra expenses as a result of faulty work or delays.
Property owners planning to build or renovate have been encouraged to wait until 1 July 2026 before signing any building contracts.
The announcement came following a string of cases involving botched or incomplete work performed by builders.
Earlier this month, Ballarat builder Matthew Pope, who operated Western Outdoor Creations Pty Ltd, was convicted and fined $61,000 after taking excessive deposits and failing to comply with the requirements of a major domestic building contract.
He pleaded guilty to 13 charges, with the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court hearing he fleeced more than $105,000 from owners over 14 months in and around Ballarat, Beaufort and Stawell.
Pope quoted them for backyard verandah and patio jobs, before taking their money and disappearing, leaving them out of pocket and still needing to get the work fixed.
Pope’s building registration has been suspended since 2024.
In another recent case from this year, Peter McBride, the nominee director of a company trading as InPlace, was fined $100,000 after failing to complete work at a property in Kyneton.
McBride entered into a contract with the home owner in 2023, but in 2024, the home was still incomplete.
The defective work included an uneven slab, non-compliant paving, unauthorised structural alterations, damaged door frames and windows, non-compliant garage doors, mismatched brickwork and multiple plumbing defects.
Despite being issued with a Direction to Fix order, McBride failed to rectify the work and refused the home owner and the architect reasonable site access.
He also failed to respond to the show cause notice from the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC), which outlined proposed disciplinary action, despite asking for two consecutive extensions.
Soon after the BPC began disciplinary action against McBride, InPlace entered into external administration.
The BPC has banned McBride from acting as a nominee director for two years and ordered him to complete two training courses within 12 months.
McBride has since failed to pay his registration fees, so he is unable to undertake registered building work, and his company is now in liquidation.
The home owner received a payout from the builder’s DBI.
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