Important for WA Builders: Home Indemnity Limits Are Increasing on August 4, 2026

Eligible WA builders are about to receive an automatic lift to their Home Indemnity limits. Most will welcome it. A select few need to check the detail first.

If rising construction costs have been eating into your building capacity, there is good news coming. From August 4, 2026, eligible builder facilities across Western Australia will receive an automatic increase to both their eligibility limits and their job profile limits under Home Indemnity Insurance.

For most builders, this means more headroom to take on work, tender for larger projects, and keep your pipeline moving without hitting a ceiling mid-year. For a smaller group, the same increase carries something worth pausing on before it lands. We cover both below.

What Is Changing

Two things are moving at once:

Builder eligibility limits, the total value of work your facility is approved to cover, are increasing.
Job profile limits, the approved limits across your individual project categories, are increasing.

Both lifts are applied automatically. Eligible builders do not need to request the increase or complete any paperwork to receive it.

Who This Applies To

This is the part to read carefully, because the increase does not reach every facility.

It applies only to eligible builder facilities. An eligible builder facility is a builder policy that has been assessed and confirmed as eligible by the underwriter. If your facility is in a deferral status as at 03/08/2026, it is not included in this round. Deferral status covers situations such as builders on open job limits, facilities with pending reviews or licence matters, and facilities subject to court action.

All facilities, whether included in this round or not, remain subject to periodic reviews and existing conditions such as security requirements and open job numbers.

Home indemnity insurance is compulsory in WA for residential building work valued over $20,000 under the Home Building Contracts Act 1991, so your facility limits directly govern how much work you can carry at any one time. You can read the WA Government overview of the scheme in the home indemnity insurance fact sheet and your broader obligations on the registered building services providers page.

The New Limits

Eligibility limit increases depend on your current band:

Current eligibility limit band	Increase applied
Under $7m, existing builders where the policy incepted more than 18 months ago	20%
Under $7m, new builders where the policy incepted 18 months ago or less	7%
Over $7m	7%

Job profile limits increase across the board:

Job profile category	Increase applied
New single dwelling	20% on existing approved profiles
Alteration and addition (structural)	20% on existing approved profiles
Multi-unit dwelling	20% on existing approved profiles
Swimming pools	20% on existing approved profiles

Why This Matters

As construction costs climb, fixed eligibility limits are reached sooner than they used to be. That quietly caps how much work you can carry at once, and it can force you to turn down or delay projects you are perfectly capable of delivering. Lifting these limits restores the capacity that cost inflation has been steadily eroding, so you can keep operating at full stride and hold your project delivery levels steady.

In practical terms, more limit means more room to say yes.

Important: A Select Few Need to Check Before It Lands

Here is the caution that matters, and it applies to a smaller group.

Because the increase is applied automatically, a lift in your limits may move your facility into a higher review band. A higher review band can carry additional requirements, for example increased security or tighter conditions. For most builders this is a non-issue. For those sitting close to a band threshold, it is worth weighing up before the increase takes effect, not after.

If, after considering this, you would prefer not to receive the increase, you can opt out. Opt-out requests are handled through us as your broker. To allow time to lodge your request properly, we need to hear from you by 14/08/2026.

What You Need to Do

If you are happy to receive the increase, you do not need to do anything. It will apply automatically on August 4, 2026.
If you are unsure whether a higher review band affects you, contact us before 14/08/2026 and we will review your position with you.
If you want to opt out, let us know by 14/08/2026 so we can lodge your request in time.

Need Assistance?

We are already reviewing which of our clients are affected and will be in touch with those impacted. If your work also touches broader construction insurance or you would like us to check the fine print on your building contracts through a contract review, we can look at the whole picture together. To talk it through, contact us or speak with your Account Manager.

This article is general in nature and does not constitute personal advice. Please consider your own circumstances and speak with your insurance broker before making decisions about your cover.