We wanted the Australian dream, a wrap around verandah and a quiet simple life. We trusted that if the NSW government issued a license that protections were in place to ensure proper conduct by this license holder. We trusted that it was a heavily regulated industry that would not accept misconduct and that we had insurance protections. We were very wrong.

On the 28th of June 2025, after an exhausting effort to avoid a formal complaint pathway, I lodged a complaint to the NSW Building Commission. It took a further 6 months for the Building Commission to act and make a public rectification order (January 21, 2026) and to date, almost 11 months since my complaint, the order is not complied, and my builder continues to operate with a valid building license. No disciplinary action, no public warning, no penalties. 

My family now are tasked with 12 - 18 months of litigation, my home remains incomplete, materials are deteriorating and the legal fight is expected to exceed $100k. 

For many years, NSW consumers have been inadequately protected when building or purchasing homes. Consumers continue to suffer significant financial and emotional harm as a result of Developers and Builders improper conduct, defective work and falsely claiming under SOPA. The NSW Building Commissions response to misconduct is routinely slow and disproportionate. 

The current Home Building Compensation Fund (HBCF) scheme provides limited and outdated coverage caps, which have not been increased since 2012. The scheme fails to reflect the significant rise in construction costs and inflation over the past 14 years (38.7%) and operates as a last resort to homeowners, meaning consumers must exhaust lengthy and costly legal processes before being eligible to claim. 

The NSW Building Commission and NSW Funded Insurance Scheme (HBCF) is structurally reliant on homeowners to initiate and pursue defect claims through litigation rather than the regulator proactively enforcing compliance against builders. Meaningful regulatory enforcement—such as issuing penalties, suspensions, cancellations and prosecution increase the likelihood that builders or their insurers must formally acknowledge defects, potentially triggering building warranty insurance claims (ie; government spending). Both consumer protections are NSW Government funded, so there is an implicit incentive for regulators to limit aggressive intervention, leaving homeowners to bear the burden of proving defects and seeking remedies 

In the recent weeks the Victorian Building and Plumbing Commission have made huge changes to strengthen the protection to homeowners and it’s time for NSW to follow.  

In NSW we are currently building just shy of 46,000 homes per year and the NSW Government has committed to increasing that to 75000 per year. 

Consumers need to be protected with the below protections:

• Timely, measurable and proportional enforcement of penalties, suspensions and cancellations
• Greater public transparency about complaint handling timeframes and outcomes
• Proactive inspections across licensed builders projects when they resist rectifications 
• Strengthen SOPA legislation to limit protect homeowners from wrongful claims
• Greater public transparency and action taken against builders - name and shame registers similarly to realestate. The public orders registry is only a tiny extract of the larger complaints being handled. 
• "First Resort" insurance eligibility when a builder refuses regulatory directions to rectify defects
• Regulation of independant building inspectors advising on pre-settlements 
• Insurance coverage caps increased in line with the actual costs associated with building -including temporary accomodation