Builders Collective Australia

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The Builders Collective of Australia (BCA) was founded on the back of the burdens imposed on the building industry as a result of the HIH collapse in 2001.  Since that time, both consumers and builders have continued to be adversely affected with many losing everything as they have tried to obtain justice from Last resort Builders Warranty Insurance providers and brokers.

Many individuals have needed to defend themselves from a myriad of legal threats while trying to lobby for a more just and equitable system for the Building Industry.

There have been over 30 public inquiries into last resort Builders Warranty Insurance and to date there has not been one skerrick of substantiated evidence that this product is meeting consumer or builder needs.  In fact, the Tasmanian Government last year joined the Queensland Government in completely dumping this product from their consumer protection regimes.  Despite all of this the product remains mandatory with heavy penalties imposed on builders who do not purchase it on behalf of their clients.

The Financial Services Ombudsman has recently released a report, which for the first time, publicly demonstrates that Last Resort Builders Warranty Insurance is the worst performing retail or wholesale insurance currently sold in Australia.    Simply put, nearly half of all claims submitted are rejected with an abysmal 2% of policies ever being able to be claimed upon.

For a statutory insurance, these figures would be damnable in any developed democracy in the world, yet in Australia the insurers and their agents appear to hold enough sway over legislators and regulators that we simply cannot get this product dumped in the remaining States.

While this product remains in place, Australians are being hurt and hurt badly.   The Builders Collective of Australia aims to right this wrong and in so doing return a measure of ethics and equity into the management of the Australian building industry.

If last resort Builders Warranty Insurance is any example of mismanagement (in fact we believe it is Exhibit A), then such a change is very long overdue.

We're currently doing some renovations on the website so please bare with us for the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime please join us on either our new Twitter and Facebook Group.

Regards

Phil Dwyer
President
Builders Collective Australia