On 1 July 2026, two things changed for anyone doing domestic building work in Victoria. The threshold at which warranty insurance becomes compulsory rose from $16,000 to $20,000, and the scheme itself was renamed. What was Domestic Building Insurance is now Home Warranty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither change made much noise. Between them, though, they affect a large share of the people renovating a kitchen this year, and most of those people have no idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The common assumption is that warranty insurance is for building a house or putting on an extension. Something structural, something obviously large. A kitchen feels like a fit-out by comparison, closer to buying furniture than to building work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not treated that way. Domestic building work is defined by the cost of the work, not by how disruptive it feels or how it is described in conversation. A made-to-measure kitchen involving new cabinetry, benchtops, plumbing and electrical work will usually pass $20,000 comfortably. Once it does, the cover is compulsory. It is not optional, and it is not something you can waive because you know the builder and trust them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a detail in how the cost is worked out that catches people. It is not the cost of materials alone. It is labour and materials together, which means a job that looks modest on a materials list can sit well above the threshold once the work is priced properly. People who assume they are under the line often are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warranty insurance is not a product guarantee and it does not cover you because the finish was not what you expected. It exists for a narrower and more serious situation: if the builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent, and the work is incomplete or defective, the insurance is what allows it to be put right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On structural work the cover runs for six years. That is a long tail, and it is deliberately long, because the failures it is designed to catch are the ones that take years to reveal themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For most people it will never be used. That is the point of insurance. The difficulty is that its absence is invisible right up until the moment it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What fewer homeowners realise is that the certificate becomes a document you need later, entirely separately from any building problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you sell, a purchaser’s conveyancer will look for evidence that compulsory insurance was in place for building work carried out during your ownership. If the work required cover and no certificate exists, it can slow a sale down. In some cases it becomes something you have to negotiate around at exactly the moment you have the least leverage, with a buyer who now has a reason to ask for a reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is an uncomfortable position to be in over a kitchen you had installed four years earlier and reasonably assumed was a straightforward purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The builder does. If a registered builder is carrying out the work, arranging the cover is their obligation rather than yours, and the certificate should be issued to you before work begins, not at the end and not on request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where one direct question early is worth a great deal, because not every business that installs kitchens is a registered builder. Some are cabinetmakers who manufacture and install but hold no registration. Some subcontract the building work to a party who does. Neither arrangement is improper in itself, but each changes who carries the responsibility, and each changes what happens if something goes wrong several years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So before you sign anything, ask three things. Is the business a registered builder. Will the work exceed $20,000. Who is arranging the Home Warranty cover, and when will the certificate be issued to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A business that handles this properly will answer all three without hesitation and will usually raise it before you do. Hesitation on any of the three is worth paying attention to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The obligation itself is not new. Victoria has required cover on domestic building work for many years, and the July change adjusted the threshold and the name rather than the underlying principle. If you renovated earlier under a contract signed before July, the previous Domestic Building Insurance arrangements still apply to that work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What has changed is the paperwork you will be looking for and the figure at which the requirement bites. If you were quoted in a kitchen last year and are only now proceeding, it is worth confirming which scheme your job falls under, because the wording on the certificate will differ and a conveyancer years from now will be reading it literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n