Three Perth builders fined A$40,000 for using another firm's name to get home warranty insurance

In 2020, owners of homes in the Perth suburbs of Joondanna and Pearsall hired Forte to run their builds under project management contracts, WAMN News reported. In Western Australia, home building work worth more than A$20,000 requires home indemnity insurance (HII), and Forte had no access to it. Ha-DecGroup took out the policies and appeared as builder on the contracts and building permits, while Forte did most of the work. More than 90% of the money the owners paid Ha-DecGroup went on to a company where Forte was sole director.

In tribunal mediation that wrapped up in September, all three admitted they had misled people in breach of the state's 2011 building registration law. Forte was fined A$20,000, Ha-DecGroup A$15,000 and Ayad A$5,000. The tribunal found Forte had taken on the builder's role for most of the work without being the contractor of record.

Phil Payne, the state's Building Commissioner, said the setup was a way to "borrow access" to HII, which can weaken an owner's ability to claim on the policy later. He said it misled the homeowners, the local government bodies that issue permits, and the insurer. Forte has given up his registrations as a building contractor and as a building practitioner, and Ha-DecGroup no longer holds an active contractor registration.

Payne told owners to make sure the same builder is named on the contract, the insurance policy and the official documents.