Selling an owner-built home in Victoria

Written and reviewed by Brandon Owens, Licensed Conveyancer (licence no. 001729L). Last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Selling a home you built yourself carries obligations that do not apply to an ordinary sale. Those obligations changed on 1 July 2026, and the change affects owner-builder sales signed from that date even where the building work was done years earlier.

When do the owner-builder rules apply?

Section 137B of the Building Act 1993 (Vic) applies when an owner-builder sells a home within the prescribed period, which is six years and six months after the completion date.

The completion date is the date of the occupancy permit, or the date of the certificate of final inspection if no occupancy permit was issued. Two fallbacks cover the unusual cases: if neither document was issued or required, the period is seven years from the building permit, and if there was no building permit either, it is six years and six months from the certified date of commencement.

If you sell inside that window, the requirements below apply. If you sell outside it, they do not.

One caution on the six-and-a-half-year figure. Some published guidance refers to six years. The Act sets the prescribed period at six years and six months, and that is the conservative position to work from. If your sale falls in the gap between the two, get written confirmation before relying on the shorter period.

What an owner-builder must provide

There are four requirements, and all of them have to be met.

A defects inspection report. You must obtain a report from a prescribed building practitioner and give a copy to the intending purchaser. Prescribed building practitioner has a specific meaning: a registered architect, a building surveyor or building inspector registered under Part 11 of the Act, or an endorsed building engineer. A general builder does not qualify.

The report must be obtained no more than six months before you enter into the contract of sale. An older report does not satisfy the section, which means the timing of the inspection needs to be planned against your intended listing date.

Compliance with the statutory insurance scheme. Where the requirements apply, you must have complied with the statutory insurance scheme. The scheme applies to domestic building work carried out under a certificate of consent, and it does not apply where the cost of the work was less than $20,000.

A notice of cover. You must give the purchaser a notice of cover. This is a requirement introduced on 1 July 2026 and it is separate from the insurance itself.

Statutory warranties in the contract. For a home, the contract of sale must set out the warranties implied by section 137C of the Act.

What changed on 1 July 2026

The Building Legislation Amendment (Buyer Protections) Act 2025 brought in a new statutory insurance scheme, known as Home Warranty, and it commenced on 1 July 2026.

For owner-builder sales, the practical changes are:

• The old requirement to be “covered by the required insurance” was replaced with a requirement to have complied with the requirements of the statutory insurance scheme.
• A new obligation to give the purchaser a notice of cover.
• The Section 32 vendor statement must now disclose, where there is a residence on the land and section 137B applies, particulars of any cover under the statutory insurance scheme. The previous six-year limit on the age of the residence for that disclosure was removed.
• Maximum cover under Home Warranty is $400,000.

There is a transitional rule that matters more than any of the above. For work carried out under a certificate of consent, the statutory insurance scheme applies if the contract of sale is entered into on or after 1 July 2026, regardless of when the work was carried out. An owner-builder selling now falls under Home Warranty even for work completed years ago.

What happens if you get it wrong

The consequences are serious enough to be worth stating plainly.

A penalty of 100 penalty units applies. More importantly for the transaction, a contract entered into in contravention of section 137B is voidable at the purchaser’s option at any time before it is completed. A buyer who discovers the problem a week before settlement can walk away.

The requirements also extend to mortgagees in possession and to executors and administrators selling an owner-built home, so an estate sale is not automatically outside them.

Separately, the regulator will refuse a certificate of consent to an applicant who has previously sold without the required cover, and rectification order exposure runs for ten years after completion.

What to do, and when

If you built the home yourself and you are thinking about selling within six and a half years of completion:

1. Find your completion date. The occupancy permit or certificate of final inspection sets the clock.
2. Work out whether you are inside the prescribed period. If you are outside it, none of this applies.
3. Check the cost of the work against the $20,000 threshold for the statutory insurance scheme.
4. Book the defects inspection so the report is less than six months old at the contract date. Not at the listing date, at the contract date.
5. Get the Section 32 prepared with the insurance particulars and the report attached, and the notice of cover ready for the purchaser.

The sequencing is the part that goes wrong. A defects report obtained too early expires; a report obtained too late delays the listing.

Our guide to what a Section 32 vendor statement must contain covers the rest of what a Victorian vendor has to disclose.

How Lodgedwell handles owner-builder sales

We act on owner-builder sales for the same fixed fee as any other sale. That includes working out your completion date and whether you are inside the prescribed period, telling you when to book the defects inspection so the report is still valid at the contract date, and preparing the vendor statement with the insurance particulars and warranties in place.

This guide is general information about Victorian property law, current at 10 September 2026. It is not legal advice and does not take your circumstances into account. Conveyancing law differs between Australian states, and this page describes Victoria only.