QBE finally starts paying out to home warranty insurance to Sublime victims

Al Locus and Emma Snowden and their extended family continue to live in cramped conditions.

QBE has begun paying out Home Warranty Insurance claims for victims of the Sublime Constructions and Development collapse 10 months after the building company went into liquidation.

The company said the news a related entity, Sublime Builders, had gone into voluntary liquidation "has triggered the cover under Home Warranty Insurance in accordance with the statute".

QBE has long maintained that because the HWI certificates had been obtained in the name of Sublime Builders, not Sublime Constructions and Development, it did not have to pay out an estimated $1.2 million to victims of the $4.5 million building company collapse.

Sublime? Anything but. A Sublime Construction and Development sign in Crace. Sublime sign.jpg

Many owners had been left $100,000 or more out of pocket with partly completed houses they have since had to self fund.

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The refusal raised concerns that up to 13 homes in the ACT did not have statutory home warranty insurance cover.

While the QBE payments are capped by law at $84,500 and do not cover all of the losses many individuals have experienced, they are being welcomed.

"It is better late than never," Tanya Nguyen, one of the first victims contacted by QBE after Fairfax asked the company what it was doing in response to the Sublime Builders liquidation on Wednesday.

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QBE finally starts paying out to home warranty insurance to Sublime victims