Title Insurance QLD: What It Covers, What It Costs, and the Exclusions Nobody Mentions

Every year, Queensland buyers settle on homes with unapproved building work, fences sitting on the wrong side of the boundary, and council charges nobody told them about. The searches came back clean. The building record looked fine. The problem only surfaced years later, when they went to extend, or to sell.

Title insurance is a one-off payment, usually under $1,000 on a median Brisbane house, that covers a specific list of those risks for as long as you own the property. It is not a substitute for proper conveyancing, and it does not cover everything. The exclusions matter as much as the cover, and almost nobody explains them.

Here is the straight version for Queensland buyers.

Empire Legal does not sell title insurance and receives no commission, referral fee or benefit from any insurer. We tell every buyer the product exists because they should know it exists. Whether you take it, and who you take it with, is entirely your call.

What is title insurance?

Title insurance protects you against defects in the title to your property, and against certain problems that already existed when you bought, even though nobody knew about them at the time.

That last part is what makes it different from every other insurance product you own. As Paul Watkins, General Counsel at Stewart Title Australia, put it on episode 23 of the Raising the Bar podcast:

Title insurance doesn’t look forward, it looks back in time. We are providing cover for boundary defects or unapproved building work issues that are already present on the property. They just haven’t surfaced their ugly heads yet.

Your home and contents policy covers a fire that happens next year. Title insurance covers the illegal deck that was built in 2011 and only becomes your problem when the council notices.

What does title insurance cover in Queensland?

Cover varies between insurers and between policies, so read the policy you are actually being offered. Broadly, a residential purchaser policy in Queensland covers:

• Unapproved or non-compliant building work. Enforcement action by a local authority over structures built without proper approval. This is the big one in Queensland, and it is usually capped – currently $160,000 on Stewart Title’s residential purchaser policy.
• Boundary and survey problems. Being forced to remove a structure that encroaches on a neighbour’s land or an easement, or losing land because a fence is in the wrong place.
• Fraud, forgery and identity theft affecting your ownership, including adverse possession claims.
• Registration gap risk. Someone lodging a dealing between settlement and registration that stops your interest being registered.
• Planning and title defects. Zoning non-compliance, unregistered easements and covenants, and lack of legal access to the land.
• Outstanding rates and taxes owed by the previous owner that you become liable for.
• Unpaid local infrastructure charges and levies that end up as a charge on your title.

Cover typically runs up to 200% of the purchase price, and it applies on a no-fault basis, which means you do not have to prove anyone was negligent to claim.

What title insurance does NOT cover

This is the section most guides skip, and it is the one that decides whether the product is right for you. A residential title insurance policy will generally not cover:

• Anything you already knew about and did not disclose to the insurer. If the building and pest report flagged it, you cannot insure it after the fact.
• Structural condition, poor workmanship and building defects. Title insurance covers the approval problem, not the fact that the deck is badly built. That is what a building and pest inspection is for.
• Anything covered by your home and building insurance – fire, flood, storm damage.
• Environmental contamination.
• Native title and Aboriginal cultural heritage claims.
• Mine subsidence.
• Business or commercial losses, including lost rental income.
• Risks you create yourself after settlement, and anything that has not actually caused you a loss.

Read that list twice before you decide. A policy that covers an illegal patio does not help you with a cracked slab.

What does title insurance cost in Queensland?

It is a one-off premium paid at settlement, priced off the purchase price. Rough figures at the time of writing:

• A $750,000 Queensland property is around $719.50.
• First Title quotes from about $225 for strata and $300 for standard residential.
• A $2,000,000 property runs to roughly $2,600.

As a rule of thumb it lands near 0.1% of the purchase price. On a median Brisbane house that is a few hundred dollars, once, against a $160,000 exposure on unapproved building work alone. Both insurers publish premium calculators, and you should get a quote for your actual property rather than relying on a rule of thumb.

For what the rest of the transaction costs, see our breakdown of conveyancing fees in Queensland.

Is title insurance a one-time fee, and does it expire?

Yes, it is a one-time fee, and no, it does not expire on a set date. You pay once at settlement and you are covered for as long as you own the property. There is no annual renewal and no ongoing premium.

That is unusual, and it is a direct consequence of the product looking backwards rather than forwards. The insurer is not pricing the next twelve months of risk. It is pricing the entire history of the title up to the day you bought it.

Can you get title insurance if you already own the property?

Yes. Both major insurers offer an existing owner policy for people who already own a home and never took out cover when they bought.

The cover is similar – unapproved building work, boundary and survey problems, planning and title defects – and it adds unmarketability cover, which responds where a title defect would stop you selling. The premium is again a one-off, paid when you apply rather than at settlement.

This is worth knowing if you have just discovered a problem you did not create. It is also worth knowing that you cannot insure a risk you already know about, so the time to look into it is before something surfaces, not after.

Can title insurance be transferred to a new owner?

No. The policy covers you, as the named insured, for as long as you own the property. When you sell, the cover does not travel with the land – your buyer takes out their own policy if they want one. Confirm the position for the specific policy you are offered, because wording varies between insurers.

Title insurance for rural and rural residential property in Queensland

This is the detail that catches people out, and it matters across a lot of Queensland.

Boundary and survey cover is generally limited to properties under 50 acres. On Stewart Title’s residential policies, the boundary and encroachment cover does not extend to land above that threshold.

So if you are buying a 100-acre block outside Toowoomba, the part of the policy you probably care about most – fences in the wrong place, structures encroaching, boundaries that do not match the survey – may not apply. Other elements of the cover still can. Get the policy wording and check the acreage limit before you assume you are protected, and talk to the insurer directly about what is available for larger holdings.

Who pays for title insurance, the buyer or the seller?

In Australia, the buyer pays, and the buyer is the insured. This differs from parts of the United States, where local custom sometimes puts the cost on the seller – which is why a lot of the advice you will find online does not apply here.

Do you need title insurance when selling a house?

You do not need it to sell. A purchaser policy is taken out by a buyer at settlement.

Where it becomes relevant to a seller is if a title defect surfaces that makes the property hard to sell – an unapproved structure, an encroachment, a defect in the title itself. An existing owner policy taken out before the problem is known can respond to that. Once it is known, it is too late to insure it.

Sellers in Queensland also now have to grapple with the seller’s disclosure regime, which is a separate obligation and is not solved by insurance.

Three real Queensland title insurance claims

Abstract risk does not persuade anyone. These are actual claims Paul Watkins described on the podcast.

The Balmoral fences, and a boundary nobody checked

A buyer purchased an expensive property in Balmoral, on a tight, densely built street. They did not get a survey at settlement. Later, wanting to build an extension, the council required a survey so it could be satisfied the new structure sat inside the boundaries.

The survey showed both side fences encroached onto the insured’s land. The insurer wrote to both neighbours on the owner’s behalf. Both wrote back saying, in effect, see you in court. Queensland law around adverse possession over small strips of land is genuinely grey, so rather than push the owner into a long and expensive dispute, the insurer compensated them for the land they had effectively lost.

Strathdickie, Cyclone Debbie, and a certificate that never got signed off

A property near Airlie Beach had been damaged by Cyclone Debbie. The previous owner claimed on their insurance, the insurer engaged a private certifier for the repair works, and the owner decided to add some extra work of their own while the trades were on site.

The certifier did a final inspection, found things had not been completed to the approval, and wrote to the owner. The owner ignored it. A year later they sold.

The buyer did a building record search. It showed an approval for the storm damage and an approval for the further works. It looked immaculate on paper. Six months after they moved in, the council received the certifier’s notice that the approval had never been finalised – and it became the new owner’s problem.

The buyer who accidentally bought a different house

A seller owned two properties: their own home and an investment unit. The transfer documents were prepared with the wrong title details. The buyers moved into the one-bedroom apartment and quickly discovered the seller was still registered on its title.

They were not the owner of the investment property they had paid for. Because of the error, they had become the registered owner of a substantially more valuable property instead. It was covered, because a title insurance policy responds where you are not the owner of the estate or interest in the land insured under the policy – and here, they were not.

The full conversation, including how claims actually get handled, is in episode 23 of Raising the Bar.

Where can you get title insurance in Australia?

There are only two insurers offering it in the Australian market: First Title and Stewart Title. Both publish their policies, premium schedules and calculators on their own websites, and both deal directly with consumers.

There is no “best” one in the abstract. Compare the policy wording, the caps, and the exclusions against the property you are actually buying. A strata unit in the CBD and a 60-acre block near Gympie are not the same risk.

Empire Legal has no affiliation with either insurer and earns nothing either way. We include title insurance information in the standard pack we send every buyer, so the option is in front of you before settlement rather than after it.

Is title insurance worth it, or is it a rip off?

The honest answer: it is cheap, it is narrow, and whether it is worth it depends entirely on what you are buying.

It is most worth considering when:

• the property has obvious owner-added structures – decks, patios, carports, sheds, a bathroom that looks newer than the house
• boundaries are tight, fences look ambiguous, or there is no recent survey
• the property is older, has been renovated repeatedly, or has a messy building record
• you are buying at auction or with a short settlement and cannot do everything you would like to do

It matters less on a new-build with a clean approval history and a recent survey plan, though even then it is a small number.

What it is not is a reason to do less due diligence. The premium buys you a payout after something goes wrong. It does not stop the problem existing, and it will not cover the risk you already knew about and ignored.

What your conveyancer does that title insurance does not replace

Insurance responds after the event. Conveyancing is what stops you buying the problem in the first place.

• Ordering and reading the searches that reveal encumbrances, charges, easements and enforcement notices before you are committed
• Reading the building and development records and telling you when the approval history does not add up
• Checking the plan against what you actually walked through
• Getting the contract conditions right so you can still walk away
• Telling you, in writing, what the risk actually is on this property

A payout is a poor second to not buying the problem. Use both.

Frequently asked questions

What is title insurance in simple terms?

A one-off insurance policy that protects you against defects in your property’s title and certain pre-existing problems – like unapproved building work or a boundary encroachment – that were already there when you bought and only surface later.

How much is title insurance in Queensland?

Around 0.1% of the purchase price as a rough guide. Roughly $719.50 on a $750,000 Queensland property, from about $225 for strata, and around $2,600 on a $2 million property. Get a quote for your specific property.

Does title insurance expire?

No. There is no expiry date and no renewal. Cover runs for as long as you own the property.

Is title insurance a one time fee?

Yes. A single premium paid at settlement, or on application for an existing owner policy. There are no ongoing payments.

What does title insurance not cover?

Building defects and poor workmanship, anything already covered by home and building insurance, contamination, native title, mine subsidence, commercial and rental losses, and any risk you knew about and did not disclose.

Can I get title insurance if I already own my home?

Yes. Both Australian insurers offer existing owner policies, provided you are not already aware of the problem you want covered.

Does title insurance cover unapproved building work?

Yes, this is one of its main uses in Queensland. Cover is capped – currently $160,000 on Stewart Title’s residential purchaser policy – and applies to enforcement action over the lack of approval, not to the quality of the work.

Who pays for title insurance in Australia?

The buyer pays and the buyer is insured. Advice suggesting the seller pays is usually American and does not apply here.

Is title insurance worth it for rural property?

Check the acreage limit first. Boundary and survey cover is generally limited to properties under 50 acres, which is the cover most rural buyers are actually after. Other parts of the policy may still apply.

Do I still need a conveyancer if I have title insurance?

Yes. Title insurance pays out after a problem surfaces. A conveyancer’s searches and advice are what stop you buying the problem, and insurance will not cover a risk you were told about and proceeded on anyway.

Buying in Queensland and want the risks checked properly?

Empire Legal is a fixed-fee Queensland property law firm. We have acted on more than 16,000 property transactions and hold over 3,000 five-star Google reviews. We tell you what the searches actually show, in plain English, before you are committed.

See our pricing, get in touch, or read more about residential conveyancing in Queensland.

This article is general information about a financial product and Queensland property law. It is not legal or financial advice and does not take your circumstances into account. Policy terms, caps and exclusions vary between insurers and change over time – always read the policy wording and the relevant disclosure documents before deciding. Figures quoted were current at the time of writing.