Thousands of West Australians are expected to see the value of their apartments plummet and insurance premiums go through the roof on Wednesday, when up to 150 strata properties are named on a list of buildings with potentially combustible cladding.

The peak body for strata management is set to notify the managers of the properties that they require further investigation by the WA Building Commission.

The WA President of Strata Community Australia (SCA) Scott Bellerby said while most of the buildings were likely to be safe, he was worried residents could see massive costs from insurers while they wait for certification.

"The insurers would potentially withhold the policies and certainly they would be looking to put up the policies until they know, to their satisfaction, there isn't a risk there that the building might go up in flames" he said.

"When this goes public the insurers will insist that these buildings be assessed, there is no two ways about it, the buildings will have to be assessed by a fire engineer.

"If the building is deemed to be at risk and requires remediation the insurer will insist that remediation occur immediately, otherwise they will not extend the policy."

The WA Building Commission began a state-wide audit into cladding in July, in the wake of the deaths of 71 people in an apartment fire in London fuelled by dangerous cladding.

The cladding was checked on more than 1,900 buildings of three stories or more and built after 2000.

The Commission wants to further investigate 215 of them for potential risk.

While the list of buildings has not been made public, it has been given to the SCA, to help in notifying property managers.

The SCA has so far identified 50 properties that it represents, and expects this to grow to up to 150, which could affect about 9,000 people.

Mr Bellerby said while the association did not want to create angst in the community, it did want to be transparent with its members, and will notify them on Wednesday which properties are affected.

"Once that happens then of course you will see the insurers come knocking," he said.

"There'll be a degree of nervousness out there, until we've been able to get a risk assessment undertaken on the building, people will have a little bit of concern that maybe their building is affected by flammable cladding."

Risk assessment a slow process

Securing a risk assessment is not likely to be a fast process, with the SCA only able to identify ten fire inspectors in WA registered to standards it would accept, extending the time owners could spend paying higher premiums.

Mr Bellerby said those unable to meet those costs could be financially ruined, finding themselves stuck owning an apartment or property they could not afford to fix, but also could not sell with out a certificate of currency.

The Lacrosse apartment building in Melbourne's Docklands caught on fire in November, 2014. ( Audience submitted: Wade Savage )

Residents of a strata apartment block in Melbourne have been locked in an expensive legal battle as they pursue the builder for costs of replacing cladding which caused a large fire in 2014.

If unsuccessful, apartment owners at the Lacrosse building could be facing costs of $40,000 to $70,000 each to replace the dangerous material.

Mr Bellerby said borrowing to pay the higher premiums or remediation costs was difficult, as the banks would raise interest rates due to associated risks.

Loans to strata schemes often see interest rates of about eight to nine per cent to begin with, due to banks facing difficulties recovering losses from individual strata members.

"In the end, even if the scheme does have the ability to borrow the money, the levies and costs of that will be so high that people will be reluctant to buy into a scheme where their additional overheads are so high" Mr Bellerby said.

The SCA is calling on the State Government to provide an interest-free loan scheme to help affected owners meet costs.

"Fundamentally, this is not a fair outcome for innocent owners who bought into a property, and State Government support is needed urgently," Mr Bellerby said.

While yet to see a formal proposal, Minister for Commerce Bill Johnston said those responsible should be the ones made to pay.

"The audit is on-going and it is too early to know what steps may be required for individual buildings," he said.

"Where building products are used in a non-compliant manner the responsible parties should be held to account."