How to check a tradie licence

Checking a licence takes about five minutes and it is the highest value five minutes in the whole hiring process. An unlicensed job can void your insurance, block a sale, and leave you with no access to the statutory warranty schemes. Here is how to do it properly in both states.

Step 1: get the number, and the exact name

Ask for the licence or registration number and the full legal entity name. Not the trading name on the ute. The name on the quote is what you search for, because a licence is issued to a person or to a company, and those are different records.

If the quote says a trading name only, ask for the ABN as well. You can look an ABN up on the Australian Business Register and see the entity behind it, when it was registered, and whether it is registered for GST. A brand new ABN on a large residential job is not automatically a problem, but it is a reason to ask more questions.

Step 2: pick the right register

This is where most checks fail before they start.

Searching the Victorian Building Authority for an electrician returns nothing, and plenty of people take that as proof of an unlicensed operator. It is not. Electrical sits with Energy Safe Victoria. Our licence check tool sends you to the right one for the trade and state you choose.

Step 3: match four fields, not one

When the record comes up, check four things.

1. The name. Does it match the entity on the quote, exactly?
2. The status. Current, expired, suspended or cancelled. Expired means not licensed today.
3. The class or category. This is the field people skip and it is the one that matters most.
4. Conditions. Some licences carry restrictions, for example supervision requirements or limits on the value or type of work.

A screenshot of a licence card proves nothing. Cards are easy to fake and easy to keep after a licence lapses. The register is the record.

Step 4: understand what the class means

In New South Wales the distinction that trips people up is between a contractor licence and a certificate. A contractor licence lets a person or company contract directly with you and take your money. A qualified supervisor certificate or a tradesperson certificate lets someone do or supervise the work, but not contract for it in their own name. If the person quoting you holds only a certificate, ask who is actually contracting.

In Victoria, plumbing splits into classes such as water supply, sanitary, drainage, roofing for stormwater, gasfitting, mechanical services, irrigation and fire protection. A licensed plumber can certify their own work in the classes they hold. A registered plumber can carry out work but cannot issue a compliance certificate, so their work has to be signed off by someone who can. Both are legitimate. They are not interchangeable.

In Victorian building, the registration categories separate domestic builder from commercial builder, and separate limited categories such as carpentry or bricklaying from unlimited registration. A carpentry registration does not cover managing a full house build.

What not licensed for this work looks like

In practice, these are the patterns worth catching.

• The licence is current but the class does not include gasfitting, and the job is a gas cooktop.
• The licence belongs to an individual, and the quote is from a company with a different ABN and no licence of its own.
• The registration is a limited category, such as carpentry, and the job is a full extension with structural work.
• The record shows expired, and the tradie says the renewal is in the post.
• The person is a registered plumber in Victoria and there is no licensed plumber named who will issue the compliance certificate.
• The business is quoting work in the other state and cannot say which mutual recognition arrangement it is relying on. The detail is in our guide to NSW and Victorian licence rules.

Step 5: check the paperwork you will receive

A licence check tells you who is entitled to do the work. The certificate at the end tells you the work was done. Ask, before the job starts, what you will be given when it finishes.

For electrical work in Victoria that is a Certificate of Electrical Safety. For plumbing work in Victoria it is a compliance certificate for the classes that require one. In New South Wales, notifiable plumbing work is notified to the regulator and you should receive a certificate of compliance for the work. Building work over the threshold in either state needs the relevant warranty insurance certificate before you pay a deposit.

If the check comes back bad

Do not argue about it on the phone. Ask them to send the licence number again, because transposed digits are common and the record may simply be under a company name you were not given.

If it is genuinely unlicensed, do not proceed and do not pay a deposit. Report it to NSW Fair Trading or to the Victorian regulator that covers the trade. Unlicensed work is an offence in both states, and the consumer protection schemes that would normally back you up generally do not apply to it.

Every trade listing on LocalsKnow shows the licence number, the issuing state and the date we last checked it. Browse the builders category, or start with builders in Wagga Wagga or plumbers in Wodonga.