Free tool
Trade licence check, NSW and VIC
Paste a licence number, pick a state, and go straight to the official register.
Check these four things when the register loads
- The name. It must match the business you are dealing with, or they must be able to explain the relationship.
- The class. A licence is for specific work. A general builder is not licensed to do the plumbing.
- The status and expiry. Current, expired, suspended and cancelled are four different things.
- Conditions. Some licences carry a value limit or a supervision condition. Those are on the register and rarely on the quote.
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This tool does one thing: it takes you to the right official register with the right search open, so you can check a licence in under a minute instead of hunting for the correct page.
It does not tell you the answer itself. The registers are the authority and neither of them publishes an open API for public lookups, so anything that claimed to verify a licence without going to the register would be guessing. LocalsKnow is not affiliated with NSW Fair Trading or the Victorian Building Authority and does not speak for either of them.
What you are checking against
New South Wales. NSW Fair Trading runs a public licence check covering building, trade, electrical, plumbing, gasfitting, air conditioning and refrigeration work, plus motor dealers and repairers, real estate agents and several other classes. It shows the licence holder, the class of work, the status and the expiry.
Victoria. The Victorian Building Authority runs a practitioner search covering registered building practitioners and licensed plumbers. Electrical work in Victoria sits with Energy Safe Victoria, which runs its own separate check.
The two states do not share a register. A NSW licence number will not resolve in the VBA search and the reverse is also true.
What to look at when you get there
- The name. It must match the business you are dealing with, or the business must be able to explain the relationship. A trading name that does not appear anywhere on the licence is a question worth asking.
- The class. A licence is for specific work. A general builder is not automatically licensed to do the plumbing, and a restricted electrical licence is not a full one. "Licensed" on its own means nothing until you know licensed for what.
- The status and expiry. Current, expired, suspended and cancelled are four different things. An expired licence is not a technicality if something goes wrong and you need to claim.
- The conditions. Some licences carry a value limit or a supervision condition. Those are on the register and they are rarely on the quote.
The border problem
What matters is the licence that applies where the work is done, not where the business is registered. A Wodonga plumber working on a house in Lavington needs to satisfy NSW requirements for that job. Automatic Mutual Recognition means many licence holders can work interstate on the strength of their home licence after notifying the other state, but the scheme does not cover every occupation and it does not cover every class within an occupation.
If the job is on the other side of the river from the tradesperson's address, ask which licence they are working under and check that one.
Why we built it
Every public check run through this page tells us which numbers people are actually looking up, which feeds the verification queue on the directory itself. That is the whole business case. It is free, ungated, and it will stay that way.
Common questions
Does this tool verify the licence for me?
No. It sends you to the official register with the search page open. The register is the authority and its answer is the only one that counts. Anything that claimed to verify a licence without querying the register would be guessing.
Is LocalsKnow connected to NSW Fair Trading or the VBA?
No. We are an independent directory. We link to those registers because they are the public source of truth, and we have no relationship with either body.
A tradesperson gave me an ABN instead of a licence number. Is that the same thing?
No, and the difference matters. An ABN says a business exists for tax purposes. A licence says a person or company is permitted to do a specific class of regulated work. Anyone can get an ABN in about ten minutes. Ask for the licence number as well and check it separately at ABN Lookup.
The licence comes back current but the name is different. What now?
Ask. There are legitimate reasons: a company licence held by a director, a trading name that differs from the registered entity, a recent business sale. There are also illegitimate ones, including a number borrowed from somebody else. Get the explanation before you pay a deposit.
Do I need to check a licence for small jobs?
Both states set a dollar threshold below which residential building work does not require a licensed builder, and both set them low enough that most jobs worth worrying about are above it. Electrical and plumbing work is regulated regardless of value. The thresholds change, so check the current figure on the Fair Trading or VBA site rather than relying on a number you read somewhere.
What does a verified badge on a LocalsKnow listing mean?
That we ran this exact check against the state register on the date shown on the listing, and the licence was current for the class of work the business advertises. It is a statement about a check we ran on a date, not an endorsement and not a guarantee about the work.