Builder licence thresholds in NSW, Victoria and Queensland

There is no Australian builder's licence. There are state and territory licences, they are issued by different regulators under different Acts, and the value at which they become compulsory is different in every one.

This article sets out the three largest jurisdictions — New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland — with the provisions, because the numbers that circulate in trade forums are frequently the wrong ones or last decade's ones. If you work elsewhere, the regulator is Building and Energy in Western Australia, Consumer and Business Services in South Australia, the Consumer, Building and Occupational Services division in Tasmania, Access Canberra in the ACT, and the Building Practitioners Board in the Northern Territory; the thresholds below do not transfer.

New South Wales: the licence rule has no threshold, but the definition does

The offence, in s 4(1) of the Home Building Act 1989:

"A person must not contract to do — (a) any residential building work, or (b) any specialist work, except as or on behalf of an individual, partnership or corporation that is the holder of a contractor licence authorising its holder to contract to do that work. Maximum penalty — 1,000 penalty units in the case of a corporation and 200 penalty units in any other case."

No dollar figure. The threshold hides in the definition of "residential building work" in Schedule 1, cl 2(3), which excludes from it:

"(a) any work (other than specialist work) the reasonable market cost of the labour and materials involved in which does not exceed the amount prescribed by the regulations …"

And cl 12 of the Home Building Regulation 2014: "For the purposes of clause 2(3)(a) of Schedule 1 to the Act, the prescribed amount is $5,000."

So: under $5,000 of reasonable market cost, general residential work is outside the licensing regime. Specialist work never is — the parenthesis in cl 2(3)(a) removes it from the exclusion at any value.

Section 4 also reaches down the chain. Subsection (2): a licence holder who has contracted to do residential building work "must not contract with another person for the other person to do the work (or any part of the work) for the holder unless the other person is the holder of a contractor licence to do work of that kind." Same penalties. Engaging an unlicensed subcontractor is your offence, not only theirs. Separately, anyone carrying out construction work on the site — licensed or not — needs a current induction card before they start: see what the regulation requires, and Victoria. Subsection (5) gives a due-diligence defence: no offence "if the person establishes that the person did all that could reasonably be required to prevent the contravention."

The contract thresholds are different numbers again

This is where most confusion starts, because New South Wales has three separate lines and they do different jobs.

The small-jobs contract under s 7AAA is short: names of the parties including the licence holder's name as shown on the licence, the licence number, a description of the work, any plans and specifications, and the contract price if known.

The full contract under s 7 adds plans and specifications, the statutory warranties, the cost of insurance cover where required, a conspicuous cooling-off statement, details of progress payments, and a termination statement — and cl 8(1) of the Regulation requires two documents with it: "a checklist in the approved form" and "information, in the approved form, that explains the operation of the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 and the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Regulation 2020." What that Act actually requires once the contract is signed — the ten business days to answer a payment claim, and what silence costs — is set out in 20 business days, 10 to answer.

Section 7(8)(a) exempts contracts "made between parties who each hold a contractor licence and is for work that each party's contractor licence authorises the party to contract to do" — the subcontracting case.

Queensland: $3,300, and the harshest consequence in the country

Section 42(1) of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991:

"Unless exempt under schedule 1A, a person must not carry out, or undertake to carry out, building work unless the person holds a contractor's licence of the appropriate class under this Act."

Penalties escalate by offence: 250 penalty units for a first offence, 300 for a second, and 350 penalty units or one year's imprisonment for a third or later offence — or where "the building work carried out is tier 1 defective work". Section 42(2) makes that last category a crime.

Then s 42(3):

"Subject to subsection (4), a person who carries out building work in contravention of this section is not entitled to any monetary or other consideration for doing so."

Subsection (4) allows a claim for reasonable remuneration, but the cap is severe. The amount claimed:

"(a) is not more than the amount paid by the person in supplying materials and labour for carrying out the building work; and (b) does not include allowance for any of the following — (i) the supply of the person's own labour; (ii) the making of a profit …; (iii) costs incurred by the person in supplying materials and labour if, in the circumstances, the costs were not reasonably incurred; and (c) is not more than any amount agreed to … as the price …"

An unlicensed sole trader who does the work personally recovers materials and nothing else.

The exemption threshold is in Schedule 1, s 2 of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Regulation 2018, headed "Work of a value of $3,300 or less":

"Work of a value of $3,300 or less, unless — (a) subject to section 33(3) of this schedule, the work is within the scope of work of a fire protection licence; or (b) the work is within the scope of work of a licence provided for in schedule 2, any of parts 11 to 14, 18, 19, 36, 51 or 56; or (c) the work is within the scope of work of another licence provided for in schedule 2, and is carried out by a licensee as part of a contract for building work of which the total value is more than $3,300; or (d) the work is within the scope of work of a licence provided for in schedule 2, part 38 and the value of the work is more than $1,100; or (e) … mechanical services work …"

Paragraph (c) is the one that catches people. A $2,000 element inside a $40,000 contract is not exempt work; it is part of a contract over $3,300.

Section 42B adds a further requirement for companies: a licensee that is a company must not carry out building work "unless the licensee has a nominee who holds a contractor's licence or a nominee supervisor's licence for the building work carried out".

Victoria: $10,000, and the same money consequence

Victoria splits the duty across two Acts.

Building Act 1993, s 169F(1): "A person must not carry out domestic building work under a major domestic building contract unless the person is a registered builder or a licensed building employee." Penalty: 500 penalty units for a natural person, 2,500 for a body corporate.

Section 169F(2) preserves four positions: working in partnership with a registered builder whose registration covers the work; working as an employee of such a builder; working as a subcontractor of such a builder in accordance with a subcontract; and working as a subcontractor or employee of that subcontractor. That is how the trades on a registered builder's site remain lawful without each holding builder registration.

Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995, s 29(1): "A person must not enter into a major domestic building contract to carry out domestic building work for another person unless — (a) the person is a registered building practitioner; and (b) the person's registration authorises the person to carry out the work." Same penalties.

And s 29(3), which mirrors Queensland almost word for word:

"A person who enters into a major domestic building contract in contravention of this section is not entitled to consideration under the contract unless the amount claimed — (a) is not more than the amount of the costs reasonably incurred by the person in supplying materials and labour for carrying out work under the contract; and (b) does not include — (i) an amount for the supply of the person's own labour; or (ii) an amount of profit …"

Section 29(4) then arms the client: "A person may recover from another person in a court of competent jurisdiction, as a debt due to the person, any amount the person paid to the other person in respect of anything the other person did in contravention of subsection (1) or (2)."

A note to the section adds a licensing consequence: under s 241A of the Building Act 1993, failing to comply "may make a builder ineligible for registration under Part 11 of that Act for up to 3 years."

Where the $10,000 comes from

The definition of "major domestic building contract" in s 3(1) of the DBC Act, as substituted by Act No. 4/2024, is "a domestic building contract under which the amount of money that a builder will receive for the carrying out of domestic building work is more than the amount fixed by the regulations".

Regulation 6 of the Domestic Building Contracts Regulations 2017: "For the purposes of the definition of major domestic building contract in section 3(1) of the Act, an amount of $10 000 is fixed."

The three side by side

Three practical consequences

1. Check the class, not just the licence. Every one of these provisions says "of the appropriate class" or "authorising its holder to contract to do that work". A current licence for the wrong category is the same as none.
2. A job that grows can cross a threshold mid-build. In New South Wales that changes which contract you needed; in Queensland, paragraph (c) of the $3,300 exemption means a small item inside a larger contract was never exempt. Both are decided by the contract, not by the invoice.
3. Keep the licence number where the contract is generated. New South Wales s 7(2)(b) and s 7AAA(3)(b) both require the contractor licence number in the contract, and s 7(6) prohibits presenting anyone else's name as the licence holder's.

Electrical work sits outside all three of these regimes and runs on its own licensing and certification instruments, state by state, with its own deadlines — those are set out in the certificate clock that starts when you finish testing.

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Checked on 29 August 2026 against the in-force consolidations on the NSW, Queensland and Victorian legislation registers, and against version 004 of the Domestic Building Contracts Regulations 2017. Penalty unit values are set by separate legislation in each state and change; the unit counts above are from the Acts themselves. This describes the legislation and is not legal advice.

What Zirko does: it holds the operating business's details — including its registration and tax numbers — once, and puts them on every quote and invoice it produces. What Zirko does not do: it does not check a licence against a regulator's register, does not know which class of licence a job needs, and does not produce state-prescribed contract forms.