Contractor Licence Check: Search the Right Register in Every State

A facilities manager engaging trades across a portfolio meets the same problem in every state: the quote says "licensed", the business card has a number on it, and nobody has looked the number up. A contractor licence check is the short search that turns that claim into a fact, and an easy one to skip when a job is urgent.

This guide covers what you are checking, where to check it in each state and territory, the separate national licence for refrigeration work, interstate contractors, what the registers do and do not show, and when to check again. The examples come from a property portfolio in property and facilities management and a cold-storage depot in transport and logistics. They are illustrations, not customers. For the full set of documents to collect before engaging a contractor, see our guide on how to prequalify a contractor.

What Is a Contractor Licence Check?

It is three questions answered from the regulator's register rather than the contractor's paperwork. Is the licence current? Does its class or category cover the work quoted? Is it held by the business or person you are actually engaging?

The second question is the one that bites. The NSW register's own tip is to make sure the holder is licensed for the type of work you want done and to check the start and end dates.¹ Queensland's guide to checking a licensee says to make sure you are searching the lead contractor responsible for the work, and to ensure the licence class matches the work.² A licensed builder is not a licensed electrician, and a licensed electrician is not licensed for refrigeration.

Contractor Licence, Supervisor, or Tradesperson: Who Holds What?

The licence on the quote often belongs to someone other than the person who turns up. NSW has three main types, plus a provisional tradesperson certificate: a contractor licence lets the holder contract and advertise for the work on their licence; a qualified supervisor certificate lets the holder do the work but not contract for it; and a tradesperson certificate lets the holder work under the general supervision of a contractor licence or supervisor certificate holder, without signing off the work.³

Company licences rest on a person. In NSW, a licensed company or partnership must have a nominated qualified supervisor holding a licence or certificate in the same categories of work, and the company's categories are set by that person's. The company must tell the regulator within 7 days if it has no nominated supervisor, and may lose its licence after 30 days without one.⁴ Queensland works the same way: a company must keep a nominee, holding a licence in the same class, overseeing its technical work.⁵

So when you check a company, check the person behind it too. Verify NSW's search tips say exactly that: when checking a company or partnership licence, also search the licences of its directors, partners, and nominated supervisors.¹

Where to Check a Contractor Licence in Each State.

Each state and territory keeps its own registers, and several split building and plumbing from electrical work. The table shows where each register is; the regulators' pages were read in October 2026.

State or territory	Building, plumbing, and gas	Electrical
New South Wales	Service NSW, which opens Verify NSW, by name, number, ABN, ACN, or location6	The same register
Victoria	Building and Plumbing Commission, Find and check a practitioner7	Energy Safe Victoria's Registered Electrical Contractor Register and Licensed Electrical Worker Search8
Queensland	QBCC licensee register, by licence number or name9	Electrical Safety Office, Electrical Licence Search10
Western Australia	Building and Energy, WA Online Licence Search11	The same search
South Australia	Check occupational licence holders, by licence number, surname, or trading name12	The same register
Tasmania	Find a licensed tradesperson, on the Consumer Affairs site13	The same register
ACT	Access Canberra's construction occupations public registers14	The same registers
Northern Territory	Building Practitioners Board register for building contractors15; the Plumbers and Drainers Licensing Board list for plumbers16	NT WorkSafe electrical contractor licence check17

Three details save time. In Victoria, plumbers and gasfitters are registered and licensed by the Building and Plumbing Commission, not Energy Safe Victoria, which licenses electrical workers.¹⁸ In Western Australia, a practitioner and a contractor can share a registration number, so Building and Energy says to check the name, number, and licence type together.¹¹ In the Northern Territory, electrical licensing moved to NT WorkSafe when the Electrical Safety Act 2022 commenced on 1 July 2024.¹⁹

Some trades a facilities manager books are licensed separately again. Queensland has licensed fire protection work through the QBCC under a framework that commenced on 1 May 2021, with streams for passive, special hazard, water-based, portable, and electrical fire systems, and a QBCC licence is needed for fire protection work of any value.²⁰²¹

How Do You Check a Refrigeration or Air-Conditioning Licence?

Usually twice. The national Refrigerant Handling Licence is issued by the Australian Refrigeration Council and needed for any activity involving a risk of a refrigerant emission, including installing, servicing, and decommissioning air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment.²² You check it on the council's Look for the Tick site by licence number or name, and the search says whether the licence is current and what type it is.²³ A business that buys, stores, or disposes of refrigerant needs a separate Refrigerant Trading Authorisation.²⁴

The state licence is the second check. In NSW, air conditioning and refrigeration work needs a licence or certificate, including the associated electrical wiring that would otherwise be done by an electrician.²⁵ In Queensland it is a QBCC mechanical services licence for air-conditioning and refrigeration.²⁶ A technician with the national licence and no state licence, or the reverse, is only half-checked.

Interstate Contractors & Automatic Mutual Recognition.

Under Automatic Mutual Recognition, a worker licensed in an eligible occupation in one state can be treated as registered for the same work in another, without a new application. The Commonwealth says it is available in all states and territories except Queensland, that states have exempted a range of occupations, and that some require the worker to notify before working.²⁷

Three limits matter when a contractor's crew crosses a border:

• It covers individuals, not companies. NSW says the scheme only applies to individual occupational licences, not licences held by companies; Victoria, Western Australia, and the NT say the same.^28293031
• The home licence sets the scope. In NSW an interstate worker can only do what their home licence allows, even if the NSW licence covers more.²⁸
• Some trades are carved out. Western Australia's AMR excludes electrical workers and electrical contractors, and Victoria excludes all classes of licensed plumber and several plumbing classes, including gasfitting and mechanical services.²⁹³⁰

Where a state requires notification, the register can help. Tasmania's search shows an interstate licensee's home-state licence with a status of Notified but not Validated, Validated, or Invalid, and says that if the licensee no longer appears, they are not authorised to work there.³² In NSW, AMR workers in building, plumbing, and electrical work can be verified on the NSW register; for other occupations, check the home-state register.³³

What the Register Shows & What It Leaves Out.

The registers are good on status, class, and expiry. Verify NSW shows the licence status, the category of work, the expiry date, suspensions and cancellations, public warnings, and finalised disciplinary action.¹ The QBCC's full history report shows conditions, the disciplinary record, current classes, and the licensee's financial category.² Victoria's Building and Plumbing Commission shows conditions or limits on a registration.⁷

They are weaker on what is still in progress. Verify NSW does not show consumer complaints or whether a licensee is under investigation, and the QBCC publishes information only after investigations are completed and action is finalised.¹⁹ Tasmania's register displays current licence holders only.¹³ A clean result today is a snapshot, not a guarantee.

Keep the evidence. Verify NSW lets you print the record or share a link, and the NT electrical contractor check lets you download and print a licence record.¹¹⁷ Save it with the date you searched.

What If the Contractor Is Not Licensed?

Unlicensed trade work is an offence for whoever does, advertises, or contracts for it. Building Commission NSW's electrical licensing page, updated 23 June 2026, says you can be fined AU$22,000 as an individual or AU$110,000 as a company for doing unlicensed electrical work.³⁴ In NSW you need a licence or certificate to carry out, advertise or contract for specialist work, including electrical, plumbing, gasfitting, and air conditioning and refrigeration, whatever the cost and whether the work is residential, commercial, or industrial. A facilities business that contracts to deliver that work, even through subcontractors, needs a licence for it.³⁵

For the business that engages them, the exposure depends on what the business does. The QBCC's advice, written for home owners, is that it is your responsibility to check that the person is licensed, and that a builder is responsible for its subcontractors complying with licensing.³⁶ In Queensland, a business whose undertaking includes electrical work must ensure that work is done by the holder of an electrical work licence (Electrical Safety Act 2002, section 57AA, maximum 400 penalty units), and contracting for electrical work counts as such a business unless the work is to be subcontracted to a licensed electrical contractor (section 56).³⁷ Unlicensed electrical or gas work in a building you manage is also a safety question, and a certificate signed by someone without the right licence is not the evidence you think it is. The register check is the cheapest point to stop it.

A Worked Example: A Portfolio Across Three States & a Cold Room.

The property portfolio. A property manager looks after office buildings in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne and is engaging one electrical contractor, headquartered in NSW, for switchboard upgrades at all three. The NSW company licence checks out on Verify NSW, and so does its nominated supervisor. In Queensland, the manager searches the Electrical Safety Office register and finds no Queensland contractor licence, because, as WorkSafe Queensland puts it, a business doing electrical work for others there must hold a Queensland electrical contractor licence and cannot operate under an interstate one.³⁸ The Brisbane job waits until the licence is in place. In Melbourne, the contractor's electricians are checked on Energy Safe Victoria's worker search and the business on its contractor register.

The cold-storage depot. A logistics operator books a refrigeration contractor to replace an evaporator in a depot cold room. The depot manager checks the business's state licence, then each technician's Refrigerant Handling Licence on Look for the Tick. One technician's licence shows as not current, so he is stood down from the job until it is renewed, and the manager tells the contractor why. The manager saves every result with the date.

When to Check Again.

Check at engagement, before the expiry date the register shows, and whenever the work moves into a class you have not checked. On a long engagement, check at least once a year, because the registers themselves show why a licence can change between expiry dates: conditions on a nominated supervisor's licence can be applied to the company, a company can lose its nominated supervisor, and the QBCC adds action to the register once it is finalised.⁴⁹

Keeping Licence Checks Current Across Contractors.

A spreadsheet of licence numbers holds a few trades well. It stops working when the trades work across states, the licence belongs to a nominated supervisor rather than the business, and nobody owns the expiry dates.

In ComplyFlow, a site can carry its own document requirements, so a licence needed only at certain sites is asked of the people assigned to them.³⁹ When a licence is uploaded, the reviewer downloads it, checks the dates the contractor entered, corrects the expiry date if it is wrong, and approves or rejects it with comments.⁴⁰ The register search is still yours to run, and our guide to checking a high risk work licence covers the WHS licences for forklifts, cranes, and scaffolding.

Start With Your 10 Most-Used Trades.

List the 10 contractors your sites call most often. For each, write down the state of each site they work at, the class of work, the company licence and the person behind it, and the expiry date from the register. Where any one of those is missing, that is your first search.

Expect to find a licence that covers less than the work you have been giving them, or an interstate crew nobody notified. To see licence evidence tracked across contractors and sites, book a demo.