Registration
Registration is required for building practitioners and contractors. For information on registration and renewals please click on the button below.
Builders' registration information
Board examinations
The Building Services (Registration) Regulations 2011 allow the Building Services Board to assess a person’s knowledge and skills in relation to building work. To do so the Board conducts a series of examinations. Successful completion of the series of Board examinations enables a person to apply for building practitioner registration under Set 4 or Set 5.
The Board examinations consist of four written examinations and one project assessment, and are considered to demonstrate equivalent knowledge and skills of a person who has completed the CPC50220 or CPC50210 Diploma of Building and Construction (Building).
All examinations must be passed in sequence before applying for building practitioner registration.
The four exams and one project cover the topics of:
- Construction Residential Low Rise
- Construction Medium Rise Commercial
- Estimating
- Financial, Contractual and Legislative
- Site Management
The examinations are intended for experienced candidates to demonstrate their competency, and should not be considered an easy or cheap alternative to obtaining the Diploma. Approximately 55% of candidates have passed Exam 1: Construction Residential Low Rise on their first attempt, since its introduction in June 2016. Of the candidates that passed the first examination, approximately 65% have successfully completed all assessments.
Enrolling to sit the examinations
Please click on the button below to download the form and on completion submit to Licensing Services.
Form 48 – Intention to sit Board examinations
The scheduled examination dates are listed below.
Conduct of examinations
Each exam must be successfully passed (60%) before progressing to the next exam. Once all examinations have been passed, you must also be deemed competent in the assessment of the site management project.
After you have completed all the examinations you must lodge an application for practitioner registration within 12 months, otherwise you may be required to re-sit all the examinations.
Click on the button below to download the document:
Board policy on conduct of examinations
Guidelines
The guidelines are intended as a general summary only. There are no past papers or more detailed information available because the Board exams are designed for those candidates who believe they already have the knowledge attained completing the Diploma. The exams are for those people who believe they already know the content of the Diploma and don’t require any further preparation.
Building examinations guide:
- Examination 1 - Construction residential low rise
- Examination 2 - Construction medium rise commercial
- Examination 3 - Estimating
- Examination 4 - Financial, contractual and legislative
- Assignment project - Site management
Signage and advertising requirements
Signage requirements
- Registered builders must display a sign with their name, registration number (as it appears on their certificate of registration) and contact phone number on all worksites.
- The sign must be legible and prominent.
- A partnership or company must also include the nominated supervisor's name and registration number.
Failure to comply with the signage requirements may result in prosecution.
For further information on signage requirements click on the button below.
Advertising requirements
- Section 8 of the Building Services (Registration) Act 2011 requires builders, painters, and building surveyors to include their registration number in advertisements such as newspaper, radio, television, or website advertisements.
A penalty of up to $25,000 may apply for non-compliance.
Building your principal place of residence
- The Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (the Act) enables registered building contractors to build their principal place of residence once every six years without home indemnity insurance.
- Building a principal place of residence Form 74 - statutory declaration must be lodged with the Building Commissioner in order to obtain a building licence/permit for residential building work for which home indemnity insurance was not required.
Selling your principal place of residence
- It's an offence to sell your principal place of residence within three years of obtaining a building permit without written permission from the Minister for Commerce.
- Home indemnity insurance is required for the remainder of the seven year period (beginning from when the permit was issued) if selling within seven years.
- If you are unable to obtain home indemnity insurance, you cannot sell the property within the seven-year period.
Constructing a second residence
- It's an offence to obtain another building permit within six years without written permission from the Minister for Commerce granting an exemption.
Work affecting other land
A person responsible for work (for example builders and demolition contractors) must not encroach into, onto or over, or adversely affect land beyond the boundaries of the work land (other land) unless consent from adjoining landowners has been obtained.
In these circumstances, consent is required prior to a building permit being granted by a permit authority and a BA20 form must be provided to the permit authority as part of a permit application.
There is also a BA20A form that is used for obtaining landowners’ consent in the following circumstances:
- When a temporary or permanent protection structure is placed beyond the boundaries of the land on which work is being carried out.
- When the proposed work will affect the structural, waterproofing or noise insulation capacity of a party wall, a substantial dividing fence or a boundary retaining wall that protects adjoining land.
- When boundary structures such as fences, gates or other barriers to land are removed. However, consent is not required if a building permit is in effect for construction of a close wall that requires the removal of a fence. The person responsible for constructing the close wall should give at least seven business days’ notice to the affected adjoining owners before removing the fence.
- When building workers access adjoining land for the work or to conduct a survey in relation to the work. Consent in this circumstance is not required if the land is vacant or any building on the land is vacant.
What if consent is refused?
If consent is not given, the person responsible for the work can seek a court order through the Magistrates Court. If neither consent is given nor a court order issued, the work affecting other land must not proceed.
Adversely affecting other land includes:
Close wall means a wall, fence, post, or column, whether free standing or attached to, or forming part of, a building or structure, that is so close to a boundary of the land on which the wall or fence is located that it is not reasonably practicable to build a separate dividing fence along the boundary. Section 80(3) of the Building Act states that:A person responsible for work that requires the removal of a fence, gate, or other barrier to land on or beyond the boundaries of the works land must ensure that – If necessary, a temporary barrier is erected; and the temporary barrier is adequate and suitable having regard to the use of the other land.” |
Building Services Levy
Payable on building permits and certificates.
Payment
The amount of Building Services Levy payable will vary according to the type of application and, where applicable, the value of building works undertaken. The table below shows the application types that attract BSL and how much should be paid to the local government permit authority.
| Application types | Building Services Levy | |
|---|---|---|
| Over $45,000 | $45,000 or less | |
| Building permit | 0.137% of the value of the work | $61.65 |
| Demolition permit | 0.137% of the value of the work | $61.65 |
| Occupancy permit or building approval certificate for approved building work under s47, 49 or 52 of the Building Act | $61.65 | $61.65 |
| Occupancy permit or building approval certificate for unauthorised building work under s51 of the Building Act | 0.274% of the value of the work | $123.30 |
| Occupancy permits under s46 of the Building Act | No levy is payable | No levy is payable |
| Modification of occupancy permit for additional use of building on temporary basis under s48 of the Building Act | No levy is payable | No levy is payable |
Permit authorities pay the levy to Building and Energy for certificates or permits that have been issued or granted.
More information for permit authorities on remittance to Building and Energy is provided below.
Determining value of work
When estimating the value of building work, Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations 2012 requires that the value is the sum of the value of the following relevant components (including GST)
- All goods (including manufactured goods forming part of the work)
- Labour
- Services necessary
- Fees payable
- Overheads to be met
- Profit margin
More information can be found in Industry Bulletin 76 – Estimating the value of building work. The value of unauthorised work is the current value of the work as determined by the permit authority.
Building services audits program
The building services Acts and plumbing regulations set out obligations that registered service providers and licensed plumbing contractors must adhere to.
Obligations for registered building contractors
Building and Energy has functions under the building services Acts that include auditing the work and conduct of registered and licensed building and plumbing service providers. Building and Energy has developed and implemented audit programs for all of the registered and licensed service providers. The audits are scheduled and conducted using a risk-based intelligence-led approach. It also conducts general inspections of buildings to assess how well the building services Acts are operating.
Registered building contractor audits
The specific objectives of the audit program are to:
- Monitor whether building work has been performed in accordance with the class of registration held.
- Monitor whether a registered building contractor complies with his or her registration obligations.
- Monitor compliance with the performance requirements of the Building Code of Australia.
- Provide advice and assistance to registered building contractors and practitioners.
- Take action to address non-compliant building work, including referring non-compliant work to the relevant permit authority.
- Make recommendations to improve compliance.
- Refer serious non-compliance for enforcement action.
