How to check a builder in Queensland

Picking a builder off a nice website and a friendly site visit is how most people do it. It's also how most of the horror stories start. Checking a builder in Queensland is free, takes about 20 minutes, and most of it happens on one public register.

Search the QBCC licence register

In Queensland, anyone doing building work valued over $3,300 needs a QBCC licence. QBCC runs two free tools. Find a Local Contractor helps you find licensed people by type of work and area. The licensee register is the one for checking: search by name or licence number and it gives you the full licence history.

• The licence is current, not suspended or cancelled.
• The name on the licence is the name on the quote, the contract and the advertising. A company and its director hold separate licences with different numbers.
• The licence number appears in their ads. QBCC expects it to.
• Ask to see the physical or digital licence card. QBCC's line: if they can't show you their licence, show them the door.
• If you can't find them on the register, call QBCC on 139 333 before you go any further.

To save you the search: Big Small Haus Pty Ltd holds QBCC licence 15506005.

Make sure the licence class fits the job

Licences come in classes, and a builder can only do work inside their class. A house or granny flat is a class 1 building under the National Construction Code, and a garage, shed or carport is class 10.

A builder restricted to kitchens and bathrooms can't build your granny flat. A low rise builder can. For trades, plumbing, drainage, gasfitting, termite treatment and fire protection need their own licence whatever the value, and electricians are licensed through the Electrical Safety Office, not QBCC.

Look at the financial category

QBCC sets minimum financial requirements for contractor licensees. Each licensee has a maximum revenue, the most turnover they can take in a financial year, worked out from their net tangible assets. The aim, in QBCC's words, is that a business can keep paying wages, suppliers, subcontractors and debts.

The register doesn't show the dollar figure, but it does show the financial category, and that is the only financial information QBCC makes public. The two smallest categories run up to $200,000 and up to $800,000 a year. Category 1 runs from $800,001 to $3 million, and the scale climbs from there. A builder whose category tops out at $800,000 a year can still be a good builder, but if they're running five granny flats at once, ask how that fits.

Check the insurance

• Home warranty: on work over $3,300 the builder must pay the QBCC premium before work starts and within 10 business days of signing. QBCC then issues a Notice of Cover. Ask for it.
• Ask where the premium sits in the price. A builder who hasn't priced it is either going to add it later or isn't paying it.
• Ask what other insurance they carry for the job while it's under construction, and get it in writing. The law doesn't spell this out for homeowners, so it's a fair question to put to every builder you're comparing.

Red flags

• A deposit over the cap. For a contract of $20,000 or more the most a builder can take before starting on site is 5%, or 20% when more than half the price is off-site work like a modular home. Under $20,000 it's 10%. QBCC calls a higher demand a red flag, and paying it shrinks your home warranty protection.
• No written contract, or a promise to sort the paperwork out later. A level 2 contract that isn't in writing and signed has no effect, and a builder must not start work until the contract complies.
• Cash pressure. A discount for cash, a price that only holds if you sign today, or a progress claim for work that isn't on site yet. Claims must follow the work done.
• A name on the contract that isn't the name on the licence.
• A price well under every other quote. QBCC warns that a low price can hide a missing licence, and your home warranty claim is reduced if the contract is more than 30% under the real value of the work.
• Extras agreed on site with no written variation.

References and seeing real jobs

The register tells you a builder is allowed to build. Only past clients tell you what it's like to have them build for you. QBCC itself suggests leaning on referrals from family, friends, neighbours and colleagues.

1. Ask for three jobs like yours from the last two years, with phone numbers. Not testimonials, people.
2. Ring them. Ask whether the price moved and why, whether it finished on time, how variations were handled, and how fast defects were fixed after handover.
3. Go and see one finished job. Look at the junctions: where cladding meets windows, where the deck meets the house, where the tiles stop.
4. If you can, see one job under construction. A tidy site is a good sign of a tidy builder.
5. Ask the builder what went wrong on their last job and what they did about it. Every job has something. A builder who says nothing ever goes wrong is telling you something too.

We'll give you all of that. Send us your job and we'll send our licence number, jobs you can call about, and an itemised price in writing.

• Queensland building contracts, explained clause by clause
• QBCC home warranty insurance: what it covers and who pays
• Owner builder or licensed builder for a modular granny flat
• Granny flats in South East Queensland
• Get a quote