Queensland Contractor License Requirements: The QBCC Rules

Short answer: In Queensland, contractor licensing sits with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC), not with your council and not with a national body. You need a QBCC license before you contract for building work worth more than $3,300, counting labor, materials and GST together. Some work needs a license at any value at all: plumbing and drainage, gas fitting, fire protection, chemical termite management, building design, site classification and mechanical services. Hydraulic services design triggers at $1,100.

Two authorities decide whether you can run a trade business here. The ATO decides how you are taxed; your state regulator, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission, decides whether you may sign the contract at all. This article is about the second. Queensland spells it “licence” on every QBCC page and on the card itself. Comparing states? New South Wales and Victoria use different regulators and different dollar triggers.

Who issues contractor licenses in Queensland?

The QBCC, under the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991 — a single state-wide regulator, with no separate Brisbane or Cairns license and no council-level contractor registration on top for building work. It issues three broad kinds of authorisation:

Type	What it lets you do
Contractor license	Contract directly with a client for building work, in the classes on your card
Nominee supervisor / site supervisor	Supervise building work, but not contract for it in your own right
Occupational license	Perform a specific regulated occupation, such as plumbing and drainage

If you intend to quote a homeowner, take a deposit and invoice them, the contractor license is the one you need — a supervisor license does not let you hold the contract.

What is the dollar threshold for a QBCC license?

More than $3,300. QBCC requires a licence for building work valued over $3,300, and separately requires a written contract for domestic building work priced over $3,300 — the same line does two jobs at once. On how that value is worked out, QBCC spells it out at the identical $3,300 figure in its home warranty guidance: the value includes materials, labour and GST. It is the whole job, not your labor component alone.

Trigger	Threshold
General building work	More than $3,300
Hydraulic services design	More than $1,100
Incidental work outside your license class	Up to $3,300, may be included in your contract
Owner-builder permit on your own property	Required over $11,000

That last row catches people out. Owning the property does not exempt you: QBCC requires an owner-builder permit over $11,000, and keeps a public register of permit holders.

The incidental work rule is useful and often missed: where a job needs a small amount of work outside the class printed on your card, QBCC allows it in your contract provided its total value does not exceed $3,300. A narrow allowance, not a general licence to stray.

Which work needs a license no matter what it costs?

This is what makes Queensland’s $3,300 figure less protective than it sounds. A whole set of work requires a QBCC license at any value. Per QBCC, that list includes:

• Plumbing and drainage
• Drainage work
• Gas fitting
• Termite management (chemical)
• Fire protection
• Completed residential building inspection
• Building design
• Site classification
• Mechanical services

There is no small-job carve-out for any of these. A $200 gas connection needs the same license as a $200,000 one.

Electrical work is not on QBCC’s list at all — Queensland regulates it under a separate electrical safety regime, so a QBCC license never authorises electrical work. If electrical is part of your offer, confirm that authorisation with the electrical safety regulator before you quote.

What can you legally do without a QBCC license?

QBCC describes a handyman exemption with precise boundaries. You may do work valued at no more than $3,300, provided the work is not electrical work, is not plumbing work, and does not require an occupational license.

All three conditions must hold at once. A $500 job that includes replacing a tap is not exempt, because plumbing sits outside the exemption regardless of price. The test applies to the job, not the invoice you write.

What do you have to prove to get a QBCC contractor license?

QBCC’s eligibility test has an unusual component: a balance sheet, not just a qualification.

Requirement	What QBCC is checking
Technical qualification	That you can actually perform the work in your class
Experience	Varies by license class
Minimum financial requirements	Required for contractor-type licenses in most classes
Fit and proper person	Your conduct and history
Managerial qualification	Required for certain licenses
Professional indemnity insurance	Required for certain license classes
Business structure evidence	How the entity holding the license is organised

The financial test works through categories. The two smallest are the ones most sole operators sit in:

Category	Minimum net tangible assets	Maximum revenue
SC1	$12,000	Up to $200,000
SC2	$46,000	Up to $800,000

Your approved maximum revenue is a ceiling, not a target: trading above it is a compliance problem in its own right, separate from quality of work.

The reporting concession splits along entity lines rather than size lines. QBCC states that individual licensees in SC1 and SC2 — sole traders with maximum revenue under $800,000 — do not have to submit annual financial information. Company licensees must, regardless of category, even in SC1 and SC2 and even in a year with no revenue. Categories 1 to 7 lodge from 1 August, due 31 December. Failing to lodge is an offence.

So holding the licence through a company pulls you into an annual filing a sole trader in the same revenue band does not have.

What happens if you contract without a license in Queensland?

Three things, in rising order of pain.

QBCC can fine you, and penalties escalate for repeat offending — for a pattern of unlicensed offences the QBCC Act reaches imprisonment. Check QBCC’s site for current fine amounts, because Queensland penalties move with the penalty unit value each year.

Commercially, the worse outcome is what unlicensed work does to the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme. The premium under that scheme is paid to QBCC by the contractor, and the whole scheme is built around licensed residential building work — so a homeowner who discovers mid-project that the work was never licensed has a live question about whether they are covered at all. Confirm the position with QBCC before you tell a client otherwise. Either way, a client asking that question stops paying.

And most residential building work over $3,300 must be covered under that scheme anyway — the same line that triggers licensing. The premium is not optional and cannot be bolted on afterwards.

How does a homeowner check a Queensland contractor’s license?

Two routes, and clients use both. They can ask to see the licence itself, and they can search QBCC’s free online registers. QBCC maintains a public register of owner-builder permit holders that anyone can search by name or address, and runs a separate licensee search covering contractor licences. Neither costs a homeowner anything, and neither requires your cooperation.

So your licence number belongs on quotes and invoices as routine. See what to include on an invoice for the other fields that carry legal weight.

What paperwork does a Queensland license actually create?

More than most people expect, because here the licence and the contract are linked. Domestic building work over $3,300 needs a written contract, home warranty cover attaches at the same figure, and a company licensee owes an annual return whether or not it traded. The record you need is therefore a dated trail of what you contracted for, what you charged and what the job cost — the case for a contractor receipt organizer over a shoebox.

Keel: Invoice Maker & Receipts, by Ilura Technology OÜ, is built for that trail and nothing else. It runs entirely on your iPhone — no account, no sign-in, no bank connection, no cloud sync — and its App Store privacy label reads “Data Not Collected.”

Be clear about what it is: a record keeper, not a compliance tool. It does not apply for your QBCC licence, lodge financial information, or arrange home warranty cover. What it does is produce numbered PDF invoices with your logo and a payment-link QR code, read receipts on device with Apple Intelligence, log mileage, and keep the lot in an append-only, hash-chained ledger the Accountant Pack exports as one file per year.

The free tier is unlimited invoices, receipts and mileage. Keel Pro is a one-time $249.99 Lifetime purchase, not a subscription. Keel: Invoice Maker & Receipts on the App Store.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a QBCC licence for a $3,000 job? Not for general building work, provided the job is genuinely under the $3,300 line and involves no electrical work, no plumbing work, and nothing needing an occupational licence. If it touches plumbing, drainage, gas fitting, fire protection or chemical termite management, the value is irrelevant — those need a licence at any amount.

Is the $3,300 threshold calculated before or after GST? After. QBCC’s guidance on the same $3,300 figure states the value includes materials, labour and GST — the total for the work, not your labor alone. This catches contractors who price their time at $2,900, assume they are under the line, then find materials and GST push the job well past it.

Do I need a QBCC licence to work on my own house? You need an owner-builder permit for a project on your own property valued over $11,000. Below that, the rules still apply to the specific work types needing a licence at any value. QBCC keeps a public register of owner-builder permit holders, searchable by name or address.

Does a QBCC licence cover electrical work? No. Electrical work does not appear on QBCC’s licensing list, and QBCC’s handyman guidance states the exemption does not extend to electrical or plumbing work. Queensland licenses electrical work under a separate regime, so you need that authorisation in addition to anything QBCC issues.

Do sole traders have to lodge financial information with QBCC every year? Individual licensees in SC1 and SC2 — maximum revenue under $800,000 — do not have to submit annual financial information. Company licensees must, in every financial category including SC1 and SC2, and even in a year with no revenue. Categories 1 to 7 lodge from 1 August, due 31 December.

How can a client verify my licence? By asking to see it and by searching QBCC’s free online registers. The owner-builder permit register can be searched by name or address, and a separate licensee search covers contractor licences. Putting your QBCC licence number on quotes and invoices as standard saves the conversation happening at an awkward moment, and it answers the homeowner who has been told to check before paying a deposit.

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This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change — confirm with the authority named above.