How do I check a builder or tradesperson's licence in Victoria?

Victoria is the only state where the answer starts with a question about which regulator you need. Building and plumbing sit with the Building and Plumbing Commission, which is the Victorian Building Authority under a new trading name. Electrical and gas sit with Energy Safe Victoria. Neither register contains the other's practitioners.124

Builders and plumbers

The Commission's advice is unusually direct about what not to do: do not rely only on advertising, business cards, quotes or what someone tells you, and check the details before signing a contract or allowing work to start.2

Its search is more forgiving than most. You can search by practitioner name, business name, registration or licence number, location, or type of work, so unlike some states you are not stuck if all you have is the name on the van.2

• Whether the practitioner is registered or licensed at all.
• The current status of that registration or licence.
• What type of work they are allowed to do.
• Any conditions or limits recorded against them.2

Electricians and gasfitters

Energy Safe Victoria publishes several separate registers rather than one, and the one you want depends on what you are checking. All of them read from live licensing data rather than a periodic export, and each puts a CAPTCHA in front of the search.5

The certificate search is the one most people do not know exists, and it is the most useful after the fact. It lets you confirm that the certificate you were handed for your own job is real rather than take a photograph of it on trust.5

The second search worth doing

Victoria also publishes a Compliance and Enforcement Register, which records disciplinary action, prosecutions and court outcomes, and suspensions, cancellations or conditions imposed on a registration. A clean practitioner search does not mean a clean history, because the two are separate lookups.3