What are you getting done?
Tap one. Deterministic — the rules below, not a guess.
Check the live CBOS register before work starts. It shows current licence holders only, so an expired licence simply is not there.
Check their licence on CBOS →Still looking? Find someone near you → Check their current licence with CBOS before hiring.
When a licence is needed, and when it is not
| The work | Licence needed? | The line | Next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical work | YES — licence required | Any value. No dollar threshold exists | Find an electrician → |
| Plumbing work | YES — licence required | Any value. An owner may do very minor work such as changing a tap washer | Find a plumber → |
| Gas-fitting and auto gas-fitting | YES — licence required | Any value. No dollar threshold exists | Find a gas fitter → |
| Building services work — builder, architect, engineer, building designer, building services designer, building surveyor | YES — licence required | A building services licence of the relevant occupation and class | Find a builder → |
| Notifiable (medium risk) building work — a house, a unit, an alteration or extension | YES — licence required | Licensed builder, with a building surveyor overseeing it | Find a builder → |
| Permit (high risk) building work — owner builder work, most work in hazardous areas, anything needing a planning permit | YES — licence required | Licensed builder, plus a building permit from council | Find a builder → |
| Low risk building work — fences, low decks, farm sheds, carports | OFTEN NO — low-risk work | An owner may do most of it. Some larger low risk projects still need a licensed builder | Find a fencer → |
Sources: Occupational Licensing Act 2005 (in-force consolidation, ss 7, 21, 22, 22A) and CBOS, Categories of building work, both read 3 September 2026.
Tasmania asks what the work is, not what it costs
Most states put a dollar line in the law. Queensland has $3,300, New South Wales has $5,000. Tasmania has nothing of the kind, and that trips people up in both directions.
The law here is blunt. A person “must not carry out any prescribed work… unless the person holds a practitioner’s licence of the relevant occupation and class”. There is no figure in that sentence and no figure anywhere near it. A $150 job and a $150,000 job are governed by the same rule.
So the question to ask about a Tasmanian tradie is never “is this job big enough to need a licence?” It is “is this one of the four licensed trades, and are you licensed for it?”
Building work is sorted by risk, and the category decides who may do it
The Building Act 2016 splits building work three ways, and each category has its own answer to who is allowed to carry it out.
| Category | Typical jobs | Who may do the work |
|---|---|---|
| Low risk | Fences, low decks, farm sheds, carports | Mostly an owner. Some larger projects can be carried out only by a licensed builder, but without a building permit |
| Notifiable (medium risk) | A detached house or unit, residential alterations and extensions | A licensed builder, with a building surveyor providing the regulatory oversight. Council is notified but does not approve |
| Permit (high risk) | Commercial and public buildings, anything needing a planning permit, owner builder work, most work in hazardous areas | A licensed builder, after a full council building approval |
Plumbing is sorted the same way and lands in the same place every time: low risk, notifiable or permit, a licensed plumber does all three. The single exception CBOS names is an owner doing very minor work such as changing a tap washer.
Source: CBOS, Categories of building work, read 3 September 2026.
What you are allowed to build yourself, with nobody licensed involved
CBOS publishes a short list, and it is worth knowing because it is the honest edge of the rule. Without an owner builder permit and without a licensed builder, an owner may build:
- A shed, garage or carport up to 18m², or up to 36m² if it is prefabricated.
- A porch or veranda up to 9m², or a deck up to 1m high.
- A temporary swimming pool up to 9m² — and only if a pool safety barrier has been installed by a builder and approved by a building surveyor.
- Maintenance or repairs on a dwelling, using materials similar to the ones being replaced.
- Fences, low decks and farm sheds, as low risk work.
Certain low risk work still has to be reported to council once it is finished, on Form 80 Notice of Low Risk Work. And none of this touches the wiring or the pipes: the four licensed trades stay licensed whatever the structure is.
Sources: CBOS, Owner builder restrictions and Consumer building information, read 3 September 2026.
Two grey areas to check with CBOS
- A dollar threshold for needing an owner builder permit. Several sites publish $5,000. It is not on the CBOS owner builder pages and it is not in Part 3A of the Act, which leaves the scope to a determination. If it matters to your job, ring CBOS rather than trusting any number, ours included.
- Exactly which larger low risk projects still require a licensed builder. CBOS says some do, without listing them on that page. The detail sits in the Director’s Determination on categories of building and demolition work, and your building surveyor will know.
If the job is over $20,000
This is not a licensing rule, but it is the other number worth knowing. The Residential Building Work Contracts and Dispute Resolution Act 2016 does not apply where the contract price is less than $20,000. Above that line, the mandatory contract terms, the free mediation service and the dispute process are all available to you.
Separately, and at any price, CBOS says every residential building work contract carries a minimum five business day cooling-off period, and your builder must hand you the Residential Building Consumer Guide before you sign. Statutory warranties run six years from practical completion and transfer to a new owner if you sell.
Sources: Residential Building Work Contracts and Dispute Resolution Act 2016 (in-force consolidation, s 9) and CBOS, Consumer building information, both read 3 September 2026.
The regulator changed its name on 1 October 2026
If you go looking for CBOS, it is not called that anymore. The agency's own notice, posted on its site: “From 1 October 2026, CBOS has transitioned to Consumer Affairs Tasmania and Building Standards Tasmania … References to CBOS should be read as referring to the relevant regulatory function.” For the rules on this page that means Building Standards Tasmania is now the building and occupational licensing side, and Consumer Affairs Tasmania the consumer side. The old CBOS web addresses still answer and carry the notice, and the licence register link below still works. Where this page says CBOS, read the new names.
Source: cbos.tas.gov.au site notice, read 3 October 2026.
Before you hire
- “What is your licence number, and what occupation and class is it?” Tasmania licenses by occupation and class. A builder’s licence is not a plumbing licence and neither one covers the wiring.
- “Is this notifiable work, and who is the building surveyor?” If the answer is a house, a unit, an alteration or an extension, there should be a building surveyor on the job and a Certificate of Likely Compliance in the paperwork.
- “Are you licensed here, or working under an interstate licence?” Both are fine. Only one of them needs you to check the register for a Validated status.
Tasmania only. General information, not legal advice. We checked CBOS and the current Tasmanian legislation on 3 September 2026. Rules change, so use the live CBOS register for the final licence check. Yamate isn’t the regulator, does not issue, assess or certify any licence, and no regulator has reviewed this page.
How we checked this →
This page explains Tasmania’s published licensing rules. It is general information, not legal advice, and it is not a licence check. Yamate does not issue, assess, endorse or certify any licence, and we do not decide whether a licence is required for your job — CBOS does. Every claim above was read at a Tasmanian government source or in the in-force Act on 3 September 2026 and is linked beside the claim: the Occupational Licensing Act 2005 (ss 7, 21, 22, 22A), the Residential Building Work Contracts and Dispute Resolution Act 2016 (s 9), CBOS’s categories-of-work, owner-builder-restrictions and consumer-building-information pages, and the CBOS occupational licensing register. Where a figure was not on a Tasmanian government source we did not publish it. None of this applies anywhere else.