The eight lines, and what each one is telling you
Most quotes carry the same eight things. The left column is what you are looking at. The right column is what to do about it.
| The line | What it means, and what to ask |
|---|---|
| Business name and ABN | The legal entity you would be contracting with. It has to match the name on the licence and the name on the bank details. Three different names is three questions. |
| Licence number | The one line you can check yourself in a minute, free, on your state's register. If it is absent, ask for it in writing before anything else. |
| Scope of work | What they are actually doing. Vague scope is where every argument starts. “Renovate bathroom” is not a scope; a list of what is removed, what is installed and what is left alone is. |
| Exclusions | The most useful paragraph on the page and the one most often missing. Ask directly: what is not in this price? |
| Allowances — prime cost items and provisional sums | Lines that are estimates rather than prices, and are allowed to move later. See below. |
| The price, and whether GST is in it | A price that does not say either way is a price you cannot compare against another one. |
| Payment terms | Deposit, then stages. Payments should attach to work finished, not to weeks passing. |
| Dates | A start date and a finish date. “A few weeks” is not a date and cannot be enforced. |
Three price shapes, and only one of them is fixed
Before comparing two quotes, work out which shape each one is. They are not comparable across shapes.
| Shape | What it commits to | Where it moves |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed price (lump sum) | One amount for the whole job. Building Commission NSW: “the builder or tradesperson agrees upfront to a fixed amount for the whole job.” | Only through a signed variation, or an allowance line |
| Fixed price with allowances | One amount, but some items inside it are estimates | Every prime cost item and provisional sum, up or down |
| Cost plus | Actual costs, plus an agreed margin. No total is being promised. | Everywhere. There is no ceiling in the document. |
The two lines that are allowed to move
A prime cost item and a provisional sum are the two ways a fixed price legally moves without anybody doing anything wrong. Consumer Affairs Victoria defines them like this:
- Prime cost item — “A fitting (for example, a basin) included in the contract but your client has not selected the actual item or the price is not known when the contract is signed.”
- Provisional sum — “A reasonable estimate of the cost of carrying out work if you cannot give a definite price when signing the contract (for example, supply and installation of air conditioning).”
In Victoria the builder must set out “a detailed list of the prime cost and provisional sum items” with “a breakdown of the cost estimate for each item”, and must disclose “how you will calculate any extra amount charged for these items, and the exact extra amount to be charged.”
So there are three questions per allowance line, and they are the same three every time: what is the allowance, what does it actually buy, and what is added on top if it is exceeded. A quote with a long list of allowances and no answers to those is a quote with no total in it.
Source: Consumer Affairs Victoria, Changing a domestic building contract price, read 3 September 2026 (page last updated 8 July 2025).
Above a threshold, the quote cannot be the only paper
Each state sets a price above which a written contract is compulsory, and above a second, higher line the contract has to carry a great deal more. Two examples, read at the regulators that set them:
| State | Written contract required | The bigger contract |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | Contract price over $5,000 including GST, “or unknown but the reasonable market cost of the labour and materials is more than $5,000” | Over $20,000 — must include a five clear business day cooling-off period, a progress payment schedule and a termination clause |
| QLD | Work valued over $3,300 (a Level 1 contract) | $20,000 or more — a Level 2 contract, with the QBCC Consumer Building Guide handed over before signing |
| Everywhere else | Different figures, different names. Check your own state's regulator before treating either line above as yours. | |
Both regulators also require the licence number in the contract itself. NSW's small-job contract must carry “the parties' names, including the name of the holder of the contractor licence” and “the contractor licence number”; Queensland's Level 1 contract must carry “names of the contracting parties including the name and licence number of the building contractor”.
If the number is compulsory in the contract, there is no good reason for it to be absent from the quote.
Check the licence number, every stateWhat is missing is the useful part
Reading a quote is mostly noticing what is not on it. Go through this list against the document in front of you and ask about every gap.
- Exclusions. Rubbish removal, making good, painting after the patch, reconnecting what was disconnected.
- Approvals. Who applies, who pays the fee, and whether the price assumes approval is already granted.
- Access and site conditions. What the price assumes about parking, scaffolding, power, and what is behind the wall.
- Who else is coming. Subcontractors by trade, and whether their licences and insurance are the head contractor's problem or yours.
- Certificates at the end. The compliance paperwork for electrical, plumbing or gas work, named.
- What happens if something is defective. Statutory warranties apply whatever the quote says — but a quote that mentions them is a quote written by someone who has thought about it.
- How long the quote stands. Prices for materials move. A quote with no expiry can be withdrawn the day you accept it.
Payment stages, not weeks
Building Commission NSW puts it in one line: “Progress payments must match the work carried out and, for cost plus contracts, be supported by receipts or other verifying documents.” Above $20,000, NSW requires “a progress payment schedule” in the contract at all.
The reading is simple. A payment schedule tied to stages finished pays for progress. A schedule tied to calendar weeks pays for time, and there is nothing in it that requires the work to have advanced. Ask for the first shape.
The deposit sits ahead of all of that and is capped by statute in most states — NSW is blunt about its own: “Under NSW home building law, the maximum deposit you can be asked to pay is 10 percent.” The caps, state by state, are on deposit limits for home jobs.
Source: NSW Government, Contracts for residential building work, read 3 September 2026 (page last updated 29 April 2026).
A change to the job is a change to the paper
Once work starts, the quote stops being the live document and the variation does. NSW requires that variations “must be in writing and attached to the contract and signed by both you and the contracting builder/tradesperson”, and the Consumer Building Guide adds the part people forget: “Almost all will impact the contract price.”
Consumer Affairs Victoria describes a variation as a change either side wants, or one “the building surveyor orders after the contract has been signed and building has started” — and written agreement is required before the work starts.
The practical rule for a home owner: agree the price of the change before the change happens, in a message you can find again. A verbal “while we're here we'll do the…” becomes a line on the final invoice that you did not price.
Three things on a quote that should slow you down
NSW publishes its own warning signs. Two of them are about the quote itself:
- A contractor who “encourages you to sign a contract quickly to avoid a price increase. This is usually a sales pitch.”
- A quote “which seems extremely low compared to others.”
The third is not on the quote but arrives beside it: a contractor who “suggests you get an owner-builder permit while they organise all the building work for you”. NSW's reading is that this “could be a ploy if they don't have the right kind of licence, can't get home warranty insurance or want to avoid responsibility”. It moves the legal responsibility for the build onto you, which is why it is worth recognising in the same conversation as the price.
What you are owed regardless of what the quote says
A quote cannot contract out of the consumer guarantees. Whatever the document says, the ACCC states the three that apply to a service:
- “Service providers must carry out all services using an acceptable level of care and skill.”
- “Services provided, and any resulting products, must be fit for any stated purpose.”
- “Services must be supplied within a reasonable time, if there's no agreed time frame.”
The last one is the argument for getting a finish date onto the quote. With an agreed time frame you are arguing about a date; without one you are arguing about what “reasonable” means.
Source: ACCC, Consumer rights and guarantees, read 3 September 2026.
Comparing two quotes
Three quotes on three different scopes are three guesses, not three quotes. Building Commission NSW's advice is to write the job down first: “Provide at least 3 contractors with the same information so you can easily compare the quotes”, because “If you don't specify exactly what you want in the beginning, the quote may only include the cheapest products and materials.”
Then compare in this order: same scope, same exclusions, same allowances, same GST treatment, same dates. Only after all five line up does the total mean anything.
Write the job down firstGeneral information for Australian home owners, not legal advice, and not an opinion on any particular quote or contract. Yamate is software; it does not vet, rank or recommend any tradesperson, and no regulator has reviewed this page. Every quoted sentence above is the regulator's or the ACCC's own, read at their own pages on 3 September 2026 and linked in the section it appears in. Contract thresholds, deposit caps and warranty rules differ in every state and change over time — check your own regulator before relying on a figure. Yamate sells software to tradespeople and lists them in this directory.