How can I tell if a tradie is not licensed?

The five tells

None of these proves anything on its own. Each one is a reason to spend the minute it takes to search the register.

Two more that come up often: a licence number that belongs to someone else, and a number for a class that does not cover your job. Both look completely normal on a quote, and both are settled the same way — by reading the register entry rather than the letterhead.

Queensland's advertising rule, and why it is the best tell there is

Queensland puts the obligation on the advertisement itself, which means the answer is often already in front of you.

If they hold a licence, QBCC requires the ad to “contain the name under which the licensee is licensed” and to “state you are licensed under the QBCC Act, and your licensee number”. Its wording elsewhere is blunter: “If you hold a QBCC licence you must include your licence number in all your advertising, including on social media.”

If they do not, the ad still has to say so, by stating the value of work they may do. QBCC's own compliant examples:

• “Cannot perform building work valued in excess of $3,300.”
• For work that needs a licence at any value — plumbing and drainage, gas fitting, fire protection, mechanical services — “Cannot perform building work valued in excess of $0.”
• For hydraulic services design — “Only design work valued at $1,100 or less.”

QBCC counts a great deal as advertising: “websites”, “social media pages (e.g. company Facebook pages)”, “online service directories (e.g. Gumtree, Hipages, serviceseeking)”, billboards and show signage. It does not count work clothes — “You don't need to display QBCC licence numbers on high vis shirts, vest etc.”

Source: QBCC, Advertising, read 3 September 2026.

A number on a quote is not a licence

QBCC has a name for the thing a quote cannot show you: licence lending. Its own examples include “an unlicensed person pretending to be a licensee e.g. using a false licence number, a cancelled licence number or a licensee's QBCC licence number”, and “a licensee allowing an unlicensed person to use their licence”.

The example it gives last is the one nobody would catch: “a QBCC licensed tiler making use of the licence number of a QBCC licensed builder to carry out a bathroom renovation.” A real number, a real licensee, the wrong person doing the work.

Which is why the check is name plus number plus class, all three, on the register. A number that resolves to a different name is the finding.

One more from the same page, worth knowing before you accept a quote at all: “If you don't hold a contractor's licence for the scope of works you wish to perform, you can't provide quotes or tenders for building work, sign a building contract, or do the work itself”. In Queensland the quote is already part of the licensed activity — and someone waiting on an application “must not quote or tender on a job until your licence has been granted and is showing as active in the QBCC register.”

Source: QBCC, Understand when you are breaking the law, read 3 September 2026.

The name has to match, and often it does not

This one is rarely dishonest and still leaves you in the same place. Building Commission NSW:

“A licence in the name of an individual does not permit the individual's company or partnership to make the contract, even if the individual is a director of the company or member of the partnership. If the company or partnership is making the contract, the company or partnership needs to be licensed in the company or partnership name.”

So compare three names before you sign: the name on the quote, the name on the register, and the name the contract is with. Where a company appears anywhere in that trio, the company is the one that needs the licence.

Source: NSW Government, Contracts for residential building work, read 3 September 2026.

NSW's three warning signs, in its own words

Building Commission NSW publishes these under “be wary of any contractor who”:

• “encourages you to sign a contract quickly to avoid a price increase. This is usually a sales pitch.”
• “suggests you get an owner-builder permit while they organise all the building work for you. 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.”
• “gives you a quote which seems extremely low compared to others.”

The middle one is the licence tell hiding in plain sight, and the regulator says so itself. An owner-builder permit moves the legal responsibility for the build onto you — which is exactly what an unlicensed contractor needs it to do.

Settling it, in about a minute

1. Get the licence number and the licensed name in writing. An email is enough, and it dates itself.
2. Search your state's free public register. Every state and territory has one and none of them charges.
3. Check the status. Current, not expired, suspended or cancelled.
4. Check the class covers your job — a licence for one trade does not carry another.
5. Check the name against the quote and the contract. Person, company or partnership: the one signing has to be the one licensed.
6. Look up the ABN too. ABN Lookup is free and shows whether the business name and the ABN belong together.

Never accept a screenshot as proof. Anyone can make one, and the register is free.

Every register, with its link, is on check a tradie's licence yourself. The ABN check is at ABN Lookup, run by the Australian Business Register.

If you think the licence is missing

Do not confront it on site, and do not decide it yourself — whether a licence was needed for a particular job is the regulator's call, not a home owner's and not ours.

1. Stop paying. Anything not yet handed over is easier to keep than to recover.
2. Keep everything. The quote, the texts, the ad you found them in, the receipts.
3. Tell the building regulator in your state. They are the ones who can act, and reporting costs nothing.
4. Check whether cover exists on work above your state's threshold — how to check a tradie is insured.

Queensland states its position on this bluntly: “The QBCC has a zero tolerance policy to unlicensed contracting in Queensland. Some breaches of the rules can result in the courts imposing a period of imprisonment.” Where a job has already gone wrong, the escalation path is on what to do if a tradie does not turn up and, in Queensland, where to take a building dispute.

General information for Australian home owners, not legal advice, and not a statement about any particular tradesperson. Nothing here says whether a licence is required for your job or whether anybody holds one — the regulator decides the first and its public register answers the second. Yamate is software; it does not issue, assess or endorse licences, it does not vet, rank or recommend anyone, and no regulator has reviewed this page. Every quoted line was read at QBCC's or Building Commission NSW's own pages on 3 September 2026 and each section links to its source; licensing rules differ in every state and change over time. Yamate sells software to tradespeople and lists them in this directory.