This gets asked constantly and answered badly, so here it is plainly. Nothing below is legal advice, and NSW Fair Trading is the authority if your situation is unusual.
What trades require a licence in NSW?
There are two answers, and which one applies depends on the trade rather than the job. Electrical, plumbing, drainage, gasfitting, air conditioning and refrigeration work always requires a licensed contractor in NSW, with no dollar threshold at all. Every other residential building and trade job — carpentry, tiling, painting, roof tiling, handyman work — needs a contractor licence once the work is valued at more than $5,000 in labour and materials including GST, and does not below that.
So the licence is decided by which trade the work belongs to first, and only then by what the job is worth. Getting those two rules the wrong way round is where most of the confusion comes from.
Does tiling need a licence in NSW?
Only once the job is worth more than $5,000. NSW puts wall and floor tiling under the same value test as general building work rather than in the always-licensed group, so a splashback or a small regrout is unlicensed work and a full bathroom retile is not.
The room does not decide it, the value of the whole job does. Tiling on its own can sit under the threshold in a bathroom; the same bathroom done as a renovation, with the plumbing and the waterproofing included, will not.
Handyman work sits on that same test, with one catch that sends a lot of it the other way. The trade decides it, not the size of the job: swapping a light fitting or moving a tap is electrical or plumbing work at any price, so no handyman can do it whatever the invoice says.
Asbestos removal is outside both rules and needs a SafeWork NSW licence of its own.
The $5,000 threshold
The figure comes from the Home Building Act 1989, and NSW states it plainly on its general building work page: a contractor licence is required for work valued at more than $5,000 in labour and materials including GST.
The figure is the whole job, not a per-day or per-visit rate, and splitting one job into several invoices to stay under it does not make it compliant.
The trades where the threshold never applies
Some work always requires a licence regardless of value:
- electrical wiring
- plumbing, drainage and gasfitting
- air conditioning and refrigeration
Asbestos removal separately requires a SafeWork NSW licence.
There is no small version of these. Replacing a light fitting, moving a tap or adding a power point all require the relevant licensed trade. Anyone offering to do them cheaply as a favour is offering you an uninsured job and a problem at sale time.
Roof work is two different trades
This one catches people out, and it caught us out for a while too. Roof tiling (clay, concrete and metal tiles, ridge capping, bedding and pointing) and roof plumbing (metal roofing, guttering, downpipes and flashings) are two separate trade categories in NSW, each with its own qualification. Neither is in the always-licensed group above. NSW puts both under the $5,000 rule: its roof plumbing work page says a contractor licence is needed for any residential trade work, including roof plumbing, valued at more than $5,000 in labour and materials including GST, and the roof tiling work page says the same for tiling.
So "roofer" covers two different trades, and it is worth asking which one your job is. A tiler is not a roof plumber and the reverse is also true. We work on tiled roofs only, and gutters, downpipes and metal roofing go to a roof plumber regardless of what the job is worth, because it is a different trade rather than because of the threshold.
What to ask before work starts
- Is this job over or under $5,000 all up?
- Does the work involve electrical, plumbing, drainage, gas or air conditioning?
- If a licence is required, what is the licence number?
You can check any NSW licence yourself through Fair Trading's public register. A contractor who is comfortable with these questions is generally one worth hiring.
Where we sit
We take on repair and maintenance work — roofs, tiling, painting, handyman jobs and property upkeep — and we are upfront about where that stops. When a job needs a specialist licensed trade, we say so and point you in the right direction rather than taking it on.
Want a hand with this at your place? Get a free quote or call 0450 959 936.