The Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) regulates the building industry in Victoria and registers building practitioners in 10 categories.
Builder classes
Each builder category and class has specific requirements for when a practitioner must register with the BPC, and the work that registered building practitioners can lawfully undertake.
There are specific qualification and experience requirements that you must meet to be registered as a building practitioner. You must also demonstrate you are a ‘fit and proper’ person, and for some classes, that you hold the correct insurance.
'Fit and proper' person
When assessing an application, we need to be satisfied that the applicant is fit and proper to become a registered building practitioner. This includes any partners the applicant may have as part of their business structure.
We establish if someone is fit and proper by:
asking you to complete a declaration as part of your application process
requiring a criminal history check
asking you to complete an External Administration Declaration form if you were a director, secretary or influential person for a company that was in external administration at any time within two years before the company went into external administration.
When you apply for registration, we will review your qualifications and experience to determine whether you have the knowledge and skills to carry out the work in the class of registration you are applying for.
We can also consider other qualifications if they help to demonstrate your knowledge and skills.
What kind of experience do I need?
Your experience must show that you can carry out work competently and to a professional standard. Your experience should be:
Supervised by a registered building practitioner
Gained in an official paid capacity such employment or as a contractor
Across all aspects of work including technical, supervision, contractual
For at least the minimum number of required years
Gained in the last seven years
Not all experience can be counted toward the minimum number of years of experience.
You should not rely on:
Experience gained as an owner builder
Experience gained as part of a training course
This experience does not carry a sufficient level of responsibility for the quality and compliance of the work you carried out. We may disregard this experience.
You may be asked to provide evidence that your experience was gained under a paid arrangement. Keep records of your employment and/or contract work and provide these if requested.
FAQs and reference links
We run registration information webinars on becoming a registered building practitioner. We recommend that you attend one before submitting your application. You can find upcoming webinars and book into one via our Events page.
When we receive your application we complete initial checks and let you know if we need anything further.
Once all required information is provided, your application is reviewed in depth.
You may be required to complete an exam or interview depending on the class of registration you are applying for.
We may also ask you to provide further information about your qualifications or experience. Your application may be refused if you do not provide additional information as requested.
If you demonstrate you have the knowledge and experience for registration, you will need to covered by the relevant insurance.
Processing times for applications vary depending on the type of application and the information provided. If additional information is required, processing may take longer. We assess all applications as promptly as possible; however, due to the high volume of applications we receive, some applications may take significantly longer to process.
You will be notified in writing once a decision has been made regarding your application.
We will send you a registration card. If you already hold registration in another building class, you will be issued with an updated card.
If you are unsuccessful
We will notify you in writing and outline the reasons why your application was unsuccessful.
You may reapply at a later date. In your subsequent application, you will need to demonstrate that you have addressed the gaps that caused your previous application to be refused.
You have the right to appeal the decision by requesting an internal review.
If you are dissatisfied with our decision on your registration application, you may apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a review of the decision. For more information, visit the VCAT website or phone VCAT on (03) 9628 9755.
When assessing an application, we need to be satisfied that the applicant is fit and proper to become a registered building practitioner. This includes any partners the applicant may have as part of their business structure.
We establish if someone is fit and proper by;
asking you to complete a declaration as part of your application process,
requiring a police check,
asking you to complete an External Administration Declaration form if you were a director, secretary or influential person for a company that was in external administration at any time within two years before the company went into external administration.
Your company must be registered as a building practitioner if you want to do any of the following using your company name instead of your individual name:
enter into major domestic building contracts
be named as a builder on a building permit for major domestic building work, or any other work costing more than (in most cases) $10,000.
be appointed as the relevant building surveyor.
If your company is not registered, you will not be able to the above activities using your company's name.
Serious penalties apply for saying, or implying, that you or your company are registered, if this is not true.
If you enter into a major domestic building contract using your individual name, a building permit cannot be issued unless the name on the contract matches the name on the certificate of insurance.
You can register your company in one or more categories or classes of registered practitioner, but a company can only be registered in a particular category or class if at least one of its directors is registered in that category or class.
To find out about registering a company with the BPC, go to Building companies.
No. The Certificate IV in Building and Construction (Building) is not a prescribed course for any class of registration under the Victorian Building Regulations 2018.
This course meets parts of the knowledge requirements for Domestic Builder classes, but not all of the knowledge requirements. Therefore, it is not considered an equivalent course for registration purposes.
If you hold this qualification, you may include this in your application. The BPC will consider this course as part of the broader assessment of your knowledge and experience.
If you do not hold the prescribed course for the class you are applying for, you may be asked to sit an additional BPC exam.
For more information about the prescribed registration qualifications and equivalent qualifications, please see the guide What is domestic building work? or call us on 1300 067 088.
Yes - if you require an interpreter, please let us know.
From 1 July 2018, if an applicant for registration carries out business, or intends to carry out business, as a building practitioner or as a member of a partnership, then each member of the partnership (whether registered as a building practitioner or not) is required to satisfy the personal and financial probity required of registration.
Each member of the partnership must complete and submit a partner's declaration. In addition, each partner must submit a national police check via our online service provider and if they have been insolvent under administration or an officer of a company that was in external administration, they will be required to complete an External Administration Declaration form.
For the BPC to grant registration to a company or natural person carrying out business as a partnership, we must be satisfied that each partner is a fit and proper person in regard to the personal and financial probity requirements set out in section 171D and section 171E of the Building Act 1993.
We can issue you with a real replacement building practitioner certificate, provided you pay the appropriate fee and we are satisfied that your original certificate has been damaged, destroyed or lost.
On 1 July 2021, the registration of engineers engaged in the building industry transferred from the Victorian Building Authority (VBA) under the Building Act 1993 (the BA Act) to the Business Licensing Authority (BLA) under the Professional Engineers Registration Act 2019 (PER Act).
The PER Act introduced a new engineering registration scheme that is co-regulatory, led by the BLA, supported by Consumers Affairs Victoria (CAV) and the VBA.
Practitioners registered as an individual building practitioner in the category of building engineer under the BA Act, were automatically transferred to a registration and endorsement under the PER Act.
Every supporting document that you submit with your application must be certified as a true photocopy of an original.
A certified copy means a document that has been verified as a true copy of an original document. This is done by a person who is authorised to certify photocopies of original documents. Find out who can certify a document for you.
Examine the original to ensure it is not a copy or forged
Examine the photocopy to ensure it is identical to original
The certifier will then write or stamp the copy with the words "Certified to be a true copy of the original seen by me.” They will sign and date the copy, and write or stamp their:
Name
Personal or professional address, and
Qualification as an authorised certifier
For multiple pages to the copy, the certifier will sign or initial and number all pages.
