News & Views

Are you aware of the FEES for renewing a Qualified Supervisors Certificate (Licence) through Fair Trading?

Qualified Supervisors in all trades around NSW who apply for the renewal of their three year licence have to pay a fee to Fair Trading, currently $49.00 ($16.33 per year). This fee has been in place since 15 January 2015, is not a renewal fee, but a processing fee to allow Fair Trading to maintain your details on their database. The Fair Trading database allows the general public to check if a person doing electrical work on their property has a current electrical licence.

Note that the laws before 15 January 2015 stated that Electrical Mechanics licensed under the former Electricity Safety Act 1945, before 21 March 1990 were exempt from fees when applying for a Supervisor Certificate. This fee exemption was omitted from the new Legislation as it was determined that these electricians would have transferred over to the new Qualified Supervisor licence during the previous transition period. The fee exemption no longer applies in NSW.

There are approximately 70,000 active tradespeople and supervisor certificate holders in NSW (all licenced trades) as well as 25,000 contractors with an endorsed licence (contractor plus supervisor certificate). Fair Trading is encouraging Endorsed Contractors who are paying for both a Contractor Licence and a Qualified Supervisor Licence, to change over to the one Licence – an endorsed Contractor Licence. This Endorsed Contractor Licence has a Q in the bottom right hand corner, meaning the holder is endorsed as a Qualified Supervisor as well as being a Contractor. This will save Contractors money on renewals and reduce the processing time and cost.

Fair Trading is also encouraging licence holders who are no longer working in the industry to stop applying to renew their license “just in case” and therefore reduce the amount of administration work required overall.

Contractors will also have the additional processing fee added to their renewal fee. For the total fee relating to your circumstances see the Fair Trading Home Building Fees page here.

Licence changes have come about due to the new Home Building Regulation 2014. A comparison of the old and new laws can be found on the Fair Trading Website link here.