News & Views

We have just received notification from Building and Energy that as of tomorrow (28 October), they will be automatically processing waivers on electrical licence fees and commencing the payment of refunds for licence fees that have already been paid.

Payments from 28 October 2020 to 31 March 2021:

• the fee payable for a five-year licence will be discounted by one fifth (20%);
• the fee payable for a three-year licence will be discounted by one third (33%); 
• the fee payable for a two-year licence will be discounted by one half (50%).
• one-year or annual licence fees will be waived

Refunds for payments made between 1 April and 27 October:

• Anyone who has paid full licence fees since 1 April 2020 will receive a one-year refund from Building and Energy.
• You don’t need to contact them to chase your refund, B&E will contact you directly.

How will the refunds be processed?

1. Those who paid using an online portal and whose credit card information B&E have on record, will automatically receive the partial refund to your credit card.
2. For those who paid by any other means, B&E will send you a letter and form via the post (please don’t shoot the messenger!). You will be required to complete the form with your bank account details and return it.  B&E will also make contact via email, to provide reassurance that the letter isn’t a scam. Unless B&E already have your credit card details on record, your refund will only be paid by EFT to the bank account you nominate.

Please note:

There will undoubtedly be delays in processing refunds. The Department that B&E is part of has to process almost 50,000 refunds across all licensed occupations - so the refunds won’t be performed overnight.

For more information go here and click on 'Licensing-related fees and charges'.