Within your builder licence application, you need to provide evidence of your experience in building and supervising a range of projects. A critical and key part of this proof is providing reference statements from licensed builders or building, and construction related consultants.
Regardless of where you reside, every licensing regulatory authority requires these reference statements to support your licence application. Here, we will touch on the general criteria and the required evidence for a Builder Licence Application in Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) and/or NSW Fair Trading (OFT).
Showing Your Experience
In applying for your Builder’s Licence, you need to prove you have qualified experience in supervising building work across all stages of construction on a range of projects. You can show this by providing different documents and details:
- Work history portfolio
- Qualified reference statements
- Lawful payment (Superannuation Statements, Invoices, Bank Statements etc)
- Contract documentation (insurance certificates, occupation certificates, meeting minutes etc)
- Photos and emails
What Referees Should Say
References are especially important. Your referee should talk about how you managed and supervised projects, what jobs you did, and how you handled problems. They also need to sign and declare that that information provided is true and correct.
Licensing authorities carry out their own due diligence when assessing your licence application and the information provided. If there are any cracks in the information, it is guaranteed that any conflicting information will come to the surface.
Who Can Be a Referee?
The best referees are licensed builders or consultants that you have worked with on nominated projects. Solid referees for your application to be successful should be:
- The licensed builder of the site
- Licensed nominees or managers of the building project
- Experts like architects, engineers, or designers you worked with on a project.
Your referees should have had a licence when you worked together. If you are trying to get a certain type of licence, your referee should have at least the same level or higher than the licence class that you are applying for. They also need to have worked with you directly. Just knowing a licensed person is not enough unless you can show you really worked together.
Building experts can also be referees, but they need to have the right qualifications and have worked with you on a project.
Need More Help?
If you have questions or a different situation, do not worry! Each builder is different. The team at Construction Licensing can help and give clear advice.
Contact Construction Licensing to talk about your papers and get free kick-starting advice.
