Plumbers: what applies and how to set up
What a plumber in Victoria has to hold, how to set the app up for one, and a walk through the plumber demo.
What applies to a plumber
Start with what every business in the trade holds. Each question you answer yes to adds its own branch. This tree is drawn from the same rules the Compliance Checker and your compliance map use, so it changes when a rule does.
Every business in the trade
Licences
- Plumbing Licence (BPC)By lawBuilding and Plumbing Commission. A licence renews every year (a registration every 3 years) and needs current insurance.
Insurance
- Public Liability InsuranceBy lawEvery licensed plumber must hold at least $5m public and products liability (Licensed Plumbers General Insurance Order).
- Warranty InsuranceBy lawLicensed plumbers must hold warranty insurance for defective or incomplete work, covering each job for 6 years after it's finished (Licensed Plumbers General Insurance Order).
Training and tickets
- White CardConstruction induction card. Good practice on home jobs, and mandatory on commercial sites. Doesn't expire, but must be redone after 2+ years out of construction work. In Victoria the course must be done face to face.
- CPR/First AidA current CPR or first aid certificate. Not a licence, and not required by law for the trade, but builders and sites often ask to see one.
Jobs
- Plumbing compliance certificateBy lawOn each jobGive it to the customer and lodge it with the BPC within 5 days of finishing.
Deadlines and business obligations
- Written notice of a notifiable incidentBy lawTracked on its own screenNotify WorkSafe straight away, preserve the site, and send written notice within 48 hours.
I do gas work
If yes, add
Licences
- Gasfitting Licence (BPC)By lawGasfitting is its own class of plumbing work, so gas work needs a licence or registration in that class (Building and Plumbing Commission).
Set up under Dashboard → Compliance map
I do backflow prevention work
If yes, add
Training and tickets
- Backflow Prevention CertBy lawTesting, commissioning, repairing or maintaining a testable backflow prevention device is a specialised class of plumbing. It needs a licence or registration in Backflow Prevention Work, on top of Water Supply (Building and Plumbing Commission).
Set up under Dashboard → Compliance map
I have staff
If yes, add
Insurance
- WorkCoverBy lawRequired once you pay more than $7,500 a year in wages, or employ any apprentice or trainee (WorkSafe Victoria). Register within 60 days.
Staff
- Fair Work Information StatementBy lawChecked on each person's pageGive every new employee the Fair Work Information Statement before they start, or as soon as possible after (Fair Work Ombudsman).
Set up under Onboarding → Employees
I employ apprentices
If yes, add
Each apprentice's training contract, registration and yearly progress are tracked on their own page.
Set up under Onboarding → Employees, on the apprentice's page
I engage other trades on my jobs
If yes, add
Each trade you engage is checked against that trade's own list before they start: licence, registration and insurance.
Set up under Onboarding → Subcontractors
11 things at most, 9 of them required by law
These rules are a guide to what to hold, not legal advice. Check anything you're relying on with the regulator or your adviser.
Set it up for your own business
- Run the Checker as a plumber. Tick Plumber and answer the questions. Say whether you do gas or backflow work: each adds its own licence or ticket.
- Add what you hold. Enter your licence with its number and renewal date, and both insurance policies: public liability and warranty insurance, each with its cover amount.
- Add your people. Add each employee and apprentice. Once you have staff, WorkCover joins your list.
- Log jobs as you book them. Pick the kind of plumbing on each job and enter its value. The app works out whether it needs a compliance certificate, and counts the days once you mark it complete.
- Add a contract when you work for a builder. Enter the subcontract with its notice period for delays, and log claims and delays as they happen.
See it working in the demo
The plumber demo is a made-up business, Tidewater Plumbing & Gas, with Mel as its owner. A licensed plumber and gasfitter with one apprentice, doing bathroom renovations for home owners and rough-in for a builder.
- Open the plumber tour at /tour/plumber and choose Open the plumber demo. There's no sign-up and no email.
- Dashboard. What needs Mel this week: Mel's first aid lapsed 4 days ago. The warranty insurance runs out in 5 days, and the plumbing licence is up for renewal 19 days after that. Red means this week. Amber, this month. Green, leave it alone.
- Jobs. A certificate on every job that needs one: The gas hot water job finished 3 days ago, so its compliance certificate has 2 days left to reach the customer and be lodged. The bathroom job's certificate is already lodged. And the $280 tap repair? No certificate needed: it's under $750, with no gas or drainage work.
- Jobs → Sewer drain replacement. Before the trench is dug: The sewer job means a trench deeper than 1.5 metres. That makes it high risk construction work, so the job asks for a safe work method statement. And it keeps asking until there's one on file.
- Contract Admin → Contracts → Townhouses 1 to 4. Rain, and the notice that goes with it: Tidewater is the subbie on four townhouses. Then it rained, and the trenches flooded for three days. The subcontract gives 5 days to give notice of a delay, so the app shows that notice due tomorrow. Right beside it: a payment claim the builder hasn't answered.
- Dashboard → Share my credentials. Prove it in one link: A home owner asks for Mel's licence and insurance. Mel sends one link, not a folder of PDFs. Whoever opens it sees what's current that day. When Mel pulls the link, it stops working.
Everyone trying the demo shares the one business, and it's rebuilt every night, so don't enter anything private and expect anything you add to be gone by morning. No emails or messages are sent. To see another trade, use the links in the yellow bar at the top.
Good to know
- A written contract with a home owner for plumbing, gasfitting and draining only goes in as Single-trade work. It isn't a domestic building contract, so there's no cooling-off, home warranty, building permit or inspections to track. Variations, RFIs and delays are still counted.
- If the contract takes in another trade or other building work, choose Building work: then it is a domestic building contract. Small jobs with no written contract stay under Jobs.
- On each job, pick the kinds of plumbing and enter its value. Those two answers decide whether the job needs a compliance certificate, so a job with neither filled in can't be checked.
- Say yes to gas work in the Checker if you do any. The gasfitting licence only joins your list when you do.
- When you add a subcontract, enter its notice period for delays. The app counts each delay's notice from that, and has nothing to count from if it's blank.
- Use Contract Admin when you're the subcontractor on a builder's or a commercial job too. That's where payment claims, variations, RFIs and delays are counted.