In New South Wales, painters working on residential buildings above a certain threshold are required to hold a contractor licence issued by NSW Fair Trading. Yet the market is full of unlicensed operators, and many homeowners hire them without realising the implications until something goes wrong.
What Licensing Requires in NSW
To hold a residential building contractor licence in NSW, a painter must demonstrate: relevant trade qualifications or equivalent experience assessed by Fair Trading, knowledge of building codes and standards applicable to their trade, and mandatory home building compensation (HBC) insurance for jobs over $20,000. The licence is publicly searchable through the Service NSW licence check tool. If a painter cannot provide a licence number that verifies on the Service NSW website, they are either unlicensed or working under someone else’s licence without authority. Sources: NSW Fair Trading
What Happens If You Use an Unlicensed Painter?
No Access to the Home Building Compensation Fund
If a licensed contractor dies, disappears, or becomes insolvent before completing your job, the Home Building Compensation Fund provides a financial backstop. Unlicensed contractors are entirely outside this system.
Insurance Complications
If a tradesperson is injured on your property and they are unlicensed, your home and contents insurance may not cover the liability. An unlicensed tradie on your property is a contractor, and your policy’s assumptions about who is working on your home may not hold when you make a claim.
No Formal Complaints Process
If a licensed contractor does poor work or abandons a job, Fair Trading has jurisdiction to investigate and mediate. With an unlicensed operator, your only recourse is the courts.
[ Screenshot: NSW Fair Trading licence check result — screenshot example (anonymised) ]
What a Licence Does Not Guarantee
A contractor licence is a meaningful quality indicator but not a guarantee of quality. A licence confirms that at some point the holder met the minimum competency and insurance standards required by NSW Fair Trading. It does not guarantee the quality of their recent work, that they will not subcontract the job to someone without equivalent qualification, or that their communication will meet your expectations. Verifying a licence is necessary but not sufficient.
The Contract: As Important as the Licence
A written contract for any painting job over $1,000 is good practice and is required by NSW law for residential work over $5,000. The contract should specify the scope of work, the price and payment schedule, the expected start and completion dates, and what happens if unexpected work is discovered during the job.
Insurance Verification
Beyond the licence itself, verify that your painter holds current public liability insurance before they start work. A current certificate of currency from the insurer is the most reliable verification — a verbal claim that ‘yes, I am insured’ is insufficient. Ask for the certificate before any work begins, not after.
How to Check
- Ask the painter for their NSW contractor licence number
- Search it on the Service NSW website at service.nsw.gov.au
- Confirm the licence is current and covers the work category you need
Final Thoughts
Hiring a licensed painter in NSW is about more than ticking a box. It is about having a legal and financial framework protecting you if something goes wrong — and in a trade where significant money changes hands and your home is the job site, that protection is worth the extra few minutes it takes to verify.
All painting work completed by our residential painting and house painting teams is carried out by licensed contractors. Verify our credentials through NSW Fair Trading before booking.
