WA Builder Registration Check: What to Check Before You Sign

If you are planning a new build, renovation, or major residential project in Western Australia, the first practical step is a WA builder license & registration check. Builder registration is administered through Building and Energy, which supports the Building Services Board under the Building Services (Registration) Act 2011 (WA). The search is free and takes a few minutes, before you sign anything or hand over a deposit.

Here is the direct answer: you can check whether a builder is registered in WA through Building and Energy's Online Licence Search at ols.demirs.wa.gov.au. This tells you whether the builder is currently authorised to contract for the type of building work you are planning.

WA uses the term "registration" rather than "licence". If you have been searching for a "WA builder licence check", you are after the same thing: a registered building contractor is the WA equivalent of a licensed builder in other states.

In WA, building contractor registration is generally required to contract for building work that requires a building permit, falls within the Building Services Board's jurisdiction, and is valued at $20,000 or more. For Class 10a work, such as private garages, sheds and carports, the threshold is $50,000. Working without registration above the relevant threshold is an offence.

It is the right first step. It is not the last one.

A registration check can confirm whether a builder is currently entitled to trade. But before you sign, you should also check whether the right entity is named on your contract, whether Home Indemnity Insurance is actually in place for your project, and whether the builder or its directors show wider risk signals, such as disciplinary history, insolvency indicators, or credit-risk signals.

Checking these public records is a normal, lawful step, not an accusation. Building and Energy publishes this information specifically so homeowners can look before they sign.

Before you sign or pay a deposit, make sure the registration, the contract entity and the insurance certificate all line up, and that the deposit you are asked for does not exceed the legal cap.

Want to check more than the registration? Run a TrustSignal Builder Report before you sign.

How to check a builder registration in WA

The official WA registration check is available through Building and Energy's Online Licence Search. Here is how to use it:

Go to the Online Licence Search. Search by the builder's registered legal name or registration number. Other licence categories, such as electrical, plumbing and gas fitting, are searchable through the same portal.
Search the legal entity name, not a trading name. This is the single most important step in WA. The register does not publish trading or business names, so a search for the name on the builder's van, sign or website may return nothing even if the underlying entity is properly registered. More on this below.
Check the registration holder details. Confirm whether the result is a company, a partnership, or an individual, and that it matches what you expect.
Confirm the registration status. Look for an active or current status. Treat an inactive, expired or cancelled entry as a reason to stop and ask questions.
Confirm the registration category. For a new home, you want contractor registration, which carries a "BC" prefix and authorises the entity to contract directly with you. Practitioner registration, prefixed "BP", only authorises someone to act as a nominated supervisor; it does not on its own authorise contracting with a homeowner.
Check for class restrictions or conditions. Some registrations are restricted to a specific Building Code of Australia class, such as Class 10 (sheds, carports and similar non-habitable structures), rather than the Class 1a single dwelling most new home and renovation projects fall under. A registration restricted to a narrower class than your project is a mismatch worth raising.
Double-check the registration number against the name. Building and Energy itself warns that registered practitioners and contractors can share the same registration number, so check the name, registration number and licence type together to make sure you have the right builder.
Confirm the name matches who you are contracting with. The legal name on the registration should line up with the entity named on your quote and contract.

If you only know a builder by their trading name and the Online Licence Search returns no result, do not assume that means the builder is unregistered. It most likely means you have searched a name the register simply does not index. The next section covers what to do instead.

A quick note on the regulator's name. You will see both "DEMIRS" and "Building and Energy" connected to this search, and the two are not interchangeable. Building and Energy is the operating division that administers builder registration and disciplinary action. Its parent department was renamed from the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) to the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety (LGIRS), effective 1 July 2025. The rename has not changed how homeowners use the system: the search tool still lives at its original address, ols.demirs.wa.gov.au, and that remains the correct, current link.

What to confirm on the WA registration record

When you run a builder registration check in WA, work through this list:

Registration number: the unique identifier, prefixed "BC" for a contractor or "BP" for a practitioner
Registered legal name: the individual, partnership or company the registration is issued to. Note that a trust cannot be registered directly; if a builder operates through a trust, the trustee holds the registration, not the trust itself
Registration category: contractor registration (can contract directly with you) versus practitioner registration (authorises a nominated supervisor role only, not direct contracting)
Registration status: active or inactive. The downloadable PDF register includes separate sections for current and expired contractors and practitioners
Class restrictions: whether the registration is limited to a specific Building Code of Australia class, and whether that class actually covers your project
Conditions: any conditions attached to the registration, shown on the registration certificate
Renewal status: WA registrations renew every 3 years; a registration nearing renewal is worth a quick follow-up question
Whether the name matches your contract: the legal name on the registration should match the entity named on your quote, contract and (where applicable) Home Indemnity Insurance certificate

Not every field is visible through the live search tool in the same level of detail. Where something looks unclear, the daily-updated PDF builder register or the builder's own registration certificate are the more reliable sources, and asking the builder directly is a reasonable next step.

Why the name on the registration must match your contract

This is the most distinctive feature of the WA system, and the step most homeowners get wrong.

Building and Energy's own guidance states it plainly: "Building and Energy does not publish business or trading names. For a national register of business and trading names visit the Australian Securities and Investments Commission."

That is a direct statement from the regulator that the WA register only ever shows the registered legal name behind a building business, never the brand on the van, the sign, or the website. In states where the licence register itself surfaces a trading name field, this step is less consequential. In WA, it is the single biggest practical trap for a homeowner trying to check a builder themselves.

Here is what that means in practice. If you search "Perth Premium Builds" on the Online Licence Search and get nothing back, that does not necessarily mean the builder is unregistered. It may simply mean "Perth Premium Builds" is a trading name, and the actual registered entity is something like "PPB Construction Pty Ltd."

Here is what to do instead:

Search the trading name on the ASIC Business Names Register first. This free, national register shows the legal entity and ABN behind a registered business name. If the builder is trading lawfully under a name other than their own legal name, this is where that connection is recorded.
Cross-check with ABN Lookup. This confirms the legal entity name, entity type, and whether the ABN is active or cancelled.
Search that legal name on the WA Online Licence Search. Once you have the legal entity name from ASIC or ABN Lookup, search that name, not the trading name, to confirm contractor registration.
Check the contract itself. Confirm the legal entity name and ABN or ACN printed on your quote and contract match what you found through the steps above, not just the trading name on marketing material.
If the builder operates through a trust, search the trustee's name. The trust itself cannot hold a registration, so the registration search needs to be run against the trustee, not the trust name shown on the contract.

If the names do not line up and there is no clear explanation, that is worth resolving in writing before you pay anything.

What a WA registration check covers, and what it leaves unchecked

A standard WA registration check covers:

Registration status (active or inactive)
Registration category (contractor versus practitioner)
Class restrictions tied to the registration, where shown
Conditions attached to the registration certificate
Confirmation that the legal entity is currently entitled to contract for building work within its registered scope

A clean result on these points is genuinely useful. It is the first gate every WA builder has to pass, and it rules out a meaningful share of problems before they start.

What a WA registration check leaves completely unchecked:

Trading or business names, which are not published on the register at all
Disciplinary history and SAT (State Administrative Tribunal) findings, which are not flagged directly on the live search result
Financial stability, insolvency indicators and credit-risk signals
Whether Home Indemnity Insurance is actually in place for your specific project
Director history, including links to other companies that have failed
Ongoing complaints, disputes, or matters before the Building Commissioner that have not yet reached a disciplinary outcome

The disciplinary point is worth dwelling on, because it is a real structural difference from some other states. WA does not show an equivalent of a tribunal non-compliance flag directly on the registration search result. Instead, the most serious public disciplinary information sits in two separate published sources: Building and Energy publishes disciplinary and prosecution media releases online, currently covering recent years (Building and Energy's policy is to publish releases for six years from publication), and the SAT Vocational Disciplinary Penalties Database, which summarises tribunal penalties since 2005. Neither is integrated into the Online Licence Search. A clean registration search result does not mean a clean disciplinary history; it means you have not yet looked in the place where that history is actually published.

A registration check is only one part of builder due diligence. TrustSignal helps you check the broader risk picture before you sign.

For a state-by-state look at how licence and registration checks work across Australia, see our guide to How to Check a Builder Licence in Australia Before You Sign. Building in another state? See our equivalent guides for NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, TAS, ACT and NT.

Beyond the registration: what else to check before you sign

A registration check is the starting point. Here is a short summary of what else is worth checking before you sign or pay a deposit in WA.

Home Indemnity Insurance (HII). Generally required for residential building work over $20,000, including new dwellings, extensions and many renovations. Some categories of work are excluded, so the certificate should be checked against the actual project. The builder must take out the policy in the owner's name and provide the certificate before starting work, asking for a deposit, or requesting any other payment. Confirm a certificate has actually been issued for your project, in your name, not just take the builder's word for it. If the certificate was issued by QBE, you can check it through the QBE Builders Warranty Insurance Certificate Register using the policy number or property address. If another approved insurer issued the policy, verify the certificate directly with that insurer or through Building and Energy's guidance.
Company, ABN and directors. Confirm the ABN, and ACN if it is a company, and check who the directors are and whether they are linked to other building businesses.
Court, SAT and insolvency signals. A registration check does not show State Administrative Tribunal matters, court proceedings or insolvency history. These sit in separate systems and need to be checked individually.
Credit-risk signals. Indicators of how a business manages its financial obligations are not visible through the registration register at all.

The deposit limit most homeowners don't know about

WA caps the deposit a builder can ask for at 6.5% of the total contract price, for contracts valued between $7,500 and $500,000, under the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (WA). That figure is lower than many homeowners assume, particularly if they have seen the 10% figure commonly quoted for other states.

A real enforcement case shows why this matters. In 2022, the Fremantle Magistrates Court convicted a Perth tradesman of carrying out renovation work worth more than $96,000, well above the $20,000 registration threshold, without holding building contractor registration. He had also collected a 50% deposit, more than seven times the legal limit. He was fined $8,000 for the unregistered work and $2,000 for the excessive deposit, a total of $10,000, and the homeowners had to engage a separate, registered builder to rectify and complete the job.

If a builder asks you for a deposit above 6.5% on a contract in that price band, that is worth raising before you pay anything.

Red flags before signing with a WA builder

None of the following automatically means a builder is a poor choice. Each one is a prompt to ask a question and get a clear answer before you sign or pay a deposit.

No result when you search the WA register, before you have confirmed you searched the legal entity name rather than a trading name
Registration restricted to a narrower building class than your project requires
No HII certificate provided before a deposit is requested
A deposit request above 6.5% on a contract between $7,500 and $500,000
The entity on your contract does not match the entity found on the WA register or the ASIC Business Names Register
The builder or director's name appears in Building and Energy's disciplinary and prosecution media releases collection
A trust structure where the trustee's name on the contract does not match the registered trustee
Pressure to sign or pay before you've had a chance to verify registration or insurance

Two real, public cases illustrate why these checks matter, not as a verdict on any builder generally, but as a record of what has actually happened in WA when these checks are skipped.

The Fremantle case above shows the unregistered-work and excessive-deposit offences being prosecuted together. Separately, Inspired Property Group Pty Ltd, trading as Inspired Homes, entered external administration in April 2025. Building and Energy reported the company had at least 87 building projects in progress, and directed affected homeowners with HII policies to contact QBE about claims. The case is a clear illustration of the trading-name point above: a homeowner checking this builder before signing would have needed to search "Inspired Property Group Pty Ltd" on the WA register, not "Inspired Homes." Affected homeowners with HII policies were able to pursue claims up to $200,000 per property for completion costs. Building and Energy subsequently reported that the former director and nominated supervisor was reprimanded and fined $33,000 over misleading conduct and supervision failures relating to defective work and progress payment conduct, a matter published in Building and Energy's disciplinary release collection.

How TrustSignal helps

Checking a registration, Home Indemnity Insurance status, company details, directors, tribunal records, insolvency indicators and credit-risk signals separately means searching multiple government systems that are not linked to each other, several of which do not even share a common name field.

TrustSignal's Builder Report brings registration, insurance, company, director, disciplinary and credit-risk signals together in plain English so WA homeowners can make a more informed decision before signing.

You can see what this looks like in our sample report, check pricing, or go straight to trustsignal.com.au/search to check a builder.

For a structured checklist that walks through every step before signing, see the builder licence check checklist. For an overview of where these records sit and how to read them, see TrustSignal Public Registers.

Check the builder, the company and the wider risk signals before you commit. Run a TrustSignal Builder Report before you sign.

WA builder registration check FAQs

How do I check a builder's registration in WA?

Use Building and Energy's Online Licence Search. Search by the builder's registered legal name or registration number, then confirm the registration status, category and any class restrictions or conditions.

Why can't I find my builder on the WA register?

Most likely you searched a trading name rather than the registered legal entity name. Building and Energy explicitly does not publish business or trading names on its register. Search the ASIC Business Names Register for the trading name first to find the legal entity behind it, then search that legal name on the WA Online Licence Search.

Is Building and Energy the same as DEMIRS?

Building and Energy is the operating division name and has not changed. Its parent department was renamed from the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) to the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety (LGIRS), effective 1 July 2025. The registration search tool's web address still uses the legacy "demirs" subdomain, and that remains the correct, current link.

Is a "registered builder" the same as a "licensed builder" in WA?

Yes, in practical terms. WA uses "registration" as its formal term where other states say "licence". A registered building contractor in WA is doing the same job as a licensed builder elsewhere: confirming the entity is currently authorised to contract for the work.

What is the maximum deposit a WA builder can ask for?

A maximum of 6.5% of the total contract price, for contracts valued between $7,500 and $500,000, under the Home Building Contracts Act 1991 (WA). This is lower than the 10% figure often quoted for other states, so it should not be assumed to carry over.

What is Home Indemnity Insurance and when is it required?

Home Indemnity Insurance (HII) is generally required for residential building work valued over $20,000 in WA, including new dwellings, extensions and many renovations. Some categories of work are excluded, so check the requirement against your specific project. The builder must take out the policy in the owner's name and provide a copy of the Certificate of Insurance before starting work, asking for a deposit, or requesting any other payment.

What does WA's Home Indemnity Insurance actually pay out?

Up to $200,000 to complete incomplete work or remedy defective work, or the contract value if lower, plus a separate $40,000 for loss of deposit. A $500 excess applies per claim, and cover runs for 6 years from practical completion. It is a last-resort scheme: it only pays out if the builder dies, disappears, becomes insolvent, or has their registration cancelled or not renewed specifically for failing to meet financial requirements. Ordinary disputes about workmanship or delay where the builder remains in business go through the Building Commissioner's complaint process instead.

Can I check if a WA builder has had disciplinary action against them?

Partially, and not through the registration search itself. Building and Energy publishes disciplinary and prosecution media releases online, currently covering recent years, and the State Administrative Tribunal publishes a Vocational Disciplinary Penalties Database covering tribunal penalties since 2005. Neither is shown directly on the live registration search result, so they need to be checked separately, by the builder's or director's name.

Is a current WA registration enough on its own?

A current registration is the right first step. It confirms the entity appears authorised to contract for the relevant building work. It does not confirm Home Indemnity Insurance is actually in place for your project, financial stability, disciplinary history, director history, or tribunal and court matters. A WA builder registration check is necessary, but it is not the full picture before you sign.

What if the registration name is different from the contract name?

Treat this as something to clarify, not ignore. Search the ASIC Business Names Register and ABN Lookup to confirm the legal entity behind any trading name, then confirm it matches the entity named in your contract and on any HII certificate. If there is a mismatch with no clear explanation, get this resolved in writing before paying a deposit.

How do I check a builder in WA before signing?

Start with a registration check through Building and Energy's Online Licence Search, using the legal entity name. Then confirm Home Indemnity Insurance has been issued for your project, check the company and ABN details against ASIC, and consider a broader check of disciplinary, court, insolvency and credit-risk signals before you sign or pay a deposit.

This article is a decision aid, not legal or financial advice. Register coverage and the information shown can vary by registration type and may change over time. Always verify current status directly with the relevant WA regulator before signing a contract.