Queensland has the strongest builder licensing and consumer protection regime in Australia, and on the Gold Coast you should use every part of it. This is a market with a very large number of operators, a high proportion of work in specialised conditions — canal frontage, beachfront corrosion, high-rise apartments, hinterland bushfire sites — and a long history of building companies that trade briefly and disappear.
For more detail on this part of the project, see Home Extensions on the Gold Coast: Costs, Approvals and What Works.
The builder determines the outcome more than the design, the materials or the budget. Here is how to check one properly.
QBCC Licensing
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission regulates building work in this state, and its public register is the first stop.
What to verify
- The licence number and that it is current. Search the QBCC register by name, company or licence number. Do this yourself rather than trusting a number on a quote.
- The correct class. A licence has classes and financial limits — a builder licensed to a value below your contract sum cannot lawfully take the job.
- That the licensed entity is the contracting entity. A common problem is a licence held by one company and the contract offered by a related entity with no licence and no assets.
- Conditions and directions. The register shows conditions on the licence and any directions to rectify issued against the builder. A pattern of directions is the single most useful signal available.
- Disciplinary and insolvency history. Search the builder’s name and the company name, and check ASIC for the directors and any related entities. Repeated company failures under the same directors is the clearest warning there is.
The Home Warranty Scheme
For residential building work above the threshold, the contractor must pay a QBCC Home Warranty Scheme premium, which is passed through to you.
- It covers non-completion where the contractor dies, disappears or becomes insolvent, and defective work
- Structural defects are covered for a longer period than non-structural
- The premium should be paid and the notice issued before work starts. You can verify the policy directly with the QBCC — do it.
- A builder who suggests structuring the job to stay under the threshold, or who is slow to produce the notice, is telling you something. Walk.
Contracts
Written contracts are mandatory for domestic building work above the prescribed amount, with regulated deposit limits and mandatory terms. Use a standard-form contract — Master Builders Queensland or HIA — not a builder’s own document. The standard forms are balanced and courts understand them.
Finding Candidates
Sources that produce good builders
- Houses you have seen. Knock on the door of a renovation you admire and ask who did it.
- Your designer or architect. Ask specifically who they would not work with again, and why.
- Trade referrals. Electricians, plumbers and cabinetmakers know which builders pay on time and run organised sites.
- Industry associations. Master Builders Queensland and HIA membership indicates an established business with something to lose.
- Specialists in your conditions. This matters more on the Gold Coast than almost anywhere. Canal-front, beachfront, high-rise apartment and hinterland bushfire work are four different skill sets, and a builder who is excellent at one may be out of their depth in another.
Sources to treat with caution
- Lead-generation websites that sell your enquiry to whoever pays
- Unsolicited door-knocking, particularly after storm events
- Social media advertising with impressive photography and no verifiable project history
- Anyone offering a discount for signing this week
The Vetting Process
Before you send drawings
- Verify the QBCC licence, class and financial limit
- Search ASIC for the company, its directors and related entities
- Check for directions to rectify on the QBCC register
- Ask how long the business has traded under this name and this entity
- Ask how many jobs they run concurrently and who supervises each
- Ask whether the person you are speaking to will run your job
Gold Coast-specific competence questions
- What corrosion category applies to this site, and what fixings will you use? The right answer names C4 or C5 and grade 316 stainless. A builder who has not thought about it will not have priced it.
- What is the minimum habitable floor level here, and how does it affect the design?
- What footing system are you allowing for, and is that based on a soil test or an assumption?
- Will excavation trigger acid sulfate soil management?
- How are you handling termite management, and who certifies it?
- On a canal property: have you assessed the revetment wall, and does the program account for tidal works approval?
- In an apartment: how do you manage lift bookings, waste removal and body corporate conditions?
- What wind classification are you designing to, and who is engineering the tie-down?
These are not gotcha questions. A builder who works in these conditions answers them immediately. One who does not is about to learn on your project.
References that tell you something
Ask for three: a job completed in the last twelve months, one from two to three years ago, and one that went wrong. Refusing the third is itself informative.
When you call, do not ask whether they were happy. Ask:
- How did the final cost compare with the contract sum, and what caused the difference?
- How many variations were there, and were they priced before or after the work was done?
- How did the actual program compare with the contracted one?
- How did the builder handle the first thing that went wrong?
- How long did defects take to be rectified after handover?
- Were subcontractors paid on time? Did anyone come to you about unpaid accounts?
- Would you use them again?
Visit a site
- Is the site tidy, are materials stored properly, is waste contained?
- Is there a site toilet, safety fencing and clear signage?
- Do the trades on site know what happens next week?
- Look at the framing, the services rough-in, the waterproofing detail and the fixings — the parts that get covered up
- Do the neighbours look aggrieved?
Comparing Quotes
Gold Coast renovation quotes routinely spread 30 to 50 per cent on the same drawings, and it is almost never about margin.
For more detail on this part of the project, see How Much Does a Home Renovation Cost on the Gold Coast? A 2026 Price Guide.
Equalise before comparing
- Provisional sums and prime cost items. A $15,000 kitchen allowance and a $35,000 one are not comparable.
- Exclusions. Asbestos removal, termite damage repair, footing upgrades on discovery, acid sulfate management, revetment wall works, tree removal and service upgrades are all common exclusions that become variations.
- Preliminaries. Site establishment, scaffolding, fencing, site toilet, waste removal, insurances, supervision. In an apartment, lift protection and access management.
- Footings. Is the price based on an engineer’s design for the actual site classification, or on an assumption? The largest single risk item on the coastal plain.
- Corrosion specification. Are 316 stainless fixings and marine-grade coatings included, or standard product?
- Margin. Fifteen to twenty-five per cent on a renovation is normal. Anyone at five per cent has mispriced or intends to make it up in variations.
- Rise and fall. Fixed price, or subject to material cost movement?
- Program, and whether liquidated damages are specified.
Once equalised, quotes usually converge within 15 per cent. If one is still dramatically lower, ask why — the answer is usually something you will pay for later.
The Contract
- Contract price and full scope, with drawings and specification attached and initialled
- Progress payments tied to completed stages, each worth roughly what has been done. Never pay ahead of the work.
- Deposit within the regulated limit. A builder asking for 20 or 30 per cent up front is a serious warning sign.
- Variations documented and priced in writing before the work is done. This single clause prevents most disputes.
- The program, start date, and grounds for extension of time — including weather, which matters here
- Defects liability period and the rectification process
- QBCC Home Warranty notice attached, before any money changes hands
- Dispute resolution provisions
Have a solicitor who does building work review it. A few hundred dollars against a contract of several hundred thousand.
Red Flags
- Reluctance to provide the QBCC Home Warranty notice, or a suggestion to structure the job below the threshold
- A licence class or financial limit below the contract value
- A deposit beyond the regulated maximum
- Cash discounts — no receipt, no contract, no protection
- No written contract for work of significance
- Pressure to sign quickly, or a price that expires
- A one-page quote with no scope, exclusions or specification
- Refusal to provide references or site access
- A licence held by a different entity from the one on the contract
- Directors with a history of failed building companies
- Vagueness about who supervises the site day to day
- No coherent answer on corrosion specification, floor level or footings
- Disparaging every other builder you mention
Managing the Relationship
- Put everything in writing. Confirm site conversations by email the same day.
- Make every decision before construction starts. Decisions made on site are made at build-time prices with no competitive tension.
- Approve variations in writing before the work happens.
- Visit regularly but do not direct the trades. Concerns go to the builder.
- Photograph everything before it is covered — framing, fixings, services rough-in, waterproofing, insulation, termite management, footing reinforcement before the pour. Date-stamped. This documentation is worth more than any contract clause if something fails in year three.
- Pay on time when the stage is complete.
- Keep a running file of the contract, drawings, variations, certificates and correspondence.
Handover
Before the final payment, collect:
- Form 21 final inspection certificate from the building certifier
- Form 15 and Form 16 design and inspection certificates from the relevant competent persons
- Electrical certificate of testing and compliance
- Plumbing compliance certification
- Waterproofing certification and the photographic record
- Termite management certificate and the durable notice
- Glazing and smoke alarm compliance
- Engineer’s inspection records for footings and structural work
- Pool safety certificate where applicable
- Tidal works approval documentation for any marine structure
- QBCC Home Warranty notice for your records
- Warranties and manuals for every appliance and system
- A signed defects list with agreed rectification dates
Do not make the final payment before you have the Form 21. It is the certifier’s confirmation that the work is complete and compliant, and it is what a future buyer’s solicitor will ask for.
If Things Go Wrong
- Raise it in writing — specific defect, reference to the contract or standard, dated photographs, what you want done and by when
- Follow the contract’s dispute process precisely
- Get an independent building consultant’s report — $900 to $2,800, and it changes the nature of the conversation
- Lodge a complaint with the QBCC, which can issue a direction to rectify. This is a real and useful remedy and it is the main advantage of building in Queensland.
- The Home Warranty Scheme responds where the contractor has died, disappeared or become insolvent, and for defective work within the relevant periods
- Tribunal proceedings as a last resort, with legal advice from a solicitor who does building work
Choosing well is the highest-return hour in the entire project. For the budget framework around this decision, see the Gold Coast renovation cost guide, and for what happens when vetting is skipped, the most expensive renovation mistakes people make on the Gold Coast.
The Questions to Ask at the First Meeting
The initial conversation tells you more than any reference will, provided you ask the right things and listen to how they are answered rather than just what is said.
- How many jobs do you run at once, and who supervises each? Listen for whether the person in front of you will be on your site, or whether you are being sold by one person and delivered by another.
- Have you built in these conditions before? Canal-front, beachfront, high-rise apartment and hinterland bushfire work are four different skill sets. Ask for addresses.
- What do you think will be the hard part of this job? A builder who names the floor level, the piling, the threshold detail or the revetment wall is thinking about the actual project. One who says it is all straightforward has not looked.
- What would you change about this design to make it build better or cost less? Good builders always have an answer, and it is usually worth money.
- How do you handle variations? The answer should be priced and approved in writing before the work is done. Any other answer is a warning.
- What is your current lead time? Anyone available next week in a busy market is worth understanding better.
- Who are your regular subcontractors and how long have you used them? Stable trade relationships are the strongest predictor of a well-run site.
- How do you sequence around the wet season? A builder who has a clear answer about being weathertight before December has run Gold Coast jobs before.
- What went wrong on your last job and how did you deal with it? Every builder has an answer. The ones who give it candidly are the ones who will tell you the truth when it happens on yours.
Understanding a Builder’s Financial Position
Queensland’s licensing regime includes financial requirements, and understanding them tells you things a reference check will not.
What the licence tells you
- The class and the financial category set a maximum annual turnover the licensee is permitted to undertake. A builder operating at or near that limit is stretched, and a builder whose limit sits below your contract value cannot lawfully take the job.
- Licensees must satisfy minimum financial requirements — net tangible assets and a current ratio — and provide financial information to the QBCC. A licence that has been suspended or conditioned on financial grounds is a very clear signal.
- Directions to rectify recorded against the licensee show where the QBCC has formally required defective work to be fixed. One may be bad luck; a pattern is not.
What to check beyond the register
- ASIC for the company, its directors and any related or previously deregistered entities. Repeated company failures under the same directors is the clearest warning available.
- Whether the licensed entity is the contracting entity. A licence held by one company and a contract offered by an unlicensed related entity with no assets is a structure designed to leave you with nothing.
- Whether subcontractors are being paid. Ask referees directly whether anyone approached them about unpaid accounts. Subcontractor payment problems are the earliest visible symptom of a builder in trouble, and they appear months before anything else does.
- How long the entity has traded. A company registered eight months ago with a director who has run three previous building companies is a specific pattern.
None of this is unusual diligence. It is what the QBCC register exists for, it takes an hour, and it is the single most valuable hour in the project — because the protections available after a builder fails are far weaker than the protection of not engaging that builder in the first place.