Checking a builder's licence in Western Australia
Here, the register lists builders who stopped trading. What to look for in any state, and what a licence never tells you, is on the main guide.
Open the Building and Energy licence and registration search →
The direct search, not the regulator's front page. Opened and confirmed on 26 October 2026.
Finding a builder's name in the Western Australian register is not the same as finding a working builder, and the difference is shown by an empty column rather than by a word.
Inactive builders are still listed
The register holds both active and inactive registrations. Inactive ones appear with the address column blank — that is the whole signal. There is no banner, no struck-through row and no status word to read, so somebody scanning for a name and finding it will conclude the builder is registered when the register is telling them the opposite.
Check the address column. It is the most important empty space on this page.
And some are not listed at all
Builders who became inactive before 29 August 2011 do not appear in the register whatsoever. So an absent name has two possible meanings — never registered, or long gone — and the register cannot distinguish them for you. Building and Energy's licensing branch can help with information no longer published.
Old numbers are still good numbers
Some builders hold registration numbers with an S or F prefix from an earlier scheme. Those are not errors or expired formats: the number printed on the builder's own registration certificate is the correct one to search, whichever generation it belongs to. Registration is required for builder-work valued over $20,000.
Western Australia: the register at a glance
- Register
- Building and Energy licence and registration search
- Updated
- Daily
- Registration required for
- Builder-work valued over $20,000, under the Building Services (Registration) Act 2011
- The register contains
- Both active and inactive builders
- How to tell them apart
- Inactive builders appear with the address column blank
- Builders inactive before 29 August 2011
- Do not appear in the register at all
- Registration numbers
- Some builders hold older S- or F-prefixed numbers; the number on their registration certificate is the correct one, old or new
Read from Building and Energy, Licence and registration search on 26 October 2026. Building and Energy is the authority on what applies to a particular licence, and a register is a record of permission rather than of competence.
Questions about Western Australia licences
I found the builder's name in the WA register. Are they registered?
Check the address column. The register lists both active and inactive builders, and an inactive one appears with that column blank — there is no status word or banner to read.
The builder isn't in the register at all. What does that mean?
Two possible things: never registered, or inactive before 29 August 2011, since those do not appear at all. The register cannot distinguish them, but Building and Energy's licensing branch can help.
Their number starts with S or F. Is that wrong?
No. Those are from an earlier scheme and remain valid. The number printed on the builder's own registration certificate is the one to search, old format or new.
What work needs a registered builder in WA?
Builder-work valued over $20,000, under the Building Services (Registration) Act 2011.