Who has to be registered. In WA, building work that needs a building permit and is worth twenty thousand dollars or more (fifty thousand for Class 10a buildings such as garages, sheds and carports) has to be carried out by a registered building contractor, within the Building Services Board's area. The Board registers contractors and practitioners separately. Contractor registration is for the individuals, partnerships and companies that trade as builders; practitioner registration is for individuals, who can act as a nominated supervisor but can't provide building services directly to a homeowner. Building and Energy, a division of the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety, supports the Board and runs the public licence and registration search.
The number in your advertising. Section 8 of the Building Services (Registration) Act 2011 requires a building service contractor's advertising to include its registration number, and Building and Energy's guidance names website advertisements among its examples. Its industry bulletin on the rule also says people registered only as practitioners, or not registered at all, can't advertise using another contractor's number. Because contractor and practitioner registrations are separate, we show the registration the business itself holds, under the name it's registered in.
Home indemnity insurance. For home building work valued over twenty thousand dollars, WA builders must take out home indemnity insurance in the owner's name and give them the certificate before accepting a payment or starting work. It protects the owner against incomplete or faulty work if the builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent, in most cases during construction and for six years after practical completion. Building and Energy names QBE as the main provider in WA and points owners to QBE's certificate register to confirm a policy. The regulator urges owners to check before paying a deposit, so your site should answer the question first.
Rules that are changing. In May 2026 the WA Government introduced the Building Services Legislation Amendment (Financial Oversight) Bill 2026, letting the Building Commissioner and the Building Services Board act earlier against registered contractors that can't show they meet financial requirements, and released a discussion paper on home building contract laws, with proposals that include changing how large a deposit a builder can take. If your site explains deposits or progress payments, keep it to a plain line with a link to Building and Energy's current guidance, so one text change keeps it accurate. Text changes on existing pages are covered by the $30 monthly hosting.
How Perth builds, and where. A February 2020 UDIA WA report on construction methods put double brick at about 76% of new WA homes in 2018, while timber framing dominates in the eastern states, and found framed construction's share was growing. Perth's metropolitan region covers 30 local governments, which the Metropolitan Region Scheme groups into a central area and four outer corridors: Joondalup and Wanneroo in the north-west; Swan, Kalamunda and Mundaring in the north-east; Armadale, Gosnells and Serpentine-Jarrahdale in the south-east; and Cockburn, Kwinana and Rockingham in the south-west. Mandurah sits outside the region, in Peel. Those corridors are a practical way to describe where you build. We're an Adelaide team and work with Perth by phone and email; Adelaide is 1.5 hours ahead of Perth, or 2.5 while South Australia is on daylight saving. Our builder client is in Adelaide, and we haven't built for a WA builder yet.