Every trade has its cowboys, but roofing attracts a particular breed: the post-storm opportunist. Within days of a decent hail cell crossing Brisbane, utes with interstate plates appear in the damaged suburbs, flyers go in letterboxes, and homeowners with tarps on their roofs get doorknocked by “storm damage specialists” who want a deposit today.
Queensland has one of the strongest consumer protection regimes in the country for building work — but it only protects you if the person on your roof is actually licensed. Checking takes about two minutes and costs nothing. Here’s exactly how to do it.
Why the $3,300 threshold matters
In Queensland, building work valued at more than $3,300 — that’s the total of labour, materials and GST — must legally be performed by a contractor holding the appropriate QBCC (Queensland Building and Construction Commission) licence.
Almost nothing meaningful on a roof comes in under that figure. A proper roof repair involving replaced sheets or a re-bedded ridge, a restoration, a re-roof — all well over the threshold, all licence-required work.
The threshold matters to you for three reasons:
- Unlicensed contracting is illegal above $3,300, and QBCC prosecutes it.
- The Queensland Home Warranty Scheme doesn’t cover you if the contractor was unlicensed (more on the scheme below).
- An unlicensed operator has, by definition, avoided QBCC’s minimum financial requirements and technical qualification checks — the exact filters designed to keep insolvent and incompetent operators off your roof.
QBCC licence classes relevant to roofing
QBCC licences are issued by class, and the class defines what work the holder can lawfully contract for. The ones you’ll see on roofing quotes:
- Roof and wall cladding — installing and repairing metal roof sheeting and wall cladding. This is the class you’d expect for Colorbond and other metal roof work.
- Roof tiling — laying, repairing, bedding and pointing tiled roofs. The relevant class for concrete and terracotta tile roof repairs.
- Builder (low-rise / open) — a builder’s licence covers roofing within a broader scope of building work; common where roof work is part of a larger job.
- Related classes you may see alongside: carpentry (roof framing and structural timber) and specialist classes for waterproofing or guttering-adjacent work.
The practical point: the class on the licence should match the roof you own. A metal cladding licensee isn’t licensed to re-bed your terracotta ridge capping, and vice versa. If a quote covers both tile and metal elements, the contractor needs the classes — or appropriately licensed subcontractors — to match.
Running the QBCC licence search (two minutes, free)
The QBCC maintains a free public register of every licensee in the state, searchable online at the QBCC website (qbcc.qld.gov.au — look for “find a local contractor” or the licensee search).
Step 1 — Get the licence number. Queensland contractors must show their licence number on advertising, quotes and contracts. If it’s not on the quote, that by itself is a bad sign. Ask for it.
Step 2 — Search the register. Enter the licence number, or search by the individual or company name.
Step 3 — Check four things:
- Status: the licence is current — not suspended, cancelled or surrendered.
- Classes: the licence classes cover the work you’re contracting for (see above).
- Name match: the entity on your quote and contract is the entity holding the licence. A quote from “Smith Roofing Pty Ltd” against a licence held personally by an individual — or by a differently named company — deserves an explanation. You want the contracting entity to be the licensed entity, because that’s who the Home Warranty Scheme and QBCC’s disciplinary tools attach to.
- History: the register shows licence history; a trail of demerits, conditions or past suspensions is public information and worth reading.
If anything doesn’t line up, ask. A legitimate operator will explain their structure without blinking. Evasion is your answer.
The insurance paperwork to ask for
A current QBCC licence is necessary but not sufficient. Before work starts, any professional roofer can produce:
- Public liability insurance — a certificate of currency, commonly in the $5 million to $20 million range. This covers damage to your property and injury to third parties arising from the work.
- Workers’ compensation — WorkCover Queensland cover for their employees. If an uninsured worker is injured on your property, you do not want to be the deepest pocket standing nearby.
- Queensland Home Warranty Scheme premium — for residential work over $3,300, the contractor must pay the scheme premium to QBCC for your job. It’s typically itemised in your contract paperwork.
Ask for certificates of currency, not verbal assurances, and check the dates.
The Queensland Home Warranty Scheme in one minute
This is the safety net that makes the licence check worth doing. The scheme is statutory insurance, administered by QBCC, that covers residential construction work over $3,300 — most roofing included.
If your licensed roofer’s work turns out defective, or they fail to complete the job (insolvency being the classic case), you can claim through the scheme rather than chasing a company that no longer exists. Cover for defective work generally runs for up to six years and six months from completion, with processes for both structural and non-structural defects.
The two conditions that trip people up: the contractor must be licensed, and the premium must be paid. Use an unlicensed operator and the net simply isn’t there.
Red flags, ranked
After every major Brisbane storm the same patterns repeat. Walk away from:
- Door-knockers after storms. Especially with interstate plates, “we’re doing your neighbour’s roof” lines, and today-only pricing. Established local roofers are booked solid after a hail event; they don’t need to knock.
- Big deposits. For contracts regulated under Queensland law, deposits are capped — as a rule of thumb, around 10% for typical residential jobs. Anyone wanting 50% up front “for materials” is funding either their last job or their exit.
- No licence number on the quote. It’s a legal requirement on advertising and contracts. Its absence is rarely an oversight.
- Cash-only pricing to “save you the GST”. You’re also being saved from a paper trail, a warranty and a contract.
- Pressure to sign an insurance authority on the spot. Some storm-chasers push homeowners to sign documents appointing them to deal with the insurer. Never sign these at the door.
- No verifiable footprint. No street address, no reviews history, a phone number that goes to voicemail, an ABN registered last month.
None of these alone is proof of a shonk. Three of them together is.
The two-minute routine before you sign
Get the licence number from the quote. Run it through the QBCC search. Confirm status, class and name match. Ask for public liability and WorkCover certificates of currency. Confirm the Home Warranty premium appears in the contract paperwork. Check the deposit is within the capped range. That’s the whole routine — five checks, all free, all doable from your kitchen table.
We’re happy to be checked against every item on this list — it’s exactly what separates licensed local roofers from the post-storm circus. If your roof needs looking at, book a free roof inspection online and you’ll get a written, photographed report from a licensed roofer, with a licence number printed on it that you’re welcome to search.