Who may write a building inspection report

Who each official page names

The person each page describes, in its own terms

Where	Who the page names	Licence or check
Queensland	A licensed residential building inspector	A QBCC licence in the class “Completed residential building inspection”
New South Wales	“a suitably qualified person such as a licensed builder, a surveyor or an architect”	Adequate insurance cover, particularly professional indemnity
Victoria	“a qualified building inspector, surveyor or architect”	The Building and Plumbing Commission, to find a registered building practitioner
Western Australia	A qualified person, who can be a building inspector, a surveyor or an architect	An inspection service with full professional indemnity insurance
South Australia	A surveyor, architect or building consultant for a general building inspection; a structural engineer to check structural soundness	A licensed pest inspector if termite activity is a concern
Tasmania	Licensed building surveyors and builders, who the page says have the qualifications, experience and competencies for the work	No building services provider licence is needed; ask for the person’s qualifications, experience and competencies
ACT	A building consultant or inspector, who needs no registration or licence	Ask whether they hold indemnity insurance

Queensland: a licence class of its own

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission Regulation 2018 sets the scope of the completed residential building inspection licence as “A completed building inspection, including an inspection and preparation of a report in accordance with Australian Standard 4349.1-2007 ‘Inspection of buildings-Pre-purchase inspections-Residential buildings’.”

The QBCC’s page for the licence says an applicant needs to demonstrate 5 years’ experience in the scope of work for either of these:

• “builder low rise, medium rise, or open licence”
• “building surveyor, assistant building surveyor, or building surveyor technician”.

A contractor licence in this class also requires professional indemnity insurance.

Termites are a separate licence. The QBCC says only a licensed pest controller can complete termite inspections, and that a building and pest inspection can be done at the same time if the inspector has the appropriate licences.

One more line in the Regulation is worth reading as written. Its schedule of “Work that is not building work” includes “Work performed by an architect in the architect’s professional practice, including, for example, carrying out a completed building inspection.” How that applies to a particular inspection is a question for the QBCC.

New South Wales: the same words, a different job

For a pre-purchase report, NSW Fair Trading’s advice is the professional named in the table above, with adequate insurance, particularly for professional indemnity. It adds that these professions “should see through any cosmetic improvements covering up faults that might otherwise be missed by an untrained eye.”

NSW also has registered certifiers in a class called building inspector, and the name is easy to mistake. Building Commission NSW’s information sheet on them is written for “certification work involving a certifier registered in the class of building surveyor or building inspector”. Registered building inspectors “carry out inspections of building work” with the approval and agreement of the principal certifier, and are not authorised to issue certificates. Nothing in that sheet is about pre-purchase reports.

Tasmania and the ACT: no licence, so ask

Consumer, Building and Occupational Services in Tasmania says an inspector doing pre-purchase work needs no building services provider licence, and suggests asking the person doing the inspection for their qualifications, experience and competencies.

Access Canberra’s Reality Check guide says “A building consultant or inspector is not required to be registered or licensed”, and that you should ask whether they have indemnity insurance. For the building and compliance and pest inspection reports an ACT seller must supply, the law goes further: the person who prepared the report must hold professional indemnity insurance relating to its subject, with a minimum limit of $500,000 or another amount the Minister determines, under the Regulation as in effect from 23 February 2026. The page on the ACT seller’s reports sets out the rest.

Insurance, in each page’s own words

Where the pages differ on licences, they agree on insurance, and each says why.

• Victoria: “Use an inspection service with full professional indemnity insurance. This will protect you if the inspection misses a problem that must be fixed.”
• Western Australia: Consumer Protection gives the same advice, for the same reason: full professional indemnity cover, so that you are protected if the inspection misses a problem that must be fixed.
• ACT: Access Canberra: “All inspection services must have professional indemnity insurance to protect the buyer if a problem is missed in the inspection.”
• New South Wales: NSW Fair Trading strongly recommends using only consultants with adequate insurance cover, particularly for professional indemnity.

What happens when a report does miss something is on its own page: if the report missed something.