As at 10 October 2026, section 6 of the Building Work Contractors Act 1995 says a person must not “carry on business as a building work contractor except as authorised by a licence”, and must not advertise or otherwise hold themselves out as entitled to do so without one. Nothing in that section turns on the value of a job: the trigger is the business, and repairs are inside it.
General informationDotto is not a builder, tradesperson or property manager. Dotto holds no builder’s or trade licence. It does not do, offer, contract for or arrange any building, trade or maintenance work, and does not refer anyone to a tradesperson. This is general information, not advice.
The Act is administered by the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, and licence applications go through Consumer and Business Services (CBS), the place to check a particular job.
A licence for the business, not the job
The Act defines a building work contractor as “a person who carries on the business of performing building work for others”, or of performing it with a view to selling or letting the land or buildings it improves. The South Australian Government’s licence page puts the same rule this way: individuals and businesses must be licensed as building contractors, subcontractors included, “if they run a business that carries out or organises building work”, whether for others or to sell or let land or buildings.
That page describes building work contractors as working in construction, trade, demolition, site preparation, and “restoration and repairs”. It adds that all building work must be supervised by a registered building work supervisor, and that sole traders normally apply for a contractor’s licence and supervisor registration together, because both are needed to contract work.
What counts as building work
Under section 3 of the Act, building work is “the whole or part of the work of constructing, erecting, underpinning, altering, repairing, improving, adding to or demolishing a building”, the excavating or filling of a site for that work, and any further class of work the regulations prescribe.
The Building Work Contractors Regulations 2026 prescribe that further class. Each of these is building work in South Australia:
- “the on-site construction, alteration, repair or improvement of a swimming pool or spa”
- paving
- fencing, other than post and wire fencing
- installing, maintaining, repairing and removing insulation
- painting a building or part of one
- installing air-conditioning in relation to a building
- installing solar panels in relation to a building
- plumbing, gas fitting and electrical work within the meaning of the Plumbers, Gas Fitters and Electricians Act 1995.
Several ordinary maintenance jobs are on that list, painting and fencing among them, and none of them carries a value below which it stops being building work.
Where the Regulations step back
Regulation 5 exempts some people and some work. In brief, as at 10 October 2026:
| Who or what | The exemption, and its limit |
|---|---|
| Licensed gas fitting or electrical contractors | Need no building work contractor’s licence, on condition that any building work they perform stays within their licence under the Plumbers, Gas Fitters and Electricians Act 1995. |
| Licensed plumbing contractors | The same, limited to the work their licence authorises, or, where that licence carries no conditions limiting the work, to minor roof plumbing work. That term means work on flashings, guttering, downpipes or roof coverings, their repair and maintenance included, costing less than $3,000. |
| Licensed pest controllers | Need no building work contractor’s licence while their building work stays within their licence under the Controlled Substances (Pesticides) Regulations 2017. |
| Floating floors | The Act does not apply to installing, maintaining, repairing or removing one under a contract made on or after 1 April 2010. |
| Carpet and vinyl | The Act does not apply to installing, maintaining, repairing or removing carpet or vinyl floor covering where it is not used for waterproofing. |
The Act also lets the Commissioner exempt a person from section 6 on application, on any conditions the Commissioner thinks fit.
What the $20,000 figure is for
A $20,000 figure does appear in the Regulations, and it is easy to mistake for a licence line. It is not one. It is the sum that defines “minor domestic building work”: domestic building work done under a domestic building work contract at a cost to the owner below the prescribed sum.
- $20,000For a domestic building work contract made on or after 10 November 2025.
- $12,000For one made on or after 15 October 2001 and before 10 November 2025.
- $5,000For one made before 15 October 2001.
Below that sum, several parts of the Act on domestic building work stop applying: its requirements for domestic building work contracts, building indemnity insurance, and the right to terminate certain contracts. The licence in section 6 is not among them.
Advertising, payment and penalties
Section 6 covers holding out as well as trading: advertising or otherwise presenting oneself as entitled to carry on business as a building work contractor, without a licence, is an offence in the same subsection. A person who should have been licensed and was not has no right to a fee or other payment under the contract, unless a court hearing a claim for it is satisfied the failure resulted from inadvertence only.
As at 10 October 2026, the version of the Act dated 15 January 2026 sets the maximum penalty for a first or second offence at $100,000 for a natural person and $500,000 for a body corporate, with an expiation fee of $5,000.
The 2026 Regulations
The Building Work Contractors Regulations 2026 came into operation on 1 September 2026, and their Schedule 3 repeals the Building Work Contractors Regulations 2011. Older descriptions of South Australian building work that rely on the 2011 Regulations describe rules that no longer stand.