TCCC
The Construction Contracts Co.
Builder Check

Check the builder before the builder checks you.

Every bank runs a credit check before it lends money. Most subcontractors lend a builder six figures of labour and materials on 30 to 60 day terms without one. Type the name on the contract and this builds a ten-minute search of the public registers: who you are really contracting with, whether the licence is clean, whether anyone has gone to court or adjudication to be paid, and how to read what you find.

Stays in your browser. We never see who you look up.

Watch this builder

We email you if this builder's public record changes while you're on the job:

  • ASIC company status or name, including administration, liquidation, strike-off or deregistration (ASIC Company Dataset, weekly).
  • QBCC licence listing (QBCC register of licensed contractors, weekly).

Each alert quotes the change and links the official record. No ratings, no opinions. Your list is private and every email has a stop link.

We'll email you once to confirm.

This stores your email and the number, only to send the alerts. Registers update weekly and can lag or contain errors, so a quiet inbox is not a guarantee. Contains public sector information from ASIC (CC BY 3.0 AU) and QBCC (CC BY 4.0).

What this is, and what it is not

This tool holds no information about any builder. It does not rate, score or label anyone. It prepares the searches, and you run them on the official sites: the Australian Business Register, ASIC, the courts, the state building regulator. You are reading the authoritative record, on the day you need it, not a copy that may be out of date or belong to a company with a similar name.

A register entry is a fact to weigh, not a verdict. A builder with one adjudication decision had one dispute. A builder suing its own client may simply be owed money. What you are looking for is a pattern, and then a decision about how to carry the risk: price it, shorten the terms, secure your materials, or walk away.

The checks, in order of signal per minute

1
Confirm who you are actually contracting with. ABN Lookup (Australian Business Register). Builders often run several companies under one brand. The one named in your contract is the only one that owes you money. A company registered a few months ago has no track record, whatever the brand's age.
2
Search the insolvency notices. ASIC published notices. A winding-up application means a creditor went to court to be paid. A withdrawn one usually means that creditor was paid. The question is who is next in the queue.
3
Search the Federal Court. Commonwealth Courts Portal: Federal Law Search. Many winding-up applications are filed in the Federal Court rather than a state Supreme Court, so check both.
4
Search published judgments. AustLII. A builder that litigates adjudication decisions is telling you what enforcing a win against it costs.
5
Search the news. Google News. Trade press and local papers often run the story months before a register records anything.
6
For the largest builders: reported payment times. Payment Times Reports Register. This is the builder's own declaration of how slowly it pays small suppliers. Compare it with the payment term in your contract.
7
Check who holds security over the builder. Personal Property Securities Register. A new all-assets security to a short-term lender can mean the builder is borrowing against everything it owns. Secured creditors are paid before you in an insolvency.
8
Two phone calls. Trades already on the builder's jobs. No register is as current as the trade who was short-paid last month.

Pick your state in the tool to add the building licence search, and in Queensland the QBCC adjudication decision register, which publishes security of payment decisions by name.

The builder is one half. The contract is the other.

A sound builder with a harsh subcontract can cost you as much as a shaky builder with a fair one. Once you know who you are dealing with, read what they are asking you to sign: the payment term, the time bars, the liquidated damages cap, the set-off clause and the retention trigger.

Scan the subcontract free, in about two minutes →

Common questions

How do I check a builder before I work for them?

Confirm the legal entity on ABN Lookup, then search that exact name in the public registers: the building licence search for your state, ASIC's published insolvency notices, the court file searches, published judgments and, in Queensland, the QBCC adjudication decision register. For the largest builders, read their reported payment times. Finish with two phone calls to trades already on their jobs. It takes about ten minutes and most of it is free.

Can I find out if a builder has not paid other subcontractors?

Partly. In Queensland, adjudication decisions are published by name, so you can see disputes that went to a decision, the amount claimed, what the builder offered and what the adjudicator awarded. Court file searches show claims by trades and suppliers. Neither shows late payments that were never formally disputed, which is why the phone calls matter.

Is it legal to look a builder up like this?

Yes. Every source here is a public register published by a government body, a court or a regulator for exactly this purpose. Banks and credit insurers run the same checks before extending credit, and a subcontractor doing work on 30 to 60 day terms is extending credit.

What if I find something?

A register entry is a fact to weigh, not a verdict. Read it, and consider asking the builder about it directly. Then decide how to protect yourself: price the risk, shorten the payment term, register materials on the PPSR, claim on every reference date, and act on the first short payment rather than the third.

Does this tool store the builder names I search?

No. The name you type into the check stays in your browser. The check makes no request to any register and records nothing about who you look up. It prepares the searches, and you run them on the official sites. Builder Watch is separate and opt-in: if you ask us to watch a builder, we store your email and the ABN or ACN you enter so we can email you, and nothing else.

How does Builder Watch work?

Add a builder's ABN or ACN and your email, then confirm from the email we send. Each week we check two public datasets for that number: ASIC's Company Dataset on data.gov.au, which records company status such as external administration, strike-off or deregistration, and the QBCC register of licensed contractors on data.qld.gov.au. If a record changes, you get one email quoting the change and linking the official record. It does not rate or assess anyone, your list is private, and every email has a stop link.

Keep reading

General information, not legal or financial advice. This page links to public registers operated by government bodies, courts and regulators; it does not hold, copy or vouch for their contents, and registers can be incomplete or list companies with similar names. Confirm the ABN before relying on any result. Nothing you type into the check is uploaded or stored. Builder Watch stores only the email and number you give it, to send the alerts you asked for. Built by Mat Kennedy at The Construction Contracts Co.