How do I check out a builder in South Australia before I work for them?
Confirm the legal entity on ABN Lookup, then search the building work contractor licence register published by Consumer and Business Services (cbs.sa.gov.au) for the company and the registered building work supervisor on your contract. Confirm the licence is current, the conditions, and any disciplinary action. Then run the company name through ASIC's published notices, the Federal Court's Federal Law Search and AustLII.
Step one: the licence register
Consumer and Business Services licenses building work contractors and registers building work supervisors in South Australia, and publishes disciplinary outcomes. Search the company named on your contract and the supervisor it nominates. You want a current licence in the right class, no conditions you have not asked about, and no disciplinary history.
Steps two to four: ASIC, the Federal Court, judgments
ASIC's published notices show winding-up applications and administrator or liquidator appointments, for the builder and for sister companies with the same directors. The Federal Court's Federal Law Search catches the applications filed there. AustLII, with the name in quotes, shows payment disputes that reached a judge and challenges to adjudication determinations. A builder that litigates determinations is telling you what enforcing a win against it will cost.
South Australia's security of payment regime follows the New South Wales template closely: the builder has 15 business days to serve a payment schedule, a missed schedule makes the full claimed amount a debt due and shuts the builder out at adjudication, and applications go through an authorised nominating authority listed by the Small Business Commissioner SA. Fewer state-specific traps than Victoria or Western Australia, so the check is mostly about the entity and the registers.
Builder Check does the entity match and the register searches for you and emails the result, free. review.theconstructioncontracts.co/builder-check
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Does South Australia publish adjudication decisions by builder name?
No searchable register. Adjudication runs through private authorised nominating authorities, so the public trail is ASIC, the courts and AustLII.
Who do I ask about adjudication in SA?
The Small Business Commissioner SA publishes guidance and the list of authorised nominating authorities. The application itself goes to the nominating authority you choose.
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General information for Australian subcontractors, not legal advice. Statutory deadlines and details vary by state and change over time; verify them before relying on them. Written by Mat Kennedy at The Construction Contracts Co.