How do I check out a builder in WA before I work for them?
Confirm the legal entity on ABN Lookup, then search the register of registered building service practitioners published by Building and Energy (wa.gov.au/organisation/building-and-energy) for the company and the nominated supervisor. Confirm registration is current and read any disciplinary outcomes. Then run the company name through ASIC's published notices, the Federal Court's Federal Law Search and AustLII. In WA, also read the date on the subcontract before you sign: it decides which security of payment Act you are under.
Step one: the registration search
Building and Energy, within the WA Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, maintains the register of building service practitioners and contractors and publishes disciplinary outcomes. Search the company named on your contract and the nominated supervisor. You want current registration in a class that covers the work and no disciplinary history you have not asked about.
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 any sister companies with the same directors. The Federal Court's Federal Law Search catches the winding-up applications filed there rather than in the Supreme Court. AustLII, searched with the name in quotes, shows payment disputes that went to a judge and challenges to adjudication determinations.
WA does not publish adjudication determinations with the parties named, so there is no public register of a builder's adjudication history. The public record is the Supreme Court list and AustLII, where challenged or enforced determinations appear as judgments.
The WA question nobody asks at tender
Two security of payment regimes run in parallel in Western Australia. Subcontracts entered into from 1 August 2022 sit under the Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021: payment claims, a 15 business day payment schedule window, subcontract payment terms capped at 25 business days, adjudication through authorised nominating authorities and a retention trust scheme phasing in. Subcontracts signed before that date stay under the Construction Contracts Act 2004, with its own payment-dispute model and its own deadlines. The two do not mix, and a notice drafted for the wrong Act is the most common way a WA application fails before anyone reads the merits.
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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Which security of payment Act applies to my WA subcontract?
The contract date decides it. On or after 1 August 2022, the 2021 Act with payment claims and payment schedules. Before that date, the Construction Contracts Act 2004 with its own payment-dispute model and deadlines. Check before you serve anything.
Does WA have a retention trust?
A retention trust scheme is phasing in under the 2021 Act. Whether it applies to your contract depends on the contract value and date, so ask the builder in writing where your retention is held.
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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.