What is QBCC Form 4 and do I need it?

Not sure if your job is notifiable? Use the free Form 4 checker: four questions and it tells you whether your job is permit work through council, notifiable work that gets a Form 4, or minor work with nothing to lodge, and what paperwork you should receive.

QBCC Form 4 is not a certificate you fill in and it is not a permit you apply for. It is the notice a licensed plumber or drainer must register with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission after finishing notifiable work, and the QBCC keeps every one of them on a public register searchable by property address. If you have been handed one after a hot water changeover or a bathroom job, that is the plumber doing what the law requires. If you are an owner-builder wondering whether you need to lodge one for your new house, the answer is no, and I explain why below.

The three categories of plumbing work in Queensland

The Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2019 sorts regulated plumbing and drainage work into three buckets, and which bucket a job lands in decides what paperwork exists at the end.

• Notifiable work. Work in an existing building that a licensee can do without a council permit or mandatory inspection, on the condition they register a Form 4 with the QBCC within 10 business days of finishing. QBCC's own examples are kitchen and bathroom additions, extensions or renovations, installing or replacing water heaters (electric, gas, solar or heat pump), and installing new or relocating fixtures such as toilets, showers, basins and sinks. Schedule 1 of the Regulation lists 12 categories, including extending or replacing supply pipes, existing sanitary plumbing and drainage, tempering valves, testable backflow devices, and small greywater plants in sewered areas.
• Permit work. Anything that is not notifiable, minor or unregulated. The plumber applies to the local government for a permit before starting and council inspects at the relevant stages. QBCC is explicit that plumbing and drainage associated with new construction is permit work, not notifiable work. Connecting plumbing to a shed with no existing fixtures, work on combined drains or dual reticulated supplies, trade waste, and installing an on-site sewage facility all sit here too. Council issues the inspection certificates for permit work; there is no Form 4 for it.
• Minor work. Still needs a licensed plumber but nothing is lodged anywhere. Unblocking drains, repairing a broken pipe, and maintaining, repairing or replacing a fixture or fitting like-for-like without touching the pipework are all minor work. Below that sits unregulated work such as replacing a shower head, a tap washer or a cistern washer, which anyone can do.

So do I need a Form 4?

• Owner-builder or new house: no. Your plumbing goes through the council permit and inspection pathway. What you want at handover is the council permit and inspection paperwork, the as-constructed drainage plan and the pressure test result, and a separate gas compliance certificate if gas was installed. Form 4 does not come into it.
• Homeowner having a hot water unit replaced: yes, and every type counts. Electric to electric, gas to gas, heat pump, solar, same wall or a different wall. The plumber registers the Form 4 and must give you a copy.
• Homeowner renovating a bathroom or kitchen: if a fixture is being added or moved, or pipework extended or replaced, yes. If the existing basin, toilet or tapware is being swapped for a new one on the same connections, that is minor work and there is nothing to lodge.
• Homeowner replacing an old septic with a new treatment plant: installing an on-site sewage facility is not one of the notifiable categories, so it is permit work through council. Ask the drainer for the council paperwork, not a Form 4. Decommissioning a septic and connecting an existing house to a newly available sewer can fall under the notifiable categories for existing sanitary drainage and drain sealing, so ask which pathway applies and get the paperwork that matches.
• Tradie or builder engaging a plumber: the plumber who did or directed the notifiable work is the one who registers the Form 4, and they can give the copy to whoever engaged them. The owner can still get a copy from the QBCC.

What a Form 4 records

• The address where the work was done
• The licensee who performed or directed the work, and their QBCC licence number
• Which of the notifiable work categories the work falls under and a description of it
• The date the work was finished, which the Act defines as the date the invoice is issued, or the date the work becomes operational if there is no invoice
• An as-constructed drainage diagram where the job involved sanitary drainage

What it does not do is replace an inspection. Council can audit notifiable work within a year of the Form 4 being registered, and the QBCC audits licensees to make sure the forms are being lodged. Failing to register a Form 4 for notifiable work is an offence under the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018.

Form 4 is plumbing only, gas is separate

Form 4 covers water and drainage. If the job involved gas, say a gas hot water unit or a cooktop connection, the gas fitter issues a gas compliance certificate under Queensland gas safety law. That is a separate document with a separate lodgement. On a gas hot water changeover you should end up with both. My QBCC licence 15243081 is a plumbing licence; the gas certificate comes from the gas fitting licence held for that part of the job.

Who lodges it and how long they have

The licensed plumber or drainer who did the work, or directed it, registers the Form 4 with the QBCC and pays the QBCC's fee. That has to happen within 10 business days of the work being finished, and a copy has to reach you, or whoever engaged the plumber, within 20 business days. If a job is invoiced in stages, each invoice for notifiable work gets its own Form 4. You cannot lodge it yourself, and I cannot lodge one for work another plumber did.

Checking whether a Form 4 was ever lodged

The QBCC's notifiable work register is public. Type in the property address and it shows the Form 4s registered against it. If you had a hot water unit or a bathroom done in the last few years and nothing shows up, either the plumber has not lodged it yet or the work was never registered. You can ask the plumber for their copy, ask the QBCC for a copy, or lodge a complaint with the QBCC if the plumber will not produce one. While you are on the site, the licence search will confirm the plumber actually holds a current plumbing licence.

What to do about past work with no Form 4

This is the situation I get called about most, usually when a house is being sold or a new renovation uncovers old work. Be clear-eyed about what is possible. A Form 4 can only be registered by the licensee who performed or directed the work, so no plumber can honestly lodge one for a stranger's bathroom from eight years ago. What a licensed plumber can do is inspect the work, bring anything non-compliant up to standard, and register a Form 4 for the notifiable work they carry out in doing so. Sometimes that is a small job, sometimes it means opening things up. If the old work was permit work, such as an unapproved sewer connection or treatment plant, the path runs through council instead. Either way, rectification and paperwork cost real money and take time, and it is far easier to sort out before a house is listed than while a buyer is waiting on a settlement date. I quote this on inspection because there is no honest way to price it sight unseen.

Keep the copy

File your Form 4 copy with the house paperwork and photograph it. You will want it if you sell, if you renovate and the next plumber needs to know what was done, and if an insurer ever asks who installed the hot water unit or the pipework that failed. The QBCC register is the backstop if you lose it, but your own copy is faster than going through the regulator.

The grey areas on renovations

Scope creep is where renovations drift from minor work into notifiable work. A like-for-like bathroom refresh is minor work right up until you decide to move the toilet, add a second basin or run a new shower over the bath, at which point pipework changes and it becomes notifiable. My habit on every renovation quote is to say up front which category the scope falls into and to register the Form 4 at completion if it is notifiable. Apartment renovations are the other one to watch. QBCC's guidance is that some apartment work is more complex and may need a council permit rather than a Form 4, so ask before you commit to a scope. Anyone quoting to skip the Form 4 to shave a few dollars is not saving you money, they are leaving the regulatory exposure with you.

Verifying the plumber

The QBCC's online licence register shows a licensee's licence classes, status and expiry. It is a short search and it is worth doing before any notifiable or permit work, because unlicensed work is something the QBCC investigates and a Form 4 from someone who does not hold the licence is worth nothing to you. If someone will not give you their licence number on the quote, that is your answer.

Insurance and the paper trail

Insurers can ask who installed a hot water unit or a section of pipework when an escape-of-water claim is lodged. I am not going to tell you a missing Form 4 will sink a claim, because that depends on the policy and the insurer, but the certificate is the cleanest evidence that licensed work was done and registered, and it costs nothing to keep. Body corporates should keep Form 4s for common-property notifiable work for the same reason.

Selling a house

Buyers and their advisers can search the same public register you can. Whether they do is up to them, but if visible plumbing work has been done since the house was built and nothing is registered, be prepared for the question. The remedy is the same as above: get a licensed plumber to inspect and rectify, or take it to council if the work was permit work, and do it before you list rather than under a contract clock.

Is my job notifiable work? Quick check

Here is the short version of the table above, in the order people usually ask.

• Hot water unit replaced, including like-for-like: notifiable, Form 4
• New bathroom, or moving a toilet, shower or basin in an existing house: notifiable, Form 4
• Testable backflow prevention device installed or replaced: notifiable, Form 4
• Plumbing and drainage for a new house or new building: permit work through council, no Form 4
• Septic or AWTS installed: permit work through council, no Form 4
• Like-for-like tap swap, blocked drain, minor leak repair: minor work, nothing to lodge

If your job is not on that list, or it sits between two of them, run it through the Form 4 checker and it will tell you which pathway applies and what paperwork to expect.

Form 4 fee: what it costs you

The QBCC charges the licensee a fee to register each Form 4, not the homeowner. You do not pay the QBCC anything and there is no separate government invoice for it. We include the registration in the job price, so on a hot water changeover or a bathroom job with us there is no separate charge for the Form 4 at all. If another plumber itemises Form 4 lodgement as a large separate line on a quote, ask what that line covers. The QBCC's registration charge is a small part of the job and it should not be dressed up as a fee for the paperwork itself.

QBCC Form 4 fact sheet and official links

The two documents worth reading are both free from the QBCC. The QBCC notifiable work page explains the three categories of plumbing work, lists the notifiable work categories from the Regulation, and sets out the licensee's obligation to register a Form 4 within 10 business days. The QBCC notifiable work guide for home owners is the plain-English fact sheet written for you rather than for the trade: what notifiable work is, what the plumber must give you, and how to search the register or complain if nothing turns up. The public sector version of the form is Form 4a, which you will only see on government-owned buildings.

Form 4 vs Form 16: which one is which

These two get mixed up because they both turn up in renovation paperwork. Form 4 is the plumbing one: the notifiable work notice a licensed plumber or drainer registers with the QBCC. Form 16 is a building form, the inspection certificate a building certifier or competent person issues for an aspect of building work under the Building Act, things like waterproofing, frame or termite protection. A bathroom renovation can produce both, but from different people, and neither one stands in for the other. There is a fuller breakdown at Form 4 vs Form 16 in Queensland.

Sources: Queensland Building and Construction Commission, What is notifiable work, Categories of notifiable work, Notifiable work guide for licensees (September 2024) and Notifiable work for home owners; Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018 (Qld) sections 66, 69, 82 and 83; Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2019 (Qld) Schedules 1 to 3.