How to get an owner builder permit in Queensland

Who can apply

An owner builder permit lets you carry out or coordinate residential building work worth more than $11,000 on land you have a legal interest in, without a QBCC contractor licence. You must be one of the following, and in most cases QBCC will issue you only one permit every six years:

• A person listed on the property title.
• A director of the company that owns the land.
• A lessee of the land, with the registered owner’s written consent to the work.

The seven steps to a permit

QBCC’s process runs in this order. Some documents are only accepted within set time limits, and the fee is paid at lodgement.

• 1. Confirm you need a permit and are eligible: the work is worth more than $11,000 and you hold one of the interests in the land listed above.
• 2. Estimate the value of the work at trade prices, including GST, as if a licensed contractor were doing all of it, even if you will do the labour yourself.
• 3. Complete the approved owner builder course, or confirm you hold an exemption. QBCC accepts a certificate issued within the last five years. Current QBCC licensees, interstate builder or trade licensees and some qualified professionals are exempt; building experience on its own is not.
• 4. Gather your documents: a title search no more than 30 days old, your course certificate, photo ID, a company extract if a company owns the land, and the lease plus the owner’s letter of consent if you are a lessee.
• 5. Describe the work: what you intend to build or renovate, the address and the estimated value.
• 6. Have every person on the title sign the application, even though only one of them needs to have completed the course.
• 7. Lodge the application and pay the $493.59 fee online through myQBCC.

Fees, timing and what you cannot do yet

The application fee is $493.59 under QBCC’s fee schedule published 1 July 2025. A replacement permit costs $35.18 and there is no fee to amend an existing permit.

QBCC says the average processing time is within 30 working days, roughly six calendar weeks. Applications with missing documents take longer, so check the title search date and the signatures before you lodge.

You cannot begin any work on the site, including excavation, until the permit has been issued. Building over the threshold without a permit is an offence under the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991.

After the permit is issued

You must use licensed contractors for plumbing, drainage, gasfitting, termite management and electrical work, and keep written agreements and receipts for each. You are responsible for the site and for the safety of everyone on it.

Owner builder work is not covered by the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme. If you sell within six years of finishing, you must give the buyer a written notice describing the work, naming you as the permit holder and carrying the prescribed warning that the work is not covered by insurance under the QBCC Act. Without it, the law treats you as having warranted the work.