Nominated Supervisor Requirements for South Australian Building Contractors

What it is

South Australian building work contractor licences under the Building Work Contractors Act 1995 (SA) require at least one nominated supervisor. The nominated supervisor holds an individual building work supervisor licence and is personally responsible for the direction of the work.

Consumer and Business Services (CBS) administers the licensing framework and the nominated supervisor requirement.

The nominated supervisor role

A nominated supervisor holds an individual building work supervisor licence in a class matching or covering the contractor's licence class. The supervisor certifies personal responsibility for the technical direction of the work and for compliance with the BWCA and general building law.

CBS issues supervisor licences on similar qualification and experience criteria to contractor licences but focused on individual technical competence rather than business capacity.

Company or partnership contractor licences

Where the contractor licence is held by a company or partnership, at least one director or partner must hold or be linked to an individual supervisor licence. The supervisor is the natural person responsible for the work.

The BWCA business-of-contracting focus means the contractor licence attaches to the business entity while the supervisor licence attaches to the individual doing the technical direction. Both must be current for the licence framework to remain intact.

Change notification within 28 days

Section 20 of the BWCA and CBS guidance require notification of any change in the nominated supervisor within 28 days. That is longer than NSW (7 days) and QLD (14 days) but reflects the SA business-of-contracting approach where the day-to-day work is less directly tied to a specific project supervisor.

If no replacement supervisor is nominated within the notification period, CBS can:

• impose conditions requiring a replacement
• suspend the contractor licence pending replacement
• cancel the licence for repeated or aggravated non-compliance

Sole trader contractor licences

For a sole trader contractor licence, the individual is both the licensee and the nominated supervisor. The individual must hold the appropriate supervisor licence class for the work.

Restricted supervisor licences

CBS issues restricted supervisor licences for specialist trades (roof plumbing, roof tiling, waterproofing). A contractor operating in a restricted class must have a nominated supervisor with the matching restricted licence.

Consequences of unsupervised work

Building work carried out by a contractor without a nominated supervisor exposes the contractor to:

• offence proceedings under section 5 of the BWCA
• licence conditions, suspension or cancellation
• section 42 anti-avoidance implications for any related contract provisions

Owners contracting with a SA company builder should verify the nominated supervisor's individual licence through the CBS licence search before signing.

How South Australia compares

SA's nominated supervisor framework aligns with NSW section 25 HBA, QLD Schedule 1A and WA Building Services (Registration) Act frameworks. The distinctive SA feature is the 28-day change notification period, which is the longest in Australia.

The BWCA business-of-contracting approach means the supervisor licence is separate from any specific project rather than being tied to it. That creates flexibility for supervisors to move between projects but requires clear documentation of who is supervising what work at any time.