Risk

Certificate of Currency: the half-day register that caps your liability

Anna Marie Saplad · Field notes for QLD builders

In 2024–25, unlicensed contracting was the #1 offence investigated by the QBCC — 864 cases, 46% of all investigations. Insurance-related non-compliance was #3. Expired Certificates of Currency on site aren't a one-off oversight; they're a state-wide pattern. And one uninsured incident on your site is an uncapped liability — there's no insurance excess big enough to describe it.

The uncomfortable maths

Most builders collect certificates at engagement and never look at them again. Policies renew annually — which means every sub on your books has one day a year where their certificate quietly stops being current. With ten subs across three jobs, that's a rolling gamble you didn't know you were taking.

The half-day register

1. List every active sub — one row each: company, trade, contact, insurer, policy number, expiry date.
2. Collect the current certificate for each. This is the slow part, once. Chasing ten certificates takes a morning of emails.
3. Set three reminders per sub: 30 days, 14 days and 7 days before expiry. At 7 days, the rule kicks in: no current certificate = no site access.

Why the 30/14/7 cadence works

Thirty days gives the sub's broker time to be slow. Fourteen days is the polite-but-firm follow-up. Seven days is the conversation that starts with "mate, I can't let you on site next Tuesday" — which, it turns out, gets certificates emailed back within the hour.

Then stop doing it by hand

The register takes half a day to build. Keeping it current takes forever — unless the chasing runs itself. My version watches the expiry dates, sends the 30/14/7 requests to the sub automatically, and only taps you on the shoulder when someone's about to hit the no-access line.