Handyman Services near you

The safe list is broad, and most household to-do lists sit entirely inside it. The work below is generally unlicensed maintenance and repair, provided the total value of the job stays under your state's threshold and none of it touches wiring, gas or the plumbing that your state reserves to licensed trades.

Each state and territory sets its own figure, in labour and materials including GST, above which building or trade work must be done by a licensed contractor. In New South Wales you must hold a contractor licence to carry out, advertise or contract for building or trade work valued above the state's threshold, and the requirement also applies to subcontracting that forms part of a larger contract. Queensland works the same way through the QBCC, with its own — different — threshold for building work.

The figures differ between states and are changed from time to time, so the number itself is the one thing not worth memorising. What matters is the structure: below the threshold, a competent unlicensed handyman may do general building work; above it, the work must go to a licensed contractor, and in most states a written contract and statutory warranties come with it. Splitting one large job into several small invoices to stay under a threshold does not make it lawful.

Check the current position with your own regulator before a job grows: NSW Fair Trading and Building Commission NSW in New South Wales, the QBCC in Queensland, and the Victorian Building Authority in Victoria each publish what requires a licence and let you check a licence online.

This is the exception that catches people out, because it does not scale with the size or cost of the job. In New South Wales you need an electrical licence or certificate before you can do any electrical wiring work, regardless of the cost of the work and regardless of whether it is residential, commercial or industrial. Electrical wiring work there means the physical work of installing, repairing, altering, removing or adding to an electrical installation, or supervising that work.

Energy Safe Victoria says the same thing in plainer language: doing unqualified electrical work is not only extremely dangerous, it is also illegal, and the regulator specifically warns against small jobs such as changing power points or light switches. There is no homeowner exemption of the kind that exists in some other countries. Replacing a powerpoint, moving a light switch, hardwiring a smoke alarm, running a new circuit for an air conditioner or connecting a fixed appliance are all electrical work, and all require a licensed electrician.

A licensed electrician also leaves a paper trail you benefit from. In NSW, electricians must submit a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work to Building Commission NSW showing the work was tested and complies. If a fire or a shock ever follows, that certificate is the evidence that the work was done lawfully — and its absence is the first thing an insurer will notice.

Gas work sits in the same category as electrical work. New South Wales tells homeowners to always use a licensed gasfitter for any repair or renovation involving gas, including any relocating or replacement of gas appliances, and the gasfitter must give you a certificate of compliance or inspection confirming the work meets the relevant standards. Energy Safe Victoria requires the same compliance certificate after gas appliance work. Disconnecting a gas cooktop so a benchtop can be replaced is gasfitting, not handyman work.

Plumbing is licensed by value in some states and by activity in others. Queensland's QBCC requires a licence for plumbing or drainage and for gas fitting at any value, alongside categories such as fire protection and chemical termite management. Elsewhere, minor maintenance such as changing a tap washer may fall outside the licensing rules while anything connecting to or altering the water or drainage system does not. Ask your handyman which category your job falls into, and ask your state regulator if the answer is vague.

Every state licensing regulator publishes an online licence check, and it takes about a minute. Ask for the licence number and the name it is held in, then confirm three things: that the licence is current, that its class covers the work you are asking for, and that the name matches the business that will invoice you. A licence in a different name, or one that covers a different class of work, is the same as no licence for your job.

Be wary of the phrase supervised by a licensed builder when nobody licensed is on site. When licensed work is done, keep the compliance certificate — the Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work, or the gas compliance certificate — with your house records. It is what proves the work was lawful when you sell, and it is what an insurer asks for after a claim.

Asbestos was used in Australian housing for decades, and NSW's asbestos safety guidance estimates that one in three houses in New South Wales built or renovated between 1945 and 1990 contain it. It turns up in cement sheeting, eaves, corrugated roofing, wet-area walls, flue systems, fencing and floor underlay — precisely the surfaces a handyman drills into to hang a cabinet or mount a television.

The warning is specific: maintenance or even drilling to hang a picture can expose asbestos. The material is generally safe while it is bonded and undisturbed, and dangerous once it is drilled, cut, sanded or broken. If your home is from that era and the job involves cutting or drilling into sheeting, have the material identified by a licensed asbestos assessor first. Removal is strongly recommended to be left to a licensed asbestos removalist, and friable material must be. No handyman job is worth guessing on.

Some small jobs have dates attached. Queensland requires all existing private homes, townhouses and units to have interconnected photoelectric smoke alarms — when one sounds, they all sound — by 1 January 2027, with alarms complying with Australian Standard 3786-2014. Battery-only interconnected alarms can be installed without a trade, but hardwired alarms are electrical work and need a licensed electrician, and demand rises sharply as a deadline approaches. Other states set their own smoke alarm rules, so check your own before you buy anything.

The rest of the handyman calendar follows the weather rather than the northern one. Gutters, downpipes, loose roof sheets, gates and outdoor fixings are best dealt with in the cooler months from about May to August, ahead of the storm season that runs through spring and summer in the south east and the November to April wet season in the north. Flyscreen and security-screen repairs book out as the weather warms and windows start opening.