Short answer
Check the licence first — handymen need a licence for some work and not other work. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 508 Australian handymen in this directory, only 27.8% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 5.3% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Handymen handle small repairs, hanging and mounting, assembly, patching, gutter clearing and the jobs too small for a trade. This is what to check before you let one into your house, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
Handymen are licensed for some work and not others
Handyman work is unlicensed up to the dollar threshold each state sets for building work — but the moment a job touches plumbing, gas or electrical wiring, it is licensed work no matter how small, and a handyman who offers it is offering to break the law in your house. The useful handyman knows exactly where that line is.
There is no handyman licence. Check the ABN and the insurance certificate, and if any part of the job needs a plumber or electrician, that person's licence is on the state register.
What 508 Australian handymen actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For handymen:
| What we checked | Handymen | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 27.8% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 67.8% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 5.3% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 81% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 72.4% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 21 | 39 |
What goes wrong with handymen
- Plumbing, gas or electrical work offered by someone with no licence for it
- No public liability insurance, so damage to your property is your problem
- Hourly rates with no estimate of hours
What to ask before the work starts
- Which jobs will you not do because they need a licensed trade?
- Do you hold public liability insurance, and can I see the certificate?
- What is your estimate for this list of jobs, not just the hourly rate?
A handyman who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median handyman in this directory has 21 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the handymen are
Melbourne (51), Sydney (43), Brisbane (33), Adelaide (25), Perth (21). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best handyman in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do handymen need a licence in Australia?
- Sometimes. Handyman work is unlicensed up to the dollar threshold each state sets for building work — but the moment a job touches plumbing, gas or electrical wiring, it is licensed work no matter how small, and a handyman who offers it is offering to break the law in your house. The useful handyman knows exactly where that line is.
- How do I check a handyman's licence?
- There is no handyman licence. Check the ABN and the insurance certificate, and if any part of the job needs a plumber or electrician, that person's licence is on the state register.
- What percentage of Australian handymen have a verifiable ABN?
- 27.8% of the 508 handymen in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a handyman have?
- The median handyman here has 21. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare handymen near you
508 handymen, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
Read next
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- When a tradie's phone number doesn't match their own website10,300 Australian trade businesses list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website. Sometimes it is a …