Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Tradesperson in NZ

Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Tradesperson in NZ

Most people hire a tradesperson the same way they pick a restaurant: they ask around, get a price, and hope. That works often enough that nobody prepares for the time it doesn't — and in New Zealand the thing that decides whether you're protected isn't the price or the personality. It's whether you gave the tradesperson the chance to fix the problem before you did anything else.

That sounds counter-intuitive. When a job has gone wrong, the instinct is to get it sorted fast, often by someone else. But under the Consumer Guarantees Act, if you get a minor fault fixed elsewhere without first asking the original tradesperson to remedy it, you have lost your right to a remedy. The supplier doesn't have to pay that repair bill, and doesn't have to refund you.

Everything else in this guide sits around that one rule: the questions that stop you needing it, and the process that protects you if you do.

How We Researched This Guide

We built this from the primary sources rather than from other people's summaries. The consumer rights section comes from the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986, set out in full on legislation.govt.nz, plus Consumer Protection's plain-English guidance on the remedy path. The register-checking detail comes from the Licensed Building Practitioners register, the electrical workers register and the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board.

Two things surprised us. The first is how narrow the Consumer Guarantees Act remedy path is if you get the order of events wrong — the "give them a chance first" rule catches out people who are simply trying to solve a problem quickly. The second is the Disputes Tribunal limit, which rose from $30,000 to $60,000 on 24 January 2026. A lot of older advice still says $30,000, and it's out of date.

ValueHub's Trusted Providers

We've researched the providers below — here are our picks for this category.

The Quick Summary (60-Second Version)

If you read nothing else, read these six.

• Ask for the licence or registration number, not the word "licensed" — and check it on the public register yourself.
• Confirm the licence class covers your job. A licensed practitioner in the wrong class is effectively unlicensed for that work.
• Get a written quote, not an estimate, and confirm whether the price includes GST before comparing it with anything else.
• Ask what's excluded — disposal, scaffolding, materials, permits. That's where the cheapest quote hides its cost.
• If something goes wrong, put your request for a fix in writing and let them remedy it before you do anything else.
• If it isn't fixed, the Disputes Tribunal handles claims up to $60,000, and you don't need a lawyer.

Check the Licence, Then Check the Class

New Zealand runs separate public registers for each licensed trade, and checking one is free and takes minutes. For building work, some jobs on a home must be done by a Licensed Building Practitioner — this is called Restricted Building Work. Ask to see the current licence ID, which carries a QR code you can scan, or search the register directly.

The register shows whether someone is licensed, their licence class, their area of practice, their licence history, and whether they've been disciplined in the last three years. That last field is the one people don't think to look at.

The class point that catches people out

Being licensed isn't enough. The LBP you hire must be registered in the correct class for the work. The same logic applies to electrical workers and to plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers, whose register shows registration and licence history, any conditions on the licence, and any disciplinary decisions issued by the Board.

So the question isn't "are you licensed". It's "what class or endorsement do you hold, and does it cover this specific job". Three questions cover any licensed trade: ask for the number, check it on the register, and confirm the class covers the work.

Where there's no licence scheme

Plenty of trades have no licensing regime at all. That doesn't mean there's no way to check anyone. The substitutes are a professional body membership that requires a qualification, a company registration number, evidence of insurance, references from recent local jobs, and a written contract. Those do most of the work a register would.

Quotes, Contracts and the GST Trap

A quote is a fixed price for defined work. An estimate is an approximation and can legitimately be exceeded. That difference is one of the most common sources of dispute, and a written quote is the single best protection available on a trade job.

A good quote identifies the scope of work in enough detail that you can see what is and isn't included. It states whether the price is fixed or an estimate, what's excluded, who supplies materials, the timeframe and start date, the payment schedule, whether GST is included, what happens if extra work is discovered, and the warranty on workmanship.

The GST trap

A quote may be written including or excluding GST, and comparing two quotes on different bases is how people end up paying more than they expected. A 15 per cent difference can be entirely an accounting difference rather than a price difference. Confirm the basis on both before you compare anything.

Variations and deposits

Extra work found after starting — rot behind a wall, non-compliant wiring, an unseen leak — is the most common way a job costs more than quoted. Agree a written variation process in advance that requires your sign-off before extra work proceeds. A deposit request is normal for materials, but a large deposit should be tied to a written contract with defined milestones. Never pay a large sum upfront to someone with no verifiable credentials, no contract and no address.

Insurance, Warranties and What Happens When It Goes Wrong

Tradespeople should carry liability insurance, and asking for evidence before work starts is normal and reasonable. A refusal to provide it is a genuine warning sign rather than an administrative inconvenience. Ask what insurance they hold and whether you can see evidence of it.

On warranties, there's a point worth understanding. A workmanship warranty is a contractual promise and sits on top of your Consumer Guarantees Act rights, not instead of them. A trader cannot contract out of the Act's guarantees for consumer work, so a short warranty promise doesn't limit your statutory rights where a failure is substantial.

The remedy path, in order

Under the Consumer Guarantees Act, services must be carried out with reasonable care and skill, fit for any purpose you made known, charged at a reasonable price if the price wasn't set beforehand, and completed within a reasonable time if no timeframe was set. That applies regardless of what the contract says and regardless of whether the tradesperson tried hard.

If the failure can be fixed, you must require the supplier to remedy it within a reasonable time. If they refuse, neglect it, or don't succeed, you can have it remedied elsewhere and recover the reasonable costs, or cancel the contract. If it can't be fixed, or the failure is substantial, you can cancel and get a refund, or claim damages for any reduction in value. You can also claim for consequential loss — damage the work caused to other property.

The trap is doing this out of order. Give them the chance to fix it first, and put the request in writing.

Where a dispute ends up

Questions You Might Have

Do I really need three quotes?

Multiple quotes are about comparing scope as much as price. Two quotes for the same price aren't comparable if one excludes materials, disposal or GST. Comparing on price alone is how people end up paying more than they budgeted for.

What if the tradesperson won't put anything in writing?

Treat it as a reason not to proceed. Refusal to provide a written quote, unwillingness to put anything in writing, and pressure to pay a large deposit immediately are all recognised warning signs. There are plenty of tradespeople who will happily give you a written quote.

Can I stop the work if it's going badly?

You can cancel in three situations: there's a serious problem with the service, the problem can't be repaired, or you asked them to fix it and it wasn't done within a reasonable time. Cancellation must be notified in writing or by any reasonable means — a letter or email is enough.

What if the work damages something else?

If the work causes damage to your belongings or property, the trader must pay for that damage or the other losses caused. That's the consequential loss right, and it sits alongside your other remedies rather than replacing them.

Do I still have to pay if the job is partly done?

Possibly. If the service has already been provided and is still of some value, you may only be entitled to a partial refund, or you may still need to pay for part of the work. The Act isn't an automatic free-job button, which is why the order of events matters so much.

What Matters Most

The tradespeople who cause the most trouble are rarely the ones who were obviously dodgy at the start. They're the ones who seemed fine, quoted reasonably, and then did work that didn't meet the standard. That's why the credential checks and the written quote matter more than the gut feeling — they're the things you can point to afterwards.

But the single most valuable thing in this guide is the sequence. If something goes wrong, put your request for a fix in writing and let the original tradesperson remedy it before you do anything else. That one step preserves every other right you have.

Get the licence number and check it. Get the quote in writing and check the GST basis. Then, if it comes to it, follow the order.