Painters in Central Coast

Because the exemption is narrower than it sounds, and because the licence is not the only protection attached to the work. It applies to stand-alone contracts for internal paintwork only: the moment the painting is part of a larger contract to do residential building work, the Act pulls it back in and the ordinary $5,000 threshold applies to that contract. Exterior painting is never covered by the exemption. And the deposit cap in s 8(1) — 10% of the contract price, with no dollar threshold at all — applies to residential building work regardless. So a painter quoting to repaint the outside of a house is doing licensed work, while the same painter quoting only for the lounge room may not be.

They are two separate categories in the Regulation with different scopes. Painting is defined by the product and the method: applying a clear, resin-based or pigmented liquid that forms a dry, adherent film by brush, roller or spray gun, including textured coatings and the preparation and minor repair of surfaces beforehand. Decorating is defined by what is installed: "painted or applied decorations such as murals, frescos or wallpaper". The practical consequence is that the internal-painting exemption belongs to painting, not to decorating — hanging wallpaper inside a house is residential building work and takes the ordinary threshold, even as a stand-alone job.

For painting inside the lot, no. Under s 109 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 an owner "may carry out cosmetic work to common property in connection with the owner's lot without the approval of the owners corporation", and the statutory list puts painting next to filling minor holes and cracks in internal walls, laying carpet and installing or replacing built-in wardrobes. The limits are in s 109(5): the exemption stops where work involves structural changes, changes the external appearance of the lot, affects safety systems, or involves waterproofing or the building's plumbing or exhaust system. Changing the colour of anything visible from outside is a different question and a different approval path.

Not under the painting category alone. The Regulation is explicit that painting includes "preparation and minor repair (but not renewal or replacement) of surfaces prior to painting" — the words in the brackets are doing the work. Renewing or replacing timber cladding is carpentry-side work in its own category, and once the combined contract passes $5,000 in labour and materials it needs a licence covering that work too. This is worth resolving before the quote is accepted rather than mid-job: ask which categories the contractor's licence carries, and whether the replacement is being subcontracted to someone licensed for it.

Where the work is residential building work, the Home Building Act 1989 sets two years for an ordinary breach and six years for a breach resulting in a major defect, running from completion, and s 18G prevents those warranties being contracted out of. Ordinary paint failure sits in the two-year branch: a major defect requires a defect in a major element — a load-bearing component essential to the building's stability, a fire safety system, or waterproofing — that makes the building uninhabitable, destroys it or threatens collapse. Note the sequencing: because a stand-alone internal painting contract is not residential building work at all, the statutory warranties do not attach to it in the first place.