Your QBCC nominee supervisor hands in their notice on a Friday afternoon. By Monday you have four jobs running and a company licence hanging by a thread. If that makes your stomach drop, you are not being dramatic. Losing a nominee is one of the fastest ways a perfectly good Queensland building company goes from compliant to suspended, and most directors do not realise the clock has already started.
The part that really catches people out is that this is not only about losing your nominee. The QBCC also assesses whether the nominee you already have can genuinely supervise your work. If your nominee is casual, lives a long way from your sites, or is already nominated elsewhere, you may be sitting on a problem right now without a single letter arriving.
What a QBCC nominee supervisor actually is (and why it is not a formality)
Under the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991, a company cannot carry out building work unless it has appointed a nominee holding a contractor’s licence or a nominee supervisor’s licence in the same class as the company licence. The nominee is the licensed human being standing behind the corporate entity. Strip that person out and the company licence has nothing holding it up.
A common misunderstanding is that any licensed person on the payroll will do. They will not. The QBCC is explicit that a company must have a nominee holding the same licence class as the company, and may need multiple nominees to cover every class it holds. Personal supervision on site can also come from an officer or employee holding a nominee supervisor licence, a site supervisor licence, a fire protection or mechanical services licence, or an occupational licence. That supervision layer sits alongside the nominee requirement. It does not replace it.
The 28-day cliff, and the 14-day deadline nobody tells you about
There are two separate clocks running the moment a nominee resigns, loses their own licence, or stops being an employee, secretary or director of your company. Confusing them is where directors get burnt.
- 14 days to notify the QBCC. When your nominee ceases to meet the requirements, you must notify the QBCC of the change within 14 days. This is an administrative obligation, and it is the one most companies quietly blow through while they are busy trying to find a replacement.
- 28 days before it becomes an offence. A licensee does not commit an offence if the period without a nominee is less than 28 days. Go past that and you are exposed. The QBCC may also suspend or cancel a company licence where the company ceases, for a period exceeding 28 days, to have a nominee holding a licence authorising supervision of the appropriate class.
The maximum penalty for performing building work without a properly appointed nominee runs to 350 penalty units. At the Queensland penalty unit value of $172.70 applying from 1 July 2026, that is exposure north of $60,000. The practical damage is usually worse: a suspended licence stops you contracting, stops progress claims, and turns a staffing problem into a cash-flow crisis inside a month.
Three red flags that make QBCC treat your nominee as high risk
Even when you have a nominee in place, the QBCC assesses whether the arrangement is real or a paper exercise. Where a nominee is deemed high risk, the commission can request additional information before it is satisfied the company can personally supervise its work. The published triggers are specific:
- Employment status. Has a nominee supervisor been employed casually to supervise full-time work? A casual arrangement propping up a full-time workload invites scrutiny.
- Travelling distance. Does the nominee live more than 300km from the work they are supervising? Distance makes genuine site attendance hard to demonstrate.
- Other commitments. Is the nominee already a nominee supervisor for two or more other construction-related legal entities? Spread too thin and the arrangement looks like a licence rental, not supervision.
None of these are automatic disqualifiers. They are prompts for the QBCC to ask harder questions. What answers those questions is a documented system of supervision showing how the nominee actually attends, inspects, and signs off work despite the flag.
“The companies that come unstuck are rarely the ones doing bad work. They are the ones who treated the nominee appointment as a box tick and had nothing on paper when the QBCC asked how supervision actually happens.”
Karen Zhang — QBCC Express Founder
If you are reading this with a knot in your stomach because your nominee just resigned, or because you recognised your own arrangement in that list of red flags, that reaction is the right one and it is fixable. The window is short but it is not closed. Book a strategy session with QBCC Express and we will map exactly where your company sits against the 14-day and 28-day obligations, and what needs to land on the QBCC’s desk first.
“Adequate supervision” is defined, and you can be measured against it
Section 43A of the QBCC Act sets out what counts as adequate supervision, and it is more detailed than most contractors expect. It looks at whether you have a system of supervision and how it is implemented, whether work matches the contract plans and specifications, whether it meets the standard expected of a competent licence holder of that class, whether the level of control and oversight suits the size and complexity of the job, whether inspections are sufficient in number, timing and quality, and whether work is checked on completion before final payment.
Read that as a checklist rather than legislation. Every line can be evidenced with a documented inspection schedule, dated site records, and a sign-off process before final payment. Companies without that system are one defect complaint away from a much bigger conversation.
What to do the day your nominee tells you they are leaving
- Write down the date. Both clocks run from the day the nominee ceases to qualify, not the day you get around to dealing with it.
- Check every licence class you hold. If the departing nominee covered two classes, you may need two replacements.
- Lodge the outgoing and incoming nominee forms. The QBCC has separate forms for each. Both need to be dealt with, not just the incoming one.
- Stress-test the replacement against the red flags. Casual, distant, or already nominated elsewhere? Prepare your supervision documentation before you lodge, not after the QBCC asks.
- Do not keep contracting on autopilot. Performing building work while non-compliant is the exposure that converts an admin headache into a penalty.
A nominee gap is one of the few QBCC problems with a hard, published deadline attached, which makes it one of the few you can fully control if you move early. Twenty-eight days sounds generous until you try to find a suitably licensed person, agree terms and push the paperwork through mid-programme. Do not let a resignation letter become a suspension notice. Book your strategy session with QBCC Express today and get your nominee position sorted while you still have runway.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long can a company operate without a QBCC nominee supervisor?
A licensee does not commit an offence if the period without a nominee is less than 28 days. Beyond 28 days, the QBCC may suspend or cancel the company licence. Separately, you must notify the QBCC of the nominee change within 14 days, so the practical deadline is much tighter than 28 days.
Can one person be the nominee supervisor for several companies?
Yes, but it attracts scrutiny. The QBCC specifically considers whether a nominee is already a nominee supervisor for two or more other construction-related legal entities when assessing whether a company has suitable supervision in place. If that applies to your nominee, expect to be asked for evidence of how supervision genuinely works across all those entities.
Does a site supervisor licence let my company skip having a nominee?
No. A site supervisor licence holder can provide personal supervision of building work as an officer or employee, but a company still must have a nominee holding a contractor’s or nominee supervisor’s licence in the same class as the company licence. The two requirements sit alongside each other.
What happens if my nominee holds a different licence class to my company?
The QBCC requires the nominee to hold the same licence class as the company. If your company holds multiple classes, you may need multiple nominees to achieve compliance across all of them. A mismatch can leave part of your scope of work effectively unsupervised in the QBCC’s eyes.
How much can it cost if my company works without a valid nominee?
The maximum penalty runs to 350 penalty units. With the Queensland penalty unit value at $172.70 from 1 July 2026, that is a maximum exposure above $60,000. The bigger commercial risk is usually licence suspension or cancellation, which halts contracting and cash flow entirely.
