The VBA is now the BPC: what Victorian plumbers need to update

Short answer: Victoria’s plumbing regulator is now the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC). It started on 1 July 2025 and replaced the Victorian Building Authority (VBA). If your website, quotes, email signature, Google Business Profile or AI receptionist still tells customers to check you with the VBA, that information is out of date and should be changed to the BPC.

The change is easy to miss because the work itself has not changed. You still hold a registration or licence, you still issue compliance certificates, and your customers still want to know you are properly licensed. What has changed is the name and structure of the regulator they should be pointed to.

What actually changed on 1 July 2025

The Victorian Government brought three bodies together into one regulator for the building system. The BPC took on the functions of:

• the Victorian Building Authority (VBA);
• Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria (DBDRV); and
• the domestic building insurance arm of the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA).

For plumbers, the practical effect is that registration, licensing, compliance certificates and practitioner checks now sit with the BPC. The old VBA pages are still indexed by search engines, so customers and staff can land on them. Always link to the BPC’s current pages instead.

Registration and licence: a quick reminder

Victoria has two levels of accreditation in each class of plumbing work:

• Registration lets you carry out work in a class, but it does not let you sign compliance certificates or supervise apprentices and other plumbers.
• A licence is the higher level. Only a licensed plumber can issue a compliance certificate, and only for work they carried out themselves or supervised.

The BPC explains which level you need for each class of work on its registration and licensing pages. If your website says “fully licensed”, make sure that is true for every class of work you advertise.

Compliance certificates: the rules to keep in front of the team

According to the BPC, a licensed plumber must issue a compliance certificate when the total value of the work, including materials, appliances, labour and GST, is more than $750. The certificate must be issued within five days of completing the work.

The BPC also changed how certificate stock works. Certificates bought on or before 12 August 2025 have no expiry date. Certificates bought from 22 September 2025 expire 12 months after purchase. If you buy certificates in bulk, unused stock now has a use-by date.

These are two dates that are easy to forget in a busy week: the five-day issue window on each job, and the expiry date on each batch of certificates you buy.

Checklist: what to update now

Work through this list once and the VBA reference problem is gone for good.

1. Website. Search every page, including the footer and any “licensed and insured” badges, for “VBA” or “Victorian Building Authority”. Replace with “Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC)” and link to the BPC’s practitioner search so customers can check your details.
2. Quote and invoice templates. Many templates carry a line about the VBA in the terms or the footer. Update the template once, not each quote.
3. Email signatures and business cards. Update the regulator name next to your licence number, and order new cards at your next reprint.
4. Google Business Profile. Check the business description and any posts that mention the VBA.
5. Your AI receptionist and chatbots. If an AI agent answers questions about your licence, update its approved answers so it names the BPC. An AI agent repeating old information is the same problem as an old web page, just harder to spot.
6. Staff scripts. Anyone who answers the phone should know the regulator’s current name.

Turning the dates into reminders

The compliance rules come with deadlines, and deadlines are where a CRM earns its keep.

In LYD Plumber, a Victorian plumbing job over $750 can create a task for the licensed plumber to issue the compliance certificate, with a reminder before the five-day window closes. A custom date field on each batch of purchased certificates can send a reminder before they expire. The CRM keeps the record and does the reminding; the licensed plumber still issues the certificate through the BPC.

The same set-up keeps your website and AI receptionist consistent. When we onboard a Victorian plumbing business, every regulator reference across the site and the AI’s approved answers names the BPC.

What to watch next

Victoria’s building and plumbing reforms are continuing, and the BPC’s guidance is being updated as they roll out. Check the BPC website before relying on any figure, including the ones in this article, and treat this as general information rather than legal advice.

If you want help updating your website, quotes and AI receptionist in one go, you can start a 30-day free trial or book a free demo and we will walk through it with you.