Licensed, Master, Certified: what the badges actually mean

I get asked about this constantly, usually as "are you a master builder?" So, the rundown.

A Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) is licensed by the government, under a scheme run by MBIE, the ministry that regulates building work. You hold it personally. Behind it sit a public register, a photo ID card, ongoing skills requirements and a disciplinary board.

The law matters here because of something called restricted building work. Since 2012, the critical parts of a residential build must be carried out or supervised by an LBP: the primary structure, and everything that keeps the weather out. That covers building a new house and any structural or weathertightness work on an existing one. The council is told which licensed practitioners are doing that work: their names go on the consent application, and if one joins or leaves partway through the job, the council is told that too. Then, as each LBP finishes their part, they sign a record of work saying what they carried out or supervised, and the council needs those records before it signs the house off. On paper that's the homeowner's job; in practice your builder usually handles it. Either way, you're entitled to know the names.

Here's a current one that catches people out. Since January 2026 you can build a granny flat, a small standalone dwelling of up to 70 square metres, without a building consent. No consent doesn't mean no licence. Some of that work is still restricted building work, so it still has to be carried out or supervised by an LBP.

Licences come in classes: carpentry, roofing, bricklaying and blocklaying, external plastering, foundations, site and design. The class tells you what work that person has been assessed as competent to carry out or supervise. I hold a carpentry licence. That class is wider than the name suggests: it runs from setting out and concrete or pile foundations, through the framing and structure, to the cladding, exterior joinery and flashings that keep the weather out, and lightweight metal roofing. The classes overlap on purpose, and a licensed carpenter takes on the work in their class that they're competent to do. Tile and membrane roofing, brick and block, and exterior plastering are separate classes.

"Master builder" is the label most people assume sits at the top of the tree. What it is: membership of the Registered Master Builders Association, a private industry body that a building business applies to join and pays, every year, to belong to.

To be fair about it, joining isn't automatic. The association says it assesses applications in stages: supporting documents, workmanship inspections, and a look at the company's financial health. Membership also gives a company access to the Master Build 10-year guarantee, which some clients value. If a company offers it, ask what it actually covers.

But this is the part almost nobody outside the industry knows. Read the association's own published criteria for a residential building company and you won't find a requirement for the person who owns that business to hold a trade qualification or an LBP licence. The membership belongs to the company. The person whose name sits behind a "master builder" badge may never have built anything — the actual building is done by the licensed people they employ. That's not a rule being broken. That's how the membership is designed.

So the badge tells you the company belongs to an association. It doesn't tell you who will build your house, or what they personally hold. Those are the questions to ask.

New Zealand Certified Builders is the other big association, and its front door is different. Membership belongs to the business, and to get it, at least one of the business's directors has to hold a recognised trade qualification in carpentry, the certificate you earn by doing the apprenticeship. So behind a certified builders badge there's at least one person who's done the time and passed the qualification. That's a more direct link to a trade-qualified person than the master builder model has. Members also get access to their own guarantee product.

Still a paid membership, still a private body. And the badge answers only the first of two questions. It tells you what the person at the top holds. It doesn't tell you who's actually on your site, or who's responsible for the restricted building work on your house. That can still be employees or contractors, and not all of them have to be qualified or licensed, so long as a Licensed Building Practitioner carries out or supervises the restricted work. The same is true of any company, whichever badge is on the ute.

We're not a member of either association, by choice. I'm a Licensed Building Practitioner in Carpentry with twenty-plus years on the tools. For the business side, insurance and advice, we use the Building Hub — an industry service that sits outside both associations.

That's not a knock on anyone's membership. It's what I'd tell a mate: the badge is where the questions start.

• Who, by name, will carry out or supervise the restricted building work on my job, and what licence class do they hold? This is the question the law itself cares about, and each of those people owes you a signed record of work when their part is done.
• Who in the company actually holds the qualification, and who'll be running my job? Then the pair that matters most: who is carrying out the restricted building work, and who is taking responsibility for it. A badge held by a company answers none of those on its own.
• If a guarantee matters to you, get the specifics — what it covers, what it excludes, and what it costs. A guarantee is a product, not a promise of workmanship. It's protection if something goes wrong; it does nothing to make things go right. The strongest protection you can have is competent people doing the work properly, with enough authority on the job to insist it's done properly. That's what stops the failure. The guarantee sits behind it for the day it doesn't.
• Ask who you'll be dealing with once the build starts.