Who may install a garage door in Tasmania
Tasmania's Director's Determination on categories of building work, version 1.4, applying from 12 April 2021, lists installing a roller shutter, roller door or grilled door as low risk work. Item 2.3.4 gives it an unlimited limit, needs no notice to council, and answers yes to whether a competent person can do it.
The Determination's competent person has enough training and experience or knowledge to do the work to the National Construction Code or a particular Standard, and need not hold a builder's licence.
So no licence covers fitting a roller door in Tasmania. The item covers installing the door only, though: making a new opening in a wall for it is not part of 2.3.4.
Repairs, like-for-like parts and bushfire areas
Item 1.0.1 lets an owner, a competent person or a licensed builder replace components like for like for maintenance, windows and doors included, without notifying council.
In bushfire hazard areas there is a catch: the replacement materials must meet the Bushfire Attack Level set for the original construction.
Under the Tasmanian Planning Scheme's Bushfire-Prone Areas Code (C13.0), a bushfire-prone area is land shown on the council's overlay map. Where there is no map, it is land within 100 m of an area of bushfire-prone vegetation of 1 ha or more.
Springs, cables and roller door tension are not owner jobs, whatever the Determination allows. Steel-Line says if a spring breaks, do not attempt the repair, and warns against tensioning a roller door yourself because of the risk of serious injury or death.
Openers and electrical work
Tasmania's Occupational Licensing (Electrical Work) Regulations 2018 make all electrical work prescribed work, which only a licensed person may do. The Determination says the same about low risk building work: any electrical part of it is for a licensed electrician.
Plugging an appliance or extension cord into a socket outlet is one of the few tasks the regulations say is not electrical work. A new power point near the ceiling, or a hard-wired opener, is electrical work.
Once the work is energised, the person responsible must give you a copy of the approved record form as soon as practicable, under regulation 14.
Registers and holding out
Tasmania's Administrator of Occupational Licensing must keep a register of licence holders. Section 49 of the Occupational Licensing Act 2005 requires details such as the holder's preferred name, business name and business premises address to be published on a website run for the Administrator.
Section 38(1) of the same Act makes it an offence to hold yourself or anyone else out as a licensed practitioner or contractor when that is not true.
Tasmanian rules at a glance
| The rule | Who says so | |
|---|---|---|
| Installing a roller door | Low risk work, unlimited value, a competent person can do it | Determination item 2.3.4 |
| Like-for-like door parts | An owner, competent person or licensed builder, no council notice | Determination item 1.0.1 |
| Bushfire hazard areas | Replacement materials meet the original BAL | Determination item 1.0.1 |
| Electrical work | Prescribed work for a licensed person | Electrical Work Regulations 2018 |
| Record of the work | A copy of the approved form once energised | Regulation 14 |
Before the door job starts
- Ask whether the job is a new door in an existing opening or a new opening
- If the opener needs a power point or wiring, get the licensed electrician's details
- In a bushfire-prone area, ask whether the replacement parts meet the home's BAL
- Keep the approved record form with the door's paperwork
What we would do
Ask the door specialist to write on the quote whether the door goes into the existing opening or needs a new one. Only the first is covered by item 2.3.4, so you know straight away whether anything more needs sorting before the job.