Form 19 certifies that permit work is compliant, operational and fit for use. It can cover all work under a permit, or one distinct completed part of it. Business Queensland says the local government or public sector entity issues the certificate, not the plumber, so this is paperwork you prepare on the authority's behalf rather than a completion note of your own.
This is the current Queensland Form 19. Tradie Forms follows the official section order and maps your answers onto the official PDF layout.
Certifying final inspection of building work rather than plumbing and drainage? Use QLD Form 21
Identifies the land the certificate covers. This has to match the permit, not the job. The form is used for the purposes of section 81 of the Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2019, and the land description must identify all land the certificate covers.
Street AddressAddressRequired
The address on the permit. Address search is limited to Queensland and fills the street line, suburb, state and postcode. Check the result against the permit, because search returns the current postal address and a permit can predate a street renaming or a subdivision.
Lot and PlanTextOptional
The legal land description. It is on the permit, the title documents, or the property's rates notice, which is usually the quickest source if the owner is on site. On new estates the street address may not exist in any council system yet, so lot and plan is the only reliable identifier. Fill it whenever the permit carries it.
Useful
Lot 14 on SP 285301
Too vague
Lot 14, new estate
Local Government AreaTextOptional
The council area. Address search may fill this. Confirm it near a boundary, because the LGA determines which authority the certificate belongs to.
Shop / Tenancy NumberTextOptional
Fill this on multi-tenancy sites. Without it, a part-work certificate cannot be tied to the part it covers.
Storey / LevelTextOptional
Fill this on anything above one storey, for the same reason.
Links the certificate to the permit the work was done under.
Permit NumberTextRequired
From the current permit document. Do not take it from an invoice, a quote or an old job record, because those often carry a superseded number after an amendment. If you are on site without the permit, the permit holder or the council's plumbing team can confirm it.
Date IssuedDateOptional
The date on that same permit. Fill it in: it is how the authority confirms you certified against the current permit rather than a replaced one.
If the permit was amended during the job, confirm which permit record the authority used for the inspection. Certifying against a superseded permit is the most common reason a Form 19 gets sent back.
Sets the scope of what is being certified. This is the section that carries the most risk on the form.
Certificate ScopeChoiceOptional
Starts on all work under the permit, so leaving this alone certifies the whole permit. Switch it to part of the work whenever any permitted work remains outstanding, even if the remaining item is minor. Nothing stops the download either way, which is why this is the easiest field on the form to get wrong.
Description of Work Covered by the CertificateTextRequired when you select part of the work
Describes the completed part. Name the townhouse, stage, floor, tenancy or system clearly enough that an owner understands what is covered without opening the permit file. Include the work types, not just the location.
Useful
Townhouse 3 sanitary drainage, water service and fixtures
Too vague
Stage 1
A whole-permit certificate issued for part-complete work is the costliest mistake on this form. It tells the owner, and any future buyer, that everything under the permit is done.
The form also notes that a local government or public entity may, in certain circumstances, accept verification from the responsible person that work it did not inspect complies with the relevant standards. Whether that applies is the authority's decision, not yours. Ask them before assuming uninspected work is covered.
Final inspection requests tend to arrive on the day the builder wants to hand over, with the owner moving in and one or two small items outstanding. Small outstanding items are still outstanding.
Name precisely what is incomplete, agree a re-inspection, and say so on the day rather than in paperwork a week later. A builder can usually work around a short delay while there is still time to fix the item; what they cannot work around is finding out after the handover is booked. If the item is genuinely trivial and does not affect what is being certified, that is a judgement call for whoever signs. The test worth applying is whether you would be comfortable explaining the decision to someone reading the certificate in two years, without you there to add context.
Records who certified the work and when. All four values come from the authority, not from your own job dates.
Date the Inspection Was Carried OutDateRequired
The date the authority's inspection actually happened. Today and Yesterday shortcuts are there because this is usually filled on site or the next morning. No date field on this form accepts a future date, so a certificate cannot be prepared ahead of the inspection.
Date IssuedDateRequired
The date the certificate is issued. A different event from the inspection, often days later. Two identical dates here are usually a copy error rather than a same-day issue.
Issued ByTextRequired
The local government or public sector entity name, written as the entity rather than the individual officer. Use Brisbane City Council, not the inspector's name.
Certificate NumberTextOptional
Only when the authority allocated one. Leave it blank rather than inventing a job reference, because a number here reads as the authority's own.
Save this section as Issuing Authority to prefill it on your next certificate for the same council.
This section carries the form's own certification wording: that the authority has decided to issue a final inspection certificate, and that the work is compliant, operational and fit for use.
Invoices are raised early and often carry a permit number that was later amended. Take it from the current permit document.
Certifying all work when a fixture is outstanding.
If anything under the permit is incomplete, it is a part-work certificate. The convenience of a single certificate is not worth misrepresenting completion.
Describing part-work by stage number alone.
Stage 1 means nothing to an owner or a future buyer reading the certificate without the permit file. Name the location and the work types.
Using the inspection date for both dates.
The inspection and the issue are separate events, usually days apart on the authority's record.
Putting the inspector's name in Issued by.
The certificate is issued by the entity. Individual officers move on; the entity is what the record needs to show.
Leaving site without the authority's inspection record.
It is the source for four of the five required fields, and it is not something you can reconstruct from memory. Photograph it before you go.
Picking whichever date looks most likely.
When the inspection note, the permit record and your draft do not line up, do not choose between them. Find the source record, clarify it with the issuing authority or job lead, and save the answer with the file. A quiet correction now beats an explanation after copies have gone out.
Business Queensland guidance says copies are issued to the permit holder and the owner. Send it to both rather than assuming one will pass it on.
Name the file so the scope is obvious. A part-work certificate saved as Form 19 - 42 Bank St.pdf will eventually be read as whole-permit completion. Use Form 19 - 42 Bank St - TH3 part work.pdf.
File it with the permit and any amendments. The certificate alone does not show what was permitted. The set is what answers a question two years later.
Keep the inspection trail with it. A final certificate does not replace the records made during the job. Keep the inspection booking, site notes, any Form 3 or Form 5, and authority correspondence in the same job folder so the certificate meets a clean trail rather than a reconstruction.
Track what is still outstanding. After a part certificate, note the remaining work against the job so the final Form 19 is not missed at handover.
Check the current Business Queensland requirements for your job. Retention and lodgement expectations sit with the issuing authority.
