How to check if a builder is legit in New Zealand

A NZ building company can have a slick website, five-star reviews on its own page, and a friendly quote — and still be run by a director who has personally taken three previous companies into liquidation. None of that shows up in a basic Google search. Reviews on a builder's own site are unverified. Photos of finished projects can be stock images. Even a Master Builders badge on a website may be out of date or unverified.

The good news is that almost everything you need to know about a NZ builder is publicly available — if you know where to look. The Companies Office, the NZBN register, the Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP) register, court records and the Building Disputes Tribunal all hold relevant information. None of them require payment to access. They just take time, and they're spread across a dozen websites with confusing interfaces. Here's the order to use them in.

Every legitimate building business in New Zealand has a registered legal entity. That entity has a unique 13-digit New Zealand Business Number (NZBN), assigned by the Companies Office. Search the builder's legal name on nzbn.govt.nz. If they don't show up, that's a serious problem — they're trading without registration, which is illegal.

The NZBN page tells you the company's exact registered name, its current status (Registered, In Liquidation, or Removed), the date it was incorporated, and its registered office address. Two flags at this step: a status that isn't "Registered", or an incorporation date in the last 12 months. A brand-new entity isn't automatically bad, but it's worth asking why — sometimes builders close one company and open a new one to escape liabilities.

If your project involves restricted building work — anything affecting the structure or weather-tightness of a home — the person doing it must be a Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP). This includes most work on bathrooms, kitchens with new openings, decks over 1.5m, and almost any structural alteration.

Search the public LBP register at lbp.govt.nz. You're looking for two things: that the person actually holds a current licence in the right class (Carpentry, Brick & Blocklaying, Foundations, etc.), and that there are no recent disciplinary matters listed against them. The register also shows whether they hold supervisor or non-supervisor status.

This is the step almost no one does, and it's the single most predictive signal. A company can be brand-new, but if its director has previously been involved in companies that went into liquidation, were struck off, or had complaints upheld against them, the pattern usually repeats.

On the NZBN entity page, look at the listed directors. Then search each director by name on Companies Office (companiesoffice.govt.nz). It will list every other company they've held an office in, and the status of each. A director with three previous companies all in liquidation is showing you exactly what to expect.

If a builder has been involved in formal disputes, that history can show up in the public record — but the search is harder than it should be, because NZ doesn't have a single consolidated database.

The Building Disputes Tribunal (buildingdisputestribunal.co.nz) is the leading independent dispute-resolution body for NZ construction matters. Individual case decisions aren't published in a public search interface, but the tribunal can confirm whether a specific company has had matters before it. The District Court of New Zealand (districtcourts.govt.nz) publishes selected judgments, where civil cases involving builders may appear. Higher-court decisions are at courtsofnz.govt.nz.

Most legitimate builders have no formal dispute history. A pattern of unresolved or unfavourable decisions across these systems is a clear signal to walk away.

Registered Master Builders and NZ Certified Builders are the two main industry associations. Membership in either gives access to a 10-year guarantee scheme — Master Build 10-Year Guarantee or Halo 10-Year Residential Guarantee — which protects you if the builder defaults during construction. Neither is legally required, but membership is a strong sign of legitimacy and the guarantees give you real recourse if things go wrong.

Verify membership directly on the association's site (don't trust the badge on the builder's own site — check it on masterbuilder.org.nz or nzcb.nz). Make sure the membership is current and that a guarantee will actually be issued for your specific job — the badge alone doesn't guarantee anything.

Finally, search the builder's legal name on Stuff, NZ Herald, RNZ and consumer.nz. NZ media regularly cover dodgy-builder stories, and a name that appears in one usually has trouble. Conversely, positive coverage (industry awards, completed major projects) is a good sign.

Be careful with reviews on the builder's own website or marketing materials — these are unverified and curated. Independent review sites (NoCowboys, Builderscrack, Trustpilot) are more useful, though even these can have fake or sock-puppet entries.

Done thoroughly, the six steps above take about 60-90 minutes per builder. If you're getting quotes from three builders, that's an entire afternoon of clicking through government websites, cross-referencing names, and trying to interpret legal terminology.

CheckMyBuilder runs all six checks automatically and returns a single report with everything pulled together — including the AI risk score across 20+ public-record signals. It costs $49.90 NZD per check, which is roughly 0.1% of an average renovation budget. The point isn't to replace your judgment — it's to make sure you're not the only person who hasn't looked.