Compliance by state

How SA plumbers issue a certificate of compliance

In South Australia a licensed plumber must issue an electronic certificate of compliance (eCoC) after completing plumbing work, and give a copy to the customer and the Office of the Technical Regulator within seven days, with some exceptions. The requirement comes from the Water Industry Act 2012 and the South Australian Public Health Act 2011.

Last checked 25 Sep 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.

Official name: Electronic certificate of compliance (eCoC) for plumbing work
Regulator: Office of the Technical Regulator, Department for Energy and Mining
Who issues it: The appropriately licensed plumber who did and certifies the work
When: Completing any plumbing work
Deadline: Copy to the customer and OTR within seven days of finishing the work, with some exceptions
Lodgement: Through OTR's free online eCoC system, which delivers the copy to OTR
Keep records for: The eCoC system stores submitted certificates online. The pages checked for this guide do not state a separate retention period, so keep your own copy on the job.
Penalty: The SA Government pages checked for this guide do not publish a penalty figure for a late or missing plumbing eCoC. The certificate is a legal requirement under the Water Industry Act 2012 and the South Australian Public Health Act 2011, and customers are directed to OTR if a plumber refuses to provide one.

Homeowner? If you had plumbing work done in South Australia, your plumber must give you an electronic certificate of compliance within seven days; contact the Office of the Technical Regulator if you do not get one.

What the certificate must show

Certification by a person holding the appropriate plumbing licence
The plumbing work completed at the customer's property
The full field list is set by the eCoC system itself; the SA Government pages checked for this guide do not list it, so complete every field eCoC prompts for

Recent change

OTR replaced paper plumbing certificates with the electronic eCoC system, shared with electrical and gas work.

Produce it from a ServiceM8 job

In Settings > Forms > Add Form, create a form called SA plumbing eCoC capture, so the details you need for eCoC are recorded before the plumber leaves site.
Add Text (Multi-line) for Plumbing work completed, Date for Date finished (mandatory), and Photo questions for the finished work and any test gauge readings.
Add a Multiple Choice question, Separate SA Water process needed, with Yes / No, so the office knows when a job needs more than the eCoC.
Attach the form to a job badge (for example SA plumbing eCoC) and make it required before the job can be checked out.
Create a follow up reminder on the job dated five days after completion, leaving a buffer inside the seven day deadline to submit the eCoC.
Submit the certificate in the eCoC system from the captured details, then note the submission in the job diary alongside the form PDF.

Same licence Act, different certificate law

Your plumbing licence sits under the same Act as SA electricians and gasfitters, the Plumbers, Gas Fitters and Electricians Act 1995. The certificate you issue after the job does not. For plumbing, the eCoC is a legal document required under the Water Industry Act 2012 and the South Australian Public Health Act 2011. That difference is why an electrician's certificate habits do not carry across: the deadline, the recipients and the legislation all change.

Seven days, two recipients

The plumbing clock is short. You must provide a copy of the eCoC to the customer and to the Office of the Technical Regulator (OTR) within seven days of finishing the plumbing work. SA Government guidance notes that some exceptions apply, so check OTR's plumbing guidance for your type of work before relying on one.

Seven days is roughly a quarter of the time an SA electrician gets for an electrical certificate. If your office batches paperwork weekly, a job finished on a Monday can already be late by the following Tuesday. Treat the eCoC as part of closing the job, not part of the month end.

Where SA Water fits

Homeowners often assume their certificate goes to SA Water. The government pages reviewed for this guide describe the eCoC going to the customer and to OTR, not to SA Water. OTR is the technical regulator for plumbing installations and also for water and sewerage network infrastructure, which is why the Water Industry Act sits behind the plumbing certificate. If a job also needs a connection or approval from SA Water, treat that as a separate process with SA Water and do not assume the eCoC covers it.

Any plumbing work, licensed people only

The SA guidance is broad: plumbers must issue an eCoC to customers after completing any plumbing work, and only people holding the appropriate licence can legally fill one out and certify the work. There is no small job carve out in that wording beyond the exceptions OTR publishes, so the safe default for a service business is one eCoC per completed plumbing job.

What happens if you skip it

Customers are told to contact OTR if a tradesperson refuses to provide an eCoC, so a missing certificate is a complaint waiting to happen. OTR monitors and regulates safety and technical standards across plumbing, gas and electrical installations, and the eCoC system gives it a record of what you certified and when. A late certificate shows up in that record, which makes the seven day rule easy to check.

Sources

After a plumbing tradesperson completes work on a property, by law they must issue the customer an electronic certificate of compliance (eCoC); only people with an appropriate licence can fill out an eCoC and certify work. SA.GOV.AU, Certificates of compliance, checked 25 Sep 2026.
Plumbing eCoCs are legal documents required under the Water Industry Act 2012 and the South Australian Public Health Act 2011, and plumbers must issue one after completing any plumbing work. Office of the Technical Regulator, Plumbing advisory notice: Plumbing certificates of compliance, checked 25 Sep 2026.
Plumbers must provide a copy of the eCoC to the customer and the OTR within seven days of finishing plumbing work, with some exceptions. Office of the Technical Regulator, Plumbing advisory notice: Plumbing certificates of compliance, checked 25 Sep 2026.
OTR monitors and regulates safety and technical standards for electrical, gas and plumbing installations, and for electricity, gas, water and sewerage network infrastructure; customers should contact OTR if a tradesperson refuses to provide an eCoC. SA.GOV.AU, Certificates of compliance, checked 25 Sep 2026.
Plumbers, gasfitters and electricians in South Australia are licensed under the Plumbers, Gas Fitters and Electricians Act 1995. Australian Business Licence and Information Service (ABLIS), checked 25 Sep 2026.
Completed ServiceM8 forms convert to a PDF saved to the job diary, where they can be emailed; form answers are placed into a Word document template using Template Field Codes. ServiceM8 Help Center, checked 25 Sep 2026.