Knowledge/Accreditation and audits/The training evidence your accredited person needs before you start
The training evidence your accredited person needs before you start
Before you start a Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) job, you must meet the training and competency requirements set by the Essential Services Commission (ESC) and give proof to the accredited person (AP) who'll create the certificate. That's section 14FA. Your AP also has to register you in the VEU Registry before your jobs are submitted.
- Section
- 14FAtraining and competency
- Evidence goes to
- Your APbefore you touch the job
- False evidence
- 30 / 120penalty units, individual / company
- Rule widened
- 9 Sep 2026see below
What has to happen, and in what order?
- Your AP registers you in the VEU RegistryThis has to happen before your jobs are submitted. If you're not in the registry, everything after it has a hole in it.
- You meet the ESC's training and competency requirementsThese are set in ESC guidelines, not in the Act, so they can change without the Act changing.
- You give the AP evidence that you've met themIt goes to the accredited person who is or will be entitled to create the certificate. Not to the ESC, and not just into your own file.
- Then you can startSection 14FA bans you from starting until this is done. It isn't paperwork you file later. Until your AP has the evidence, you can't do the work, or any part of it.
Giving an AP training evidence you know is false or misleading is an offence in its own right (s14FA(3)), at 30 penalty units for an individual and 120 for a company. Breaking the code of conduct (s14H) is 60 penalty units for an individual and 240 for a company.
What changed on 9 September 2026?
A new law, Act No. 37/2026 (s19), took the words "on behalf of an accredited person" out of s14FA(1) and (2). It was signed into law on 8 September 2026 and took effect the next day.
That makes the rule cover more people. It now applies to whoever does the work, full stop. Saying "I wasn't technically working on behalf of the AP at the time" no longer gets you off.
If you learnt this rule before September 2026, it's out of date, and the change puts more on you, not less.
Not
an
exemption
Which activities have VEU-specific training units?
The ESC's training page lists specific mandatory units for window and weather sealing (activities 13 to 15), commercial and industrial solar (activity 47), Scorecard assessment (activity 45) and lighting (activities 27, 34 and 35).
It doesn't list VEU-specific training units for space heating and cooling (activity 6) or water heating (activities 1 and 3). But we're going on what isn't there. We found nothing from the ESC actually saying those activities have no VEU-specific training requirement. They just aren't on the list.
So don't treat this as the regulator saying you're exempt. Treat it as a gap in the list, and confirm it with your AP before you rely on it. Your trade licence is a separate question, and it still applies.
Working out whether to get accredited?
It's a real decision with real numbers on both sides, and most of the people offering advice make money whichever way you go.
Kevin has no stake in which way you go. Ask him.
Who this is for: small and medium HVAC contractors in Victoria. If you're a homeowner after a rebate or a repair, you need a licensed contractor, not us, and yours can point you the right way.
Related
- The assignment of rights that makes the job validYour customer hands their right to create certificates to the accredited person. What makes that valid, and why a pre-July 2025 template may not comply.
- On a rental job, the landlord signs the assignmentThe tenant holds the energy account, but section 16(2) treats the landlord as the consumer so they can sign. Likely to come up far more often from 2027.
- No certificate without these two declarationsRegulation 17 needs a declaration from your customer and one from the accredited person. Plus the rule against bringing in an old unit just to rip it out.
- What counts as decommissioned, and the disposal proof to keepThe old unit has to be made unusable, the refrigerant handled under Commonwealth law and the waste taken off site. Plus the proof worth keeping on file.
Review date: 1 January 2027. Figures in this area change without much notice and this page carries some that will go stale. Every number above is dated and sourced so you can check it yourself. If you find something out of date here, tell us and we will fix it.