Knowledge/Accreditation and audits/What actually triggers an audit, and who pays for it
What actually triggers an audit, and who pays for it
There are three kinds. Assurance audits are routine, at least every two years since 1 July 2024. Compliance audits are triggered when the Essential Services Commission (ESC) has reasonable grounds to suspect you've broken the rules. And every certificate gets screened by risk-based tools before it's registered. You pay for the first two.
- Assurance audit
- Every 2 yearsroutine, since 1 Jul 2024
- Compliance audit
- Section 55Awhen there are reasonable grounds
- Who pays
- You dos55F(2), both kinds
- Every certificate
- Screenedby risk-based tools, before it's registered
The three, side by side
| Type | What starts it | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Assurance audit | Nothing. It's scheduled. Every accredited person (AP) has to get an independent assurance audit at least once every two years, from 1 July 2024 | The AP |
| Compliance audit | The ESC has reasonable grounds to suspect an AP has broken the Act or the regulations (s55A) | The AP |
| Certificate screening | Creating a certificate. The ESC checks every one against risk-based assessment tools before registering it | Nobody, it's automatic |
The third one is the one people don't think of as an audit at all, and it's the one that touches every job. Registration is a checkpoint. A certificate isn't registered just because you submitted it.
How does a compliance audit actually run?
Once the ESC has reasonable grounds to suspect you've broken the rules, section 55A gives it two options. It can do the audit itself, or it can make you hire an independent auditor.
If it's the second one, you pay the auditor, and you have to make sure the ESC gets the report by the date in the notice. So it's not just a matter of cooperating. You organise it, and you deliver the report on their timetable.
Section 55F(2) says it plainly. The accredited person pays the costs of the compliance audit. Being audited is never free.
The powers got wider on 9 September 2026
This is a real change, and a recent one. Act No. 37/2026, sections 55 to 59, changed what the ESC's authorised officers (its inspectors) can use their powers for.
They can now use them to check whether you're following the Act or the regulations, not just to check information you've already given them. Monitoring powers, questioning powers and monitoring warrants were all widened.
In practice it's a shift from reacting to going looking. The powers mostly used to follow something you'd submitted. Now they can be used to come and have a look.
Read
this
yourself
The ESC publishes its priorities every year
The ESC uses a risk-based framework across all its regulatory work, and each year it publishes its regulatory priorities. The 2026-27 Regulatory Priorities came out in July 2026.
We couldn't get hold of a copy, so we're not going to tell you what's in it. Guessing at a regulator's priorities is the worst thing we could get wrong on this page.
What we can tell you is that it exists, it comes out every year, and it's the clearest public signal of where audit attention is heading in the year ahead. Go and read it.
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
- Everything the regulator can do to you, from a warning upFrom a warning up to an order to hand back certificates at 600 penalty units. Every step, its section number, and what it comes to in dollars.
- The two March 2026 cases, and what actually got them$4.2 million in certificates refused and one five-year ban. Exactly what the two businesses did, straight from the regulator's own media release.
- If your accredited person loses accreditation, the offence is yoursKeep doing scheme jobs for an accredited person who's lost accreditation and you're the one committing the offence. And suspension can be immediate.
- Victorian Energy Upgrades marketing rules, and the two bansCold-call telemarketing banned since May 2024, doorknocking since August 2024. Plus the rule that stops you buying leads from someone else's cold call.
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.