The VEU co-payment went up to $3,000 on 30 September 2026

What changed on 30 September?

Three things are hitting this work at once, and only one of them is getting talked about. The co-payment is what your customer pays out of their own pocket. It's not your margin and it's not what the certificates are worth. But it's the number that decides whether the job sells.

A 20 kW cap on residential multi-splits

Once a multi-head job on a home passes 20 kW of capacity input, the extra size earns no extra certificates. Capacity input means the rated capacity of all the heads added up, but never more than the outdoor unit's rating. Put that next to the higher co-payment and large residential multi-split gets hit twice. If that's a decent chunk of your work, it's the part I'd reprice first.

And the certificate price isn't climbing to cover it

The scheme's yearly target, which sets how many certificates energy retailers have to buy and hand in, fell from 7.3 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2025 to 4.4 million in 2026. That's roughly a 40 per cent cut in certificate demand. It's why the price of a VEEC (Victorian energy efficiency certificate) is sitting where it is rather than climbing.

Can you still quote at the old co-payment?

Only if the certificate was created before 30 September. This one catches people out. The co-payment that applies is the one in force when the certificate's made, not when you quoted. And a certificate can't be made until the job's in. So a September quote for an October install, at the old co-payment, isn't a pricing mistake. It's a compliance problem.

1. Plan off the install date, never the quote dateThe certificate always comes after the install. So any ducted or 10 kW plus multi-head job installed on or after 30 September carries the $3,000, even if you quoted it in August. A job installed just before the date but claimed after it is the grey area. Don't assume the old figure holds - check with your rebate partner before you quote it.
2. Don't make up the difference for the customerYou can't give any of the co-payment back "in any form, including money, or other goods or services" (regulation 15A(1)(b)). Cash back, a free extra, a discount somewhere else on the invoice. Any one of them kills the certificate.
3. Make the payment traceableThe customer has to actually pay at least the co-payment, and you need to be able to prove it. A payment that shows in the bank, at or above the figure, with nothing going back the other way.
4. Reprice anything quoted before the dateIf you've still got quotes out from before 30 September at the old figure, redo them at the new one and tell the customer why. That conversation's a lot easier before the job than after it.

Is there really a 77 VEEC cap?

No. It's been repeated enough to sound official, so let's be plain about it. There's no cap on the number of certificates. Every time 77 appears in the 165 page Specifications, it's a page number, a postcode, a footnote marker or a number inside a formula.

The real limit is the 20 kW capacity input cap on residential multi-splits. Our best guess is the 77 started life as a certificate price, around $77 a VEEC, and got retold as a rule.

What should you do now?

• Pull every open ducted quote with an install date on or after 30 September and reprice it.
• Check your rebate partner's paperwork for the 31 July date. If it's there, they've got it wrong.
• Check your site photos still carry their location. Geo-tagged photos have been mandatory since 23 April 2026, and messaging apps wipe the location out.
• Work out how you're going to have the $3,000 conversation before a customer raises it. The ones who handle it well will be the ones who've rehearsed it.