What this site is, and what it is not
This site is a Gippsland restumping referral service. It connects home owners, holiday-house owners, landlords and buyers in Wellington, East Gippsland, South Gippsland and Bass Coast with builders who work in their town. It does not do the work. It does not quote, inspect, issue permits or sign contracts. It explains what house restumping, reblocking, relevelling and underpinning involve, sets out what the regulators and councils say, and hands the enquiry on. Homes in the Latrobe Valley and in West Gippsland have their own regional pages elsewhere.
The builder does the work, and the builder is responsible for holding any registration that applies. A building surveyor, not this site, decides whether a permit is needed. The Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC) says only the owner, or the owner's agent, may appoint a private building surveyor (BPC page on appointing a surveyor), so that choice stays with you.
What happens to your enquiry
Three facts, and nothing more, describe what happens after you send the form.
- The enquiry is passed to a builder who works in your town.
- This site makes no claim that any builder is registered, insured, endorsed or approved.
- So the checking is yours to do, and the pages tell you how.
The BPC says to "make sure you always use a registered building practitioner", and says practitioners, except companies, carry a photo ID card showing their registration category (BPC page on engaging a builder). It also says domestic building work worth more than $10,000 requires a registered builder. A Victorian Building Authority notice from 2017 says something wider about re-blocking and restumping builders (the 2017 notice), and we did not find a BPC page that repeats it. Ask each builder which registration class they hold and check it on the BPC register. The registration page sets the two statements side by side.
How the rules pages are written and dated
Every rules page and every place page says "checked 6 November 2026" in its text, because the rules move. Contract, deposit and payment rules for Victorian home building change by 1 December 2026 under the Domestic Building Contracts Amendment Act 2025 (Consumer Affairs Victoria on the new laws), so no page here prints a deposit limit or a cooling-off period. Planning amendments for flood overlays in Wellington and South Gippsland are in progress, and their dates may change.
- Primary sources first. Regulator, council and standards pages come first, each linked where a rule or figure is stated.
- Secondary sources are labelled. An encyclopedia entry, a news report, an industry guide or another council's checklist is called that, and used for context, definitions or typical paperwork only.
- Quotes are quoted. Where a page says something about permits or registration, the page's own words are used and attributed, with its date where it has one.
- Gaps are said out loud. Where we could not read a document or found no statement, the page says so instead of filling the gap.
The consumer guide from Consumer Affairs Victoria says builders must "be registered in the right class and category for the work" (Domestic Building Consumer Guide). The permit page shows what each of the four councils' pages say, and where three of them are silent.
What we do not claim
- No prices. The published ranges we compared disagreed by a factor of two or more, depend on stump count, and come from publishers who sell leads. The cost guide explains the factors instead.
- No builder rankings and no past jobs. Photographs are illustrative and do not show a particular house or a particular builder's work.
- No town-level overlay maps. No page states that a named street or town is, or is not, under a flood, coastal, bushfire or heritage control. Ask the council and the catchment authority about your own property.
- No time frames. We found no source for how long a restump takes. Ask the builder for the programme in writing.
- No legal advice. The pages describe what the sources say as at the date shown.
What to check yourself
Before you agree to anything, ask for an itemised written quote and use the quote checklist to compare it with others. Ask the builder which registration class they hold and check it on the BPC register. Ask the surveyor whether a permit applies. If you have questions this site has not answered, the contact page has the form and the phone number.
What this site cannot do
It cannot build, repair, inspect or survey a house, issue or check a registration, approve a permit, or settle a dispute with a builder. It cannot see your house, so it cannot say whether yours needs restumping, reblocking, relevelling or underpinning. Those decisions belong to the builder, a registered building surveyor, an engineer where one is needed, the council and, for disputes, the BPC's dispute service. What the site can do is set out what the sources say, with dates, and pass your enquiry to a builder in your town.
Check the current rules before you rely on this
This page describes what this referral service is, how its rules pages are sourced and dated, and what the regulator pages say about checking a builder. It describes the rules in general terms as they stood in November 2026, checked 6 November 2026. Standards, forms, thresholds and fees change.
The authoritative sources are Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC), engaging a builder, Victorian Building Authority notice, 2017: clarification of changes to registration requirements for domestic builders (predecessor of the BPC; dated), Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV), Domestic Building Consumer Guide, CAV, new domestic building contract laws passed in Victoria (Domestic Building Contracts Amendment Act 2025; effect by 1 December 2026) and BPC, appointing a building surveyor. Where anything here differs from those sources, they are right and we are not.
We are not builders, building surveyors, regulators or lawyers. For what applies to your job, ask the builder which registration they hold and check it on the Building and Plumbing Commission register, then ask a registered building surveyor and your council what is needed. Contract, deposit and payment rules change by 1 December 2026.
Accurate at the time of writing, November 2026. Always check the source before relying on it.