Checking the PUB licensed plumber list takes about two minutes and almost nobody does it. PUB runs a public search at eservices.pub.gov.sg where any homeowner can confirm a plumber’s licence before work starts. This blog walks you through the register, what a licence legally covers, and the paperwork you should receive, before you book residential plumbing work.
How do you check the PUB licensed plumber list?
Search the plumber’s name or licence number on PUB’s Search Licensed Plumber page at eservices.pub.gov.sg. A result confirms the licence is current; no result means the person is not licensed to carry out regulated works.
Ask for the licence number before you search. Every Licensed Plumber carries a PUB licence card with a number in a format like WS16882018, and a plumber who cannot produce one when asked has answered the question already.
The check works best before the quotation, not after the work. Once a pipe is open and the floor is wet, nobody is walking away over paperwork, which is exactly why the verification belongs at the enquiry stage. Two minutes on a phone while you are still comparing quotes costs nothing.
Company licences do not exist. PUB licenses individuals, so a firm advertising itself as a licensed plumbing company is telling you it employs or engages Licensed Plumbers, which is a different claim. The name on the register is a person, and that person’s name attaches to your job.
What does a PUB plumber’s licence actually mean?
It means PUB assessed that individual and granted them a plumber’s licence under section 40J of the Public Utilities Act 2001. The Act defines a licensed plumber plainly as “an individual who holds a plumber’s licence.”
The licence is a legal authorisation rather than a trade certificate. It is not a diploma, not a company accreditation, and not something a plumber awards themselves. PUB issues it, PUB can suspend it, and PUB maintains the register you searched.
Getting it is not trivial. Applicants attend a mentorship programme with the Singapore Plumbing Society and must pass both oral and written assessments before PUB issues the licence, with two intakes a year. Licences also expire, and every Licensed Plumber must complete a refresher course before the expiry date printed on the card.
Worth noting: a licence that has lapsed disappears from the register the same way an unlicensed person does. The register tells you about today, which is the reason to check on the day you hire rather than relying on a photo of a card taken years ago.
Which jobs legally need a Licensed Plumber?
Any regulated works. The Act defines regulated works as sanitary works, limited WSI design works or WSI works, and defines WSI works as “any works on any water service installation including constructing, erecting, installing, maintaining, altering, repairing or replacing” it.
Read plainly, that captures most of what people call plumbing. Altering or repairing the water supply pipework inside your flat, replacing a toilet bowl, installing or replacing a storage water heater, and work on the meter or supply valves all sit inside the regulated category. Since 1 April 2018, engaging a plumber who is not licensed by PUB for these works has been an offence.
A narrow list sits outside it. PUB publishes the simple plumbing works a handyman is permitted to carry out without a licence, covering taps and mixers, shower hoses and showerheads, washing machine and dishwasher connecting hoses, flexible hoses, the pipe between a stop valve and an instantaneous water heater, and flushing cistern parts including the flushing mechanism. On the used water side it covers washbasins, sinks, bottle traps, bathtubs, shower trays, floor waste outlets, floor trap gratings, and clearing blockages in a floor trap or water closet.
The boundary produces results that surprise people. Replacing a toilet’s flushing mechanism is handyman scope; replacing the toilet bowl it sits in is not. Instant water heater pipework is handyman scope; a storage water heater is not. The same split governs what HDB flat owners can do during renovation.
What is the demerit points system, and why does it protect you?
PUB runs a demerit points system for Licensed Plumbers, in force since 1 April 2018, that attaches real consequences to bad work. It is the mechanism that turns a licence from a credential into accountability.
The thresholds are specific. A Licensed Plumber who accumulates 10 or more penalty points within three months in water service works is suspended from regulated works for six months from the date of notification. The same applies at 15 or more points across both water service and sanitary works combined. Any plumber suspended twice within three years has the licence cancelled and is de-registered.
Individual infringements carry weighted points. Misrepresenting a fact or producing an untrue certificate, plan or report to PUB attracts 10 penalty points on its own, which is a single-offence route to suspension.
The practical consequence for a homeowner is recourse. A Licensed Plumber’s name is attached to your job in PUB’s records, and shoddy work that needs redoing is a professional risk rather than an inconvenience. That is the substantive difference between a licensed and unlicensed job, and it is worth more than any warranty language on a quotation.
What paperwork should you receive after regulated works?
A Licensed Plumber submits a Certificate of Satisfactory Completion to PUB within seven days of completing WSI works. Ask whether your job requires one before work begins, and ask for a copy afterwards.
The submission chain runs both ways. PUB requires notification before works commence on many jobs and certification after they finish, so the plumber’s regulatory obligations bracket the work rather than following it. Since 1 December 2024, Licensed Plumbers carrying out urgent repair works or minor WSI works follow Standardised Documentation Procedures covering cover letters and before-and-after photographic records.
That documentation is your evidence. A storage water heater installed without a submission is difficult to defend in a warranty claim, because most manufacturers require installation by a licensed plumber to keep the warranty valid, and an insurance claim after water damage tends to ask the same question.
Worth noting: PUB charges no fee for these submissions. Any submission line on your invoice is that contractor’s own commercial charge and worth querying, not a government levy you are obliged to pay.
How do you spot a plumber who is not licensed?
The reliable signals appear before any work starts. Refusing to give a licence number, quoting a storage water heater installation without mentioning PUB submission, and pressing for immediate cash payment on a regulated job are the three that matter.
Vocabulary is a useful tell. “BCA certified plumber” is a phrase that appears in advertising and does not correspond to a plumbing licence in Singapore; BCA maintains contractor registers for tendering, not a plumber licensing scheme. PUB is the licensing authority, and the correct term is Licensed Plumber.
Marketing language deserves the same scepticism. A website can describe a network of licensed professionals without any named individual being on the register, so the check that counts is a licence number matched against PUB’s search, not a claim on a homepage.
Pricing sometimes signals it too. A quote materially below others for a regulated job often reflects skipped compliance work, since the valves, drainage and submission a compliant storage heater installation requires cost real money. Where a quotation looks unusually cheap, comparing it against published plumbing rates shows you what is missing.
Does a handyman need to be licensed for small jobs?
No, provided the work stays within PUB’s published simple plumbing works list. A handyman replacing a tap, a flexible hose or a toilet flushing mechanism is operating entirely within the law without any licence.
That legality is worth understanding rather than dismissing. Households that assume every plumbing task requires a Licensed Plumber end up paying licensed rates for a cistern mechanism swap, which is neither necessary nor good value.
The risk sits in the middle ground where a job crosses the line mid-visit. A cistern mechanism replacement that turns out to need the supply connection reseated has moved into regulated works, and the correct response is to stop rather than continue. Firms carrying both capabilities handle that transition without a second call-out, which is how Fix It Papa runs handymen for simple works and PUB-licensed plumbers for regulated works.
Ask which one is coming. Where the job is a choked toilet or floor trap, clearing the blockage is explicitly on PUB’s simple works list and a handyman is the appropriate and cheaper answer.
What happens if unlicensed work is already done in your home?
Unlicensed regulated work is an offence and PUB can require non-compliant work to be removed and rectified at the owner’s expense. The liability attaches to the property, which means it follows you rather than the person who did the work.
The exposure shows up at the worst moments. A water damage insurance claim, an HDB or MCST inspection, or a resale conveyancing check can all surface non-compliant work done years earlier, and the person holding the bill is whoever owns the flat at that point.
Rectification is the route back. A Licensed Plumber can inspect existing work, correct what does not comply with Singapore Standard SS 636:2018, and regularise it through the proper submission, though bringing shortcut work up to standard reliably costs more than doing it correctly the first time.
Storage water heaters are the most common case we encounter. An installation done without the specified valves and discharge arrangements needs pipework modification to regularise, which is precisely the work the cheap quote skipped.
What should you ask before confirming a plumber?
Four questions settle almost everything, and all four are answerable over the phone. Is this job regulated works, what is your licence number, will you submit to PUB, and what does the quotation include.
The scope question comes first because it determines the rest. A tap replacement needs no licence and no submission, so demanding both wastes everyone’s time; a storage heater replacement needs both, and a plumber who says otherwise has disqualified themselves.
Get the quotation in writing with the scope named. A written quote that specifies the parts, the labour, whether after-hours attendance applies and whether PUB submission is included gives you something to compare, and comparison is where unlicensed operators become visible. PUB’s own guidance to homeowners is to obtain multiple quotes before engaging anyone.
Response time is worth asking about separately from price. Where a fault is actively causing damage, an emergency call-out attendance window matters more than a $20 price difference, and the two questions have different answers.
Conclusion
The register is public, free, and takes two minutes, yet households caught by unlicensed work almost never searched it. Ask for a licence number, match it against PUB’s list, and keep the certificate. Behind that licence sits a demerit system that suspends a plumber at 10 points in three months and de-registers them after two suspensions, which is the accountability you are buying.
Get the licence number and the written scope before anyone starts. Request a free estimate with a description of the fault and you will be told upfront whether it needs a handyman or a PUB Licensed Plumber.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a plumber is licensed in Singapore?
Search their name or licence number on PUB’s Search Licensed Plumber page at eservices.pub.gov.sg. A match confirms a current licence for regulated works. Licence numbers follow a format like WS16882018 and appear on the plumber’s PUB licence card, which you should ask to see before work starts.
Is there an official PUB licensed plumber list?
Yes. PUB maintains a public register searchable through its e-services portal, listing individuals who hold a current plumber’s licence. PUB licenses individuals rather than companies, so a firm calling itself a licensed plumbing company must still name a Licensed Plumber whose licence you can verify.
What happens if I hire an unlicensed plumber?
Engaging an unlicensed plumber for regulated works has been an offence since 1 April 2018, and PUB can require non-compliant work to be removed and rectified at the owner’s expense. The liability attaches to the property, so it surfaces later during insurance claims, inspections or resale.
Does a handyman need a PUB licence to fix my tap?
No. PUB’s published list of simple plumbing works permits anyone without a licence to replace taps and mixers, shower hoses, flexible hoses, flushing mechanisms, and to clear blockages in a floor trap or water closet. Replacing a toilet bowl or storage water heater requires a Licensed Plumber.
What is a Certificate of Satisfactory Completion?
It is the certification a Licensed Plumber submits to PUB within seven days of completing WSI works, confirming the installation meets requirements. Ask for a copy. Manufacturers commonly require licensed installation to honour a water heater warranty, and the certificate is the evidence that it happened.
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