holding out noun 1 Vic representing an individual, company or partnership that is not registered with the Board to be an architect. 2 SA holding oneself out as an architect, or letting another do so, without being on the register of architects.
Using the title “architect” without registration is an offence under each of the four Acts this guide has read (Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory), and each sets its own maximum penalty. Boards also take complaints. In Victoria and Western Australia they cover both a registered architect’s conduct and the use of the title by people who are not registered.
General informationGeneral information about offences and complaints under each Act, not legal advice about any person, business or dispute. The registration board in the state or territory concerned is the place to raise a concern.
The maximum penalties, Act by Act
Penalties are stated as each Act states them: in dollars in South Australia, and in penalty units in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. A penalty unit is each state or territory’s own, so a unit in one jurisdiction is not worth the same as a unit in another. Each figure is from the version of the Act named in the first column.
| Act and version | Offence | Maximum penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Vic, as at 13 August 2025 | A person, company or partnership represented as an architect without registration or approval (ss 4 to 6); the three restricted expressions (s 8) | 60 penalty units |
| Vic, as at 13 August 2025 | Working as an architect without the required insurance (s 8B) | 100 penalty units for a person; 500 for a company |
| SA, version of 27 November 2025 | Holding out a person as an architect, or a company or partnership as one, without registration (s 38) | $50,000 or imprisonment for 6 months |
| SA, version of 27 November 2025 | Using the prescribed word or its derivatives without registration (s 40) | $50,000 |
| Tas, as at 1 July 2025 | A breach of section 19, which includes using “architect” or a word that sounds or looks like it | 75 penalty units for an individual; 150 for a body corporate |
| NT, as in force at 26 August 2025 | Using a restricted title, or representing oneself as an architect or architectural company, without registration (ss 23G, 23H, 23J) | 1,000 penalty units for an individual; 5,000 for a company |
| NT, as in force at 26 August 2025 | A partner representing a partnership as an architectural partnership when it is not (s 23K) | 1,000 penalty units |
| SA, version of 27 November 2025 | Contravening a condition on a registration (s 54) | $75,000 or imprisonment for 6 months |
In Victoria, where an unincorporated body such as a partnership is held out as an architect without approval, each of its members is guilty of an offence. The Victorian Board adds that offences of this kind may be prosecuted or lead to an investigation or inquiry into an architect’s professional conduct.
For New South Wales, the Board’s page warns of significant fines for a breach of any of sections 9 to 12 of the Architects Act 2003, without giving figures. The sources behind this guide hold no penalty figures for Western Australia, the ACT or Queensland.
Who acts on it
- Victoria
- The Board may prosecute. Its page on prohibited conduct says a fine could be $9,000 or more (the page as updated on 9 June 2026), and that a registered architect who engages in prohibited conduct may also be referred to the Architects Tribunal.
- South Australia
- A prosecution can be brought against a person or company for holding out as an architect.
- Western Australia
- The Board can investigate an apparent misuse of the title, and may prosecute in the Magistrates Court where an offence may have been committed and there is a reasonable prospect of conviction.
- ACT
- The ACT Architects Board has powers to investigate complaints against architects and to discipline those found to have acted unprofessionally or incompetently. The Minister may give it directions in the public interest, but never about registration, renewal, cancellation, disciplinary action or refusal to register.
- Northern Territory
- The Board monitors the use of the word architect and associated words and investigates contraventions of the Act.
Complaints about a registered architect
Registered architects work under codes of conduct. Architects in New South Wales are bound by the NSW Architects Code of Professional Conduct 2017; those in the Northern Territory must follow the Board’s code of professional conduct; in South Australia a breach of the Architects’ Code of Conduct may be treated as unprofessional conduct. In Victoria, the Building and Plumbing Commission gives one example of a legal obligation: an architect may not provide architectural services to a client without a written agreement with that client to provide them.
Making the complaint
In the ACT anyone who believes someone has breached the Architects Act 2004 may complain to the ACT Architects Board, in writing, with their name, email address and the particulars of the complaint. In Western Australia the Architects Act 2004 sets out a process for a person aggrieved by an architect’s services to complain to the Board.
What a board can decide
In Western Australia a proven complaint may lead to an architect being fined, reprimanded or suspended. The Board cannot award costs to the person who complained or order a refund of fees.
Appeals and panels
In the ACT, the Board’s decisions about disciplinary action can be appealed to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal. In South Australia, section 48 of the Act sets up a panel of assessors, all registered architects, for section 22 of the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013. In disciplinary proceedings under the Act, the Tribunal sits with one or more of them if its President so decides.
Victoria’s Board takes complaints about an architect’s professional conduct, and about people or bodies that are not registered but present themselves as architects, through its page for people working with an architect.
See alsothe protected words; checking a registration; companies and partnerships.