Renew, vary or revoke

As your previous practising certificate has expired, you are unable to renew it. You must apply for a new practising certificate. This requires you to provide current certified identification documents:

• 1 Group A document
• 1 Group B document

The following document Fact Sheet: Certifying documents and identity verification (PDF, 83.41 KB) shows who can certify on your behalf.

If you have recently acquired portal access, you may use the same certified identification documents you submitted for that purpose.

Once we review your completed application, a Section 155 notice will be issued to your email address listed with the Regulator, in due course. This also means you must not work in that statutory function as you no longer have a valid practising certificate.

The section 155 notice asks you for your maintenance of competence log for the five year period of that practising certificate (the Maintenance of Competence guide (PDF, 394.79 KB) tells you the required hours for your statutory function – refer pages 16-18). Please read this in full as it will answer many questions concerning your required learning hours, including the breakdown of allowable topics to be claimed. 

You can find a sample log book here (XLSX, 441.47 KB): however please do not to send it in until you have received your section 155 notice and attach it with your completed answers within the notice.

Before contacting us, please ensure you have read the following in full:

• The notice 
• The Maintenance of Competence guide 
• The sample log book document

Staff cannot provide information beyond what is contained in these resources. If you have any questions not included in the above, please email competencies@dpird.nsw.gov.au noting "Attention Section 155 notice" in the subject line.

We will respond to your email in a timely manner, however if your question is already answered in the provided materials, you will be guided to be referred back to these documents.

The notice is issued to the email noted in our system; you have 24 hours to respond by replying to the notice as ‘acknowledged’.

You must reply to the notice with your completed documentation in full (not submitted separately) by the due date and it will be reviewed in due course. Notices are processed in the order we receive them and will not be escalated for any reason. If your responses are not satisfactory, we may either ask you to resubmit or decline your responses with feedback.

The notice cannot be extended, therefore if you do not respond by the due date, the notice will be closed, along with your application, and a refusal letter sent. This means you are not able to work in the statutory function without a valid practising certificate.

If you still wish to pursue a practising certificate after the notice has been closed, you will be required to complete a new application and pay another application fee and a second notice will be issued, following the original steps as above.

We send reminders out to the email noted in our system (which you are required to update as needed), at three months prior to your current practising certificate expiring. You may apply any time from six months before expiry.

It is up to you to ensure you do not let your practising certificate expire. The responsibility sits with you, not your employer or any other person/company.

We recommend you start a new log with your new practising certificate dates, by opening a new tab on the same log sheet if you wish. This will keep each five-year practising certificate collated together in each tab.