Verify everything · Nothing to take on trust
What these sources do not do
A register confirms a licence exists. It does not tell you whether someone is any good, and it does not replace a conversation. Government guidance.
None of the organisations listed are affiliated with me and none of them endorse this site. Last checked 12 August 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026.
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A register confirms a licence exists. It does not tell you whether someone is any good, and it does not replace a conversation. Government guidance tells you the rules. It does not tell you what your business is worth in this market, to this buyer, this year. That part still needs someone who has looked at your numbers.
If you want that, a market appraisal is free and confidential and commits you to nothing. If you would rather read first, start with what your business is worth or how selling a business works.
The honest limits of every register on this page
A register answers one narrow question well. It confirms that a licence, a company, a business name, a registration or a security interest existed, in a stated form, on a stated date. Read the ‘details current at’ field on the Queensland licensee search and you have the date the data was last updated, which is not the same as today.
Here is the part that is usually left out. Whether the free Queensland licensee search or the paid licence extract discloses disciplinary history could not be confirmed. The Office of Fair Trading publishes what each product returns, and the published fields are the holder’s name, the registered business name and place of business, the licence status expressed as current, expired, refused, cancelled or suspended, and the licence number and class. Disciplinary history is not among the published fields, and no statement that it is excluded could be found either. Checked 14 August 2026. So the absence could not be confirmed, and this page will not assert it either way.
The separate place to look is the Office of Fair Trading’s own enforcement data. The Legal and Enforcement Actions dataset is published on the Queensland Government Open Data Portal at data.qld.gov.au and holds completed legal and enforcement actions by calendar year. It is a different product from the licensee register, it is searched separately, and its field level detail could not be verified for this page.
Three further limits are worth carrying into any search you run. The free Queensland register “is for your information only. You cannot use it as evidence in legal proceedings”, so the paid extract is the product for anything that could end up in a dispute. A Personal Property Securities Register certificate proves what was registered at the moment you searched and nothing about the following week, which is why buyers search again close to settlement. And no register on this page carries a view on whether anybody is any good at their work. That is read out of documents and answers, not out of a search field.
Tony Pope is a licensed business broker, not a solicitor. This explains how these rules and clauses usually work so you can have a better conversation with your lawyer.
Your contract should be drafted and reviewed by a solicitor. Where anything on this page differs from an official source or from your own legal advice, that source and that advice are right.
This explains how the rules generally work on a business sale. It is not advice about your situation, and nothing here should be acted on without your accountant running your actual numbers.
Tony Pope is not a registered tax agent and does not give tax advice. Deal structure changes what you keep, sometimes by more than the negotiation does, so get that advice before you sign anything.
Shares in a private company are a financial product under the Corporations Act 2001. Tony Pope does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence and does not give financial product advice. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy or sell shares.
Where a sale is structured as a share sale, the share transfer itself is handled by your solicitor and your accountant. This page explains why the structure matters to your licence, your accreditation or your registration. It does not tell you which structure to choose.
Ask what it is worth
Free, in writing, and nobody finds out you asked. Tell me the trade and the suburb and I will do the rest.
Nobody finds out you are selling. This goes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I will not contact your accountant, your landlord, your bank or your staff, ever, unless you ask me to.
If you would rather not put anything in writing yet, ring 0431 124 128. Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a time in my diary.
Checked me out? Let's talk.
You have the licence number, the registers and the legislation. When you have finished checking, the next step is thirty minutes and a number. No cost, no obligation, no follow-up you did not ask for.