Issuing penalty infringement notices
Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) are just one enforcement tool our inspectors can use to encourage people to act lawfully and stop unlicensed or unsafe gas work. For your family, your neighbours and other visitors and tradespeople to your property–unlicensed work means unsafe work.
PINs can be issued for a wide range of low-level offences relating to petroleum and gas safety matters prescribed by regulation such as:
- doing, or directing another person to do, unlicensed gas work
- supplying or installing unapproved gas devices and systems
- failing to comply with a prescribed standard for a safety requirement
- failing to issue or provide a copy of a certificate to a relevant person.
View the offences that can attract a penalty infringement notice in the State Penalties Enforcement Regulation on the Queensland legislation website.
Paying a fine
The fine should be paid in full, or arrangements made to pay by instalment, by the due date. For all PINs, payment must be received within 28 days of the notice being issued.
The fine can be paid in the following ways which are listed on the PIN:
- BPoint
- BPAY.
If the department has not received payment or a response by the due date, enforcement action may be taken to recover the balance and additional costs incurred through the State Penalties Enforcement Registry (SPER).
Voluntary instalment plan (VIP)
Fines of $200 or more may be paid by instalments. To pay by instalments, an initial instalment of at least $60 must be forwarded to the department by the due date. A VIP notice will then be forwarded to you by SPER for payment of the balance. SPER does not add additional administration costs for a fine being paid by a VIP if the initial instalment of $60 is received by the due date.
Unpaid PINs
Unpaid PINs are referred to SPER to be managed (additional costs will apply).
Disputing the offence
To dispute a PIN, you can:
- lodge an application to have the matter reviewed by the department (some offences only)
- elect to have the matter heard and determined in court.
Request to have the matter reviewed
You can request a review of the decision to issue a PIN under some sections of the Act and Regulation. To find out if a review is an option, contact the departmental officer who issued the PIN. Otherwise, you can elect to have the matter heard in court.
A request for review must include sufficient information and evidence about why the PIN should be withdrawn. Insufficient or unsubstantiated information may lead to an adverse review decision and the matter being referred to SPER or court.
Elect to have the matter heard in court
You can elect to have a PIN matter dealt with by a court.
To elect to have a PIN dealt with by a court, tick the 'Court Election' box on the reverse side of the PIN. The bottom of the PIN must also be co-signed by an authorised witness such as a Justice of the Peace (JP) or Commissioner of Declarations (C.Dec).
The signed and witnessed PIN must be returned to the address provided.
For all other departmental PIN matters, the court election section must be completed and returned to the address provided.
PINs resources
You can download gas safety resources for printing from our safety campaign page.