PIRB
The Plumbing Industry Registration Board: the register of qualified plumbers, and the body whose certificate of compliance a plumbing installation carries.
What the register is for
PIRB registers the individual plumber, not the company, and issues the plumbing certificate of compliance against that registration. Where a municipality's water by-laws call for a certificate, or a conveyancer or insurer asks for one, it is a PIRB-registered plumber who signs it. The registration is personal and it lapses; the certificate is only as good as the registration behind it on the day it was issued.
Who must be on it
Plumbers, and every client whose job touches water, drainage or a geyser. Ask which registered plumber will sign the certificate before the job starts.
Where it comes from
The Board is an industry registration body; the certificate's standing comes from the municipal water by-laws and the SANS 10252 and 10254 installations standards that reference it.
How to check
Look the plumber up by name or registration number. A certificate carries the number.
What a listing does not prove
That the company employing the plumber is registered anywhere else, or that its other trades are covered.
Read the detail
The panel
A contractor on the panel is checked on PIRB before it quotes, and the check is repeated when the registration falls due. You see one quote from one company, with this already done.