Power Has Been off in a Unit I Am Interested in

Lwalrus29 on 28/07/2015 - 16:14

I have made an offer on an old unit,
planning to renovate and rent it out

my building inspection is booked in for tomorrow, but the power has been disconnected as its been vacant for the last year

the contract states that I will be buying the property as is, and when I asked the agent if there was anyway to check out the circuits in the house to make sure that everything still works they told me my only option was to get an account with a power company and get them to connect the power, but I havent even signed the contract to buy this place yet.

is there any other alternatives to get the power up in this place?
anything else I should consider being careful with a vacant apartment of 12 months?

Home & Garden

Comments

  • nocure on 28/07/2015 - 16:38
    +6

    A standard building inspection is only visual so it would pay to organize a sparky to test circuits and gpo's.

    • mskeggs on 28/07/2015 - 18:15

      Really? It would cost half the replacement cost just to get a sparky out for a test. I would take a look myself and if it hasn't visibly been disturbed (i.e. stuff torn out) chances are very high it will be fine.

      • nocure on 28/07/2015 - 18:23
        +1

        Depending on the age of the house there could be wiring problems you can't see,a few dollars spent for peace of mind.imo

        • mskeggs on 28/07/2015 - 18:34

          This is an unrelated issue. The OP is getting a building inspection that can advise if the wiring is not up to standard.
          Getting an electrician to give you the same message is a waste of money. And note it is a unit, so depending on the setup, the wiring may well be the responsibility of the strata manager.
          I don't disagree it is useful to know if the wiring has been renewed in an old property, but getting an electrician in addition to a building inspection is unnecessary.

        • nocure on 28/07/2015 - 19:05
          +1

          @mskeggs:
          Building inspection doesn't include electrical.

        • mskeggs on 28/07/2015 - 21:19

          @nocure:
          My last one included a section that said the wiring was old and needed upgrading.

        • Geewhizz on 29/07/2015 - 06:40
          +1

          Ours had nothing to do with electricals.

        • walrus29 on 29/07/2015 - 07:09
          +1

          @Geewhizz:

          I asked the people doing the inspection, they said they can visually assess for things that look bad (exposed wiring in places) and will reccomend an electrician if things look odd

          Cheers for the replies everyone, good to hear other peoples opionions

  • zzymurgy on 28/07/2015 - 16:58

    You'd have to talk to the building inspector about what they would do in this situation, but the short answer is no, there is no other way to get power connected.

  • nrg2010 on 28/07/2015 - 18:21
    +8

    Hey, I'm a registered electrical contractor

    It would cost a fair bit to get a sparky to test it to AS3000 (the ozzie standards on wiring).
    Building inpsectors can be quite poor in their interpretation of the condition of the electrics (they were for my house at least).

    You can a guess at the wiring yourself, not much can go wrong unless there has been a fire, rodent infestation, termite attack or a serious case of DIY abuse.

    Questions to ask your surveyor

    How old is the apartment?
    Does it have RCD's ?
    Does it have circuit breakers or rewireables at the main fuse box?
    What is the condition of the fixtures (light, GPO's, antenna etc)?
    What sort of tv antenna does it have? (my house required a square digital aerial to be installed)
    If there is any visible wiring is it TPS (PVC/PVC) or is it something older and scarier? The TPS was introduced in the 80's, anything older would probably need replacing especially if its made of some rubber/material kinda fire waiting to happen set up.

    It being vacant for a year it will not have any effect or deteriorate the wiring or fittings further.

    • walrus29 on 29/07/2015 - 07:10

      Thankyou very much for the information, ill be adding these questions to my list!

  • [Deactivated] on 28/07/2015 - 20:55
    +3

    Are you replacing the plaster boards?
    If so, might be worthwhile just redoing the wiring.

    Really old houses have insufficient electrics to truly support todays requirements.
    This also gives you the opportunity to lay down network cables, etc.

    When we renovate our rentals and replace the plaster board we always redo the electrics, put in extra points, wiring for network, etc, etc. Cheaper to lay it now while the walls are exposed.

    • walrus29 on 29/07/2015 - 07:12

      Good thing to consider, thanks

      • [Deactivated] on 29/07/2015 - 08:29

        If you do go down that path, a sparky will be able to setup temporary power points for tradesmen.

  • Euphemistic on 29/07/2015 - 10:19
    +1

    Might be a silly question, but how do they disconnect the power? Can you just flip on the switch to test stuff or have they physically removed the connection.

    I've moved out of two houses and told the supplier. They disconnected our account, but the power was still on for the next couple of weeks, which was good for post move cleanup and maintenance.

    • nrg2010 on 29/07/2015 - 10:43

      Typically they just stop billing you from a date.
      Whether they remove the fuse or not depends on the network provider.

    • walrus29 on 29/07/2015 - 13:30

      Just had the inspection done, the main switch has been switched to off, and has some tamper tape over it.
      I wasn't there, but am heading over this afternoon to do my own final walk around,
      the inspector said he wasn't aloud to touch it? seems fair enough for someone following codes, but for me?

  • PissLUR on 29/07/2015 - 11:01
    -1

    Take a power generator with you during the inspection.

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