Electrical Checks for Rental Property

Veebee88 on 28/10/2021 - 18:46

Due to some new rental regulations in Vic I had to do some electrical and gas checks.
My agent suggested a company that does it.
I’ve already paid over $400 for these checks that can’t be signed off until all the works have been done so it’s almost not worth calling another electrician or company.
Being a female I have no idea if I’m getting scammed.
The electrician sent me the following email. Does this sound reasonable? Seems dodgy to me how he doesn’t know how long it will take

3 GPOs (PowerPoints) have lost their earth connection and require fault finding in order to make them safe
- 1 GPO in the dining area needs to be replaced and or further fault find to correct the existing fault

The above works need to be carried out urgently.

  • 2 smoke alarms need to be replaced and a further 1 needs to be installed outside the front bedroom to comply with the regulations
  • Further circuit protection upgrades are required at the switchboard to comply with the regulations but does not need to be carried out urgently and i will provide a quote for this and the smoke alarm rectifications.

Please note smoke alarms should be installed prior to tenants moving in.

For the fault finding works it is too difficult to know just how long it will take to find but for the first hour the cost associated is $169 +GST and for every hour after that it is an additional $94 +GST.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • ThithLord on 28/10/2021 - 18:59
    +4

    Sounds very reasonable

  • oscargamer on 28/10/2021 - 19:00
    +1

    Seems reasonable to me.

    If you are not happy, find your own sparky.

    Personally I would not use the agency one.

  • thatonethere on 28/10/2021 - 19:06

    How old is your property?

    • Veebee88 on 28/10/2021 - 19:06

      From the 70s

      • Mechz on 28/10/2021 - 19:23
        +2

        I'd say everything listed seems fair and reasonable then. It's not like they reckon the whole house needs rewiring, which, for an almost 50 year old house could have been possible depending on pests etc.

      • thatonethere on 28/10/2021 - 20:12

        Probably fair enough then. I have a 1960s home and after 5 years I just paid a sparky to replace all the switches and points when we did the major Reno. Too many flakey issues.

  • burningrage on 28/10/2021 - 20:08

    I understand the frustration with this new Rental Regulation. You ended up having to pay 2x and more.

    If this helps, I have Detector Inspector to do a subscription like all-you-can-callout service which complies with this new regulation as well as giving you discount if things require some work. The subscription cost is steep for the first year but it includes smoke detector services as well.

    Otherwise, if you are an AGL customer, I think you do have a free HomeFirst services which also do the above. Hopefully they can give you more favourable assessment than the one you've got.

  • AndyC1 on 28/10/2021 - 20:20
    -1

    Next time the cheapest way to check power points is by buying one of each of these:
    https://www.jaycar.com.au/power-point-and-earth-leakage-test…
    https://www.mjselectricalsupplies.com.au/socket-polarity-ear…

    If it shows there is an issue then you know that an electrician needs to do work. The sparky would have used a commercial version of the items above to check the power points.

    If you are in an apartment block then I would check one of the GPO's in the stair well to see if it has an earth problem and if it does then it is an issue in the power distribution for the apartment block and the strata is responsible. To do this buy the checker from jaycar and use it.

    It sounds like the power board in the apartment does have circuit breakers with RCD protection.

    To fix all of the issues I would get another quote as REA usually use expensive companies,.

    • timps on 28/10/2021 - 23:31
      +1

      No, the best idea is not to buy a device yourself and test it. Professionals do this for a reason. OP hasn't been overcharged for anything.
      It's a rental, the work done can literally be deducted. Don't put people's lives at risk because you think you can just DIY everything.

      The sparkie did more than just plug something in 6 times on a walk around the house.

      • AndyC1 on 29/10/2021 - 09:22
        -1

        It is a very good idea to have one of the devices so you can test GPO's. Sounds like you are not familiar with the way electricians work and I have seen allot of unsafe work that has been done by electricians who as you think are professionals, but in reality there are some that should never have been given a license.

        I never said for the OP to fix anything, all I said was to check using one of the devices and then OP can be aware if the earth issue is a strata issue or an issue in OP's apartment.

        So what exactly did the sparky do for checking the GPO's as your last sentence indicates you know exactly what the sparky did.

  • bdl on 28/10/2021 - 20:33
    +1

    For the fault finding works it is too difficult to know just how long it will take to find but for the first hour the cost associated is $169 +GST and for every hour > after that it is an additional $94 +GST.

    For the GPOs, If you don't want to pay the fault finding charge and they are additional points in a room you could always opt to have them decommissioned.

    All the prices you've been quoted are pretty much in line with what I had to do recently in light of the new regulations, for a building same era as yours.

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