As one of Perth’s most experienced electrical services providers to the real estate industry, we at PRF deal with a lot of property managers.
And one thing that continues to surprise us is the confusion around Electrical Safety Certificates.
Property managers are forever ringing up and asking us if we can inspect rental properties and supply a safety certificate based on the results – and the short answer is, no.
No electrician can actually issue you an Electrical Safety Certificate based on an inspection.
We can – and do – issue Safety Certificates for work that we’ve done on the property, certifying that the work we have done is to code.
And we’re more than happy to comprehensively inspect a property and provide an Electrical Condition Report based on that inspection.
But please don’t ask us, or any electrician, to issue an Electrical safety Certificate based on an inspection alone – it’s not allowed.
Why an Electrical Condition inspection is a good idea.
Some property managers shy away from having Electrical Condition inspections done. They say,
“It’s just a way for the electrician to come in and find faults, which we then have to pay to fix,”
And they’re right.
We will look for faults, and if there are any there, we’ll find them. We’ll also detail whether the issue needs to be rectified immediately or it can wait.
If it needs to be fixed, we can do it on the same day, while we’re on the premises. Yes, it will add little to the inspection cost. But the alternative is to leave it, and then get the inevitable late-night call from the tenant when a failure or power loss occurs.
When that happens, you’ll pay the call out fee as well as the costs associated with the repair, and you’ll have an unhappy tenant to deal with.
And if the fault causes a fire or other accident, you’ll be even worse off.
That’s why we suggest to our many property manager clients – let us do the inspection, and if we find anything that needs repair or replacement, authorise it. It’s better to spend a few dollars now, than a lot of money later.
The good news is, if we do an Electrical Condition report and find things that need fixing, we will issue a Safety Certificate for each of the repairs once they’re complete.
If you’d like to talk about our specialist understanding of property management and electrics, call Phil at PRF today.