Since 29 March 2021, Victorian law has required all rented residential premises to have an electrical safety check every two years, carried out by a Registered Electrical Contractor (REC). The Certificate of Electrical Safety has to be lodged with Energy Safe Victoria, the renter has a right to a copy on request, and the landlord cannot defer or skip the check without breaching the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021.
Millar Electrics carries out these checks for individual landlords and at scale for property managers across Melbourne's eastern suburbs. We're a Victorian REC (REC-22849), our team holds current A-Grade Electrical Licences, and we're set up to handle either single properties or portfolios.
What the check covers
The check is more than a glance at the board. It's a documented inspection covering the switchboard configuration, every safety switch (RCD) tested for correct trip-time and operation, polarity verification at every accessible outlet, earth continuity from the main earth stake to general points around the property, insulation resistance testing where called for, smoke alarm testing and battery replacement where required, and a photographic record of the board state. The COES is lodged with Energy Safe Victoria and a copy goes to the property manager or landlord.
Property manager portfolios
We work with property managers across the eastern suburbs to handle 2-yearly safety checks at portfolio scale. The arrangement: we coordinate access through the property manager, work through the portfolio on a scheduled cycle (so the 2-year clock doesn't lapse on any property), lodge all COES under one job batch, and provide a compliance summary back to the property manager showing every property's status. Bulk pricing applies and we can take portfolios from 10 properties to several hundred.
When we find non-compliance
A meaningful share of rental safety checks find at least one non-compliance — a missing RCD on a power circuit, a damaged or aged cable, a switchboard at end-of-life, smoke alarms past their use-by. We document the finding on the inspection report, quote the rectification, and can do the work at the same visit where the access window allows. The most efficient path for the landlord is rectification-on-the-spot — defer it and the property either fails its compliance window or needs a second access visit.
Single-property safety checks
If you're an individual landlord with a single rental rather than a portfolio, the same compliance work applies — book the check, we do the inspection, lodge the COES, and you have your two-year clock reset. We do these without minimum quantity.
Standards the check works to
The legislative basis is the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021. The electrical work itself is measured against AS/NZS 3000 (the Wiring Rules), with verification test procedures (RCD trip-time, earth fault loop impedance, insulation resistance, polarity, continuity) drawn from AS/NZS 3017. Smoke alarm placement and compliance is assessed against AS 3786 in line with the Victorian regulations. Any non-compliance is recorded against the relevant standard clause so rectification work is traceable rather than discretionary.