For property managers + REAs
Every Victorian rental electrical check, sorted for your whole portfolio.
From 13 October 2026, every residential rental in Victoria needs a two-yearly electrical safety check by a licensed electrician — including older leases now in scope. Send Thunderman your portfolio and one licensed, accountable sparky will tell you what actually needs doing, and clear it.
Quick answer
From 13 October 2026, every residential rental property in Victoria must have its electrical installation checked by a licensed electrician at least once every two years, under the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021 — for all agreements, new and existing. Thunderman Electrical and Air Conditioning Services carries out these checks for property managers and real-estate agencies across Greater Melbourne, strongest across the northern and north-western corridor. Yiannis is licensed (REC 28523), VBA-registered, ARCtick certified and fully insured. Send a portfolio for review — even with patchy records — and he'll confirm which properties need a check, provide a written photographed report and Certificate of Electrical Safety where applicable, and only recommend what the property type and tenancy actually require. The same mobile reaches Yiannis directly, not a call-centre.
Why this matters now
The rule, plainly.
The two-yearly electrical safety check comes from the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021. From 13 October 2026 it applies to every residential rental agreement in Victoria — not just leases signed after that date. A licensed electrician inspects and tests the fixed installation: the wiring, the switchboard, the power points, the hardwired light fittings, and the safety switches. The rental provider keeps the record until the next check replaces it and gives the tenant a copy within seven days of a written request.
For a managing agent that means one thing: a large share of the portfolio that has never had a formal check now needs one, and the properties with older records need confirming inside the two-year window. Booking early — while there's room to plan around any follow-up work — is simply easier than doing it in October. There's no countdown here, just a real date worth getting ahead of. If you want the full plain-language version, here's the Victorian rental electrical safety checklist.
What Thunderman clears for you
The check, the report, the certificate.
Yiannis carries out the two-yearly rental electrical safety check, and every callout comes back with a written report — fault diagnosis, work done, parts replaced, before-and-after photographs — plus the Certificate of Electrical Safety lodged with Energy Safe Victoria where applicable. The record carries the correct REC details, so it stands up as proof the obligation has been met. If the check turns up a defect, the same licensed electrician can rectify it — usually the sensible way to schedule it — rather than sending you chasing a second contractor.
What you don't need
We only recommend what the law actually requires.
Plenty of what gets sold to landlords around compliance isn't the residential requirement at all — and paying for it is money the owner shouldn't have to wear. So Thunderman is straight about the line:
- Test and tag isn't the residential rule. It's a workplace OHS requirement. For a standard house, unit or apartment let to a tenant, you don't need a test-and-tag report — here's why, with the regulation.
- Short-stay is treated differently. Airbnb and serviced apartments can attract both residential and hospitality-sector expectations — worth specific advice rather than assuming either standard applies.
- The real gap is usually the safety switch. A lot of older rental stock has a circuit breaker for every circuit but no RCD at all. That's a genuine minimum-standards gap — and the thing worth checking first.
Send the portfolio and Yiannis will tell you which properties genuinely need action and which already meet the standard. Less to do than you feared is a good outcome, and an honest one.
One sparky, accountable
The person who quotes is the person who turns up.
A property-manager portfolio doesn't need flashy. It needs a number that picks up, a sparky who shows up, and paperwork the owner pays from without a second email. Thunderman is one registered electrical contractor, Yiannis Knodarites (REC 28523), who runs the call, runs the job, writes the report, sends the invoice, and is the same person you'll talk to about the next one. No call-centre triage step, no rotating subcontractors, no rebadging a job from a different ABN onto a Thunderman invoice.
That model has a real ceiling, and Thunderman is honest about it. One pair of hands can't cover an unlimited portfolio inside an unlimited window. For agencies running large multi-suburb portfolios where simultaneous-fault response is the rule, Thunderman is best deployed as a named preferred contractor for the northern and north-western corridor rather than a sole panel option. Inside that corridor the response and the reporting hold up against any larger competitor.
At a glance
| Phone (Yiannis direct) | 0434 254 474 |
|---|---|
| Licence | REC 28523 (Energy Safe Victoria) · VBA 126068 · ARCtick |
| The check | Two-yearly rental electrical safety check by a licensed electrician |
| Every job | Written, photographed report + Certificate of Electrical Safety where applicable |
| Service area | Greater Melbourne & surrounds |
| Insurance | Full public liability and professional indemnity (COI on request) |
What you get on every job.
- Two-yearly rental electrical safety checks — installation inspection + test + report to owner and agent
- Certificate of Electrical Safety lodged with Energy Safe Victoria where applicable
- Written job report: diagnosis, work done, parts, before/after photos
- RCD / safety-switch installation, retrofit and testing
- Switchboard upgrades for older rental stock (pre-1990s ceramic-fuse boards)
- Smoke alarm compliance to AS 3786 + AS/NZS 3000
- Same mobile for booking, after-hours and follow-up — no triage step
- Xero / MYOB-friendly PDF invoice with line items + property reference
- Hot-water unit electrical isolation and replacement support
- Power-restoration after distributor-side outage clearance
- Split-system aircon repair, service, replace (ARCtick certified)
- Pre-tenancy electrical safety reports under Part 4 RTA + regulations
How it works.
- 1. Send the portfolio. The list of rentals — even with patchy check dates. Suburbs, rough numbers, anything you already know. No paperwork up-front.
- 2. Yiannis reviews the scope. Which properties still need a check, which have a valid record inside the two-year window, and what the property type actually requires. Nothing over-sold.
- 3. He confirms and books. A plain scope and a schedule that works around tenant access, so it clears steadily rather than all at the last minute.
- 4. Reports and records come back. Written, photographed, with the Certificate of Electrical Safety where applicable — ready to keep on file until the next check and hand to the tenant on request.
Start here
Send your portfolio for review.
Sent ✓
Thanks — Yiannis has your portfolio.
He'll review the scope and come back on what actually needs doing before October — and what doesn't. If it's urgent, a call is fastest.
Call 0434 254 474Property managers — common questions
What changes on 13 October 2026 for rental properties?
From that date, every residential rental in Victoria must have its electrical installation checked by a licensed electrician at least once every two years — under the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021. It applies to all agreements, new and existing, not just leases signed after that date. If a property has never had a formal check, or the last one was more than two years ago, it falls out of compliance from 13 October. The obligation sits with the rental provider or the managing agent acting for them.
Do we have to test and tag appliances in our rentals?
No. Test and tag is a workplace OHS requirement — it does not apply to standard residential tenancies. What the law actually requires is a working safety switch (RCD) on the power circuit, working smoke alarms, and from 13 October 2026 the two-yearly electrical safety check of the installation. We only recommend what the property type and tenancy actually require, so you are not paying for compliance you do not owe.
Can you review a whole portfolio at once, even if our records are patchy?
Yes — that's the point of the portfolio review. Send the list even if the check dates are incomplete. Yiannis will work out which properties still need a check, which already have a valid record inside the two-year window, and which will need attention first, and come back with a plain scope rather than a job-by-job scramble.
Can you provide a written report and Certificate of Electrical Safety we can pass to the owner?
Yes. Every check comes back with a written job report — what was inspected, what was found, any defects to rectify, before-and-after photographs — and, where applicable, the Certificate of Electrical Safety lodged with Energy Safe Victoria. The record includes the correct REC details so it stands up as proof the obligation has been met. Landlords must keep it until the next check replaces it and give the tenant a copy within seven days of a written request; the report is built to make that easy.
Do you set up trade accounts for multi-property portfolios?
Yes — once you've put a few jobs through, Thunderman can set up a rolling trade-account arrangement: one set of contact details, one set of invoicing details, photographed reports after every callout, and a monthly statement line-itemised by property if that suits the way the agency runs its books. Invoices are issued as PDF with full ABN + REC details, in the standard book-keeping format for Xero or MYOB.
How fast can you reach a rental during a no-power callout?
During business hours Yiannis prioritises confirmed faults across the northern and north-western corridor (Craigieburn, Mickleham, Greenvale, Roxburgh Park, Campbellfield, Broadmeadows, Epping, Mernda, Wollert) and gets to site as fast as he can. As a solo operator he is straight about timing rather than promising a fixed window. Outside business hours the same mobile reaches him directly — not a call-centre — and Volt, the chat assistant on this site, answers any hour.
What licence and insurance details do you provide for landlord paperwork?
Full set on request: REC 28523 (Energy Safe Victoria), ABN 34 741 642 582, VBA registration 126068, ARCtick certificate, and a Certificate of Currency for public liability and professional indemnity insurance.
Get ahead of October — one portfolio, one accountable sparky.
Send your rental list for review, or call Yiannis on 0434 254 474. He'll answer, and only recommend what the properties actually need.