Richmond 3121 · REC 28523
Rental electrical safety checks in Richmond
From 13 October 2026 every residential rental in Victoria needs a two-yearly electrical safety check by a licensed electrician. Here is what that means for Richmond — what the check covers, what it usually turns up in the housing around here, and what you can stop worrying about.
Quick answer
Rentals in Richmond 3121 come under the two-yearly electrical safety check from 13 October 2026, including leases signed years ago. Richmond’s tenanted stock splits between densely packed 1880s and 1890s workers’ cottages and warehouse conversions that inherited part-commercial, part-residential wiring — two very different checks. Thunderman inspects and tests the fixed installation in either, reports what was found, and works out which circuit belongs to the lot and which to the owners corporation before billing anyone for it. REC 28523, 4.9★ across 53 Google reviews.
The rule
One check, every two years.
The requirement comes from the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021. From 13 October 2026 it applies to every residential rental agreement in Victoria — existing leases as well as new ones. A licensed electrician inspects and tests the fixed installation, the rental provider keeps the record until the next check replaces it, and the tenant gets a copy within seven days of a written request. The full plain-language version is on theVictorian rental electrical safety checklist.
What is rented in Richmond
The stock, and what it was wired for.
Richmond rents in two shapes. The first is the single-fronted workers' cottage — tightly packed rows from the 1880s and 1890s that were wired for almost nothing and have been adapted ever since. There is barely any roof space to work in and the walls are too thin to hide much, so additions across the decades have tended to be surface-run or squeezed into whatever cavity already existed. The board is frequently the original ceramic-fuse enclosure with a modern circuit or two spliced onto it.
The second is the warehouse conversion. Richmond's industrial past left heavy brick shells that were carved into apartments and studios, and the wiring they inherited is part commercial and part residential — sometimes still three-phase, usually with body-corporate common areas carrying shared lighting, intercoms, car-stacker power and stairwell exit-and-emergency lighting maintained to AS 2293. Establishing which circuit belongs to the lot and which to the common property is half the job before any testing begins. On the lower Burnley streets near the Yarra there is flood exposure to weigh as well, and water near old wiring is a call to make before anyone goes near it.
On the job
What the check turns up in Richmond.
Not a prediction about your property — these are the findings that recur in this kind of housing, and the ones worth knowing about before October rather than after.
- A cottage board where the original ceramic fuses still carry circuits that a renovated kitchen was later added to.
- Surface-run additions in a cottage with no roof space, made at different times and to different standards.
- In a conversion, a lot circuit that turns out to be fed from the common board — a metering and responsibility question as much as a safety one.
- Three-phase remnants from the building’s industrial life that were never properly decommissioned.
- Stairwell exit-and-emergency lighting in a converted block that is the owners corporation’s item but is failing on the same visit.
At a glance
Richmond rental checks.
| Suburb | Richmond 3121 |
|---|---|
| Council | Yarra |
| The requirement | Two-yearly electrical safety check, from 13 October 2026 |
| Who may do it | A licensed electrician holding a REC number — REC 28523 |
| What is checked | The fixed installation: wiring, switchboard, power points, hardwired fittings, safety switches |
| You receive | A written report, plus a Certificate of Electrical Safety where work is carried out |
| Quote | Free — call 0434 254 474 |
For everything else Yiannis does locally, see theRichmond electrician page. Managing more than one property? Theproperty-manager portfolio review takes the whole list at once, patchy records included.
What you don't need
Less than the market often claims.
Test and tag is a workplace requirement, not a residential tenancy one — a standard house, unit or apartment let to a tenant does not need a test-and-tag report (here is why, with the regulation). Short-stay accommodation is treated differently again. And a check carried out before 13 October 2026 still counts, provided a licensed electrician did it and the record was kept — the two-year clock does not restart. Background on the check itself:the two-yearly electrical safety check for Victorian rentals.
Rental safety checks in Richmond — common questions
My Richmond rental is an apartment in a converted warehouse. Is the check any different?
The obligation is identical; the work is more involved. A conversion often carries a mix of old industrial circuits and patched residential ones, with shared body-corporate runs tangled through them, so the first task is establishing what feeds what. Once that is clear the check proceeds as it would anywhere: inspect and test the fixed installation inside the lot, confirm the safety switch is present and operating correctly, and report the findings. Where a fault turns out to sit on the common property, Yiannis says so in writing rather than billing the owner for something the owners corporation owns.
The cottage takes water at the back in heavy rain. Should I mention that before the check?
Yes, please do. Water and older wiring are the combination that turns a routine check into a genuine hazard, and knowing which parts of the property have taken water tells the electrician where to look hardest. If a rental has been through a flood event, do not wait for the two-yearly cycle — switch off at the mains if it is safe to do so and call 0434 254 474. Thunderman makes the supply safe first, then assesses what the water has reached and reports it properly.
Rental checks in nearby suburbs
Get the Richmond rentals cleared before October.
Send the address — or the whole list — and Yiannis will tell you what each property actually needs. He carries out the check, writes the report and lodges the certificate where work is done. Free quote, and the person who quotes is the person who turns up.