The checks that have to happen every year — booked, done and documented.
A yearly plan from one licensed Melbourne electrician (REC 28523). Rental compliance for property managers and landlords, split-system aircon servicing for homeowners. You stop tracking due dates; the record stays current either way.
Thunderman Electrical and Air Conditioning Services offers yearly service plans across Greater Melbourne, strongest in the northern and north-western corridor. Two kinds: a rental compliance plan covering the two-yearly electrical safety check required under the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021 plus the annual smoke alarm check, scheduled and documented per property; and an annual air conditioning service plan covering filter and coil clean, refrigerant and drainage check and operational test for one or more split systems at the same address. Work is carried out by Yiannis Knodarites, licensed electrician REC 28523, VBA registered, ARCtick certified and fully insured. Plans are billed yearly, have no minimum term, and can be cancelled any time before the next visit is booked. The safety check record is kept until the next check replaces it, and a copy is provided to a tenant within seven days of a written request.
The idea
If it has to happen every year, it should be booked like it happens every year.
Most compliance work doesn't go wrong at the job. It goes wrong at the calendar. A check gets done, the record goes into somebody's inbox, the next due date lives in nobody's diary, and eighteen months later the question isn't whether the work was good — it's whether anyone can prove it happened.
That's what a plan is actually for. Not the visit on its own: the schedule, the follow-through and the record, held by the same licensed electrician who did the work. The point isn't that it saves you admin, though it does. The point is that it stays provably right without hanging on anyone remembering — including us, because the due date sits in Yiannis's calendar rather than yours.
Two plans
Pick the one that describes your situation.
Property managers & landlords
Rental compliance, kept current property by property. The two-yearly electrical safety check plus the annual smoke alarm check, scheduled to the right cycle for each address and carried out to AS/NZS 3019. Every visit comes back as a written, photographed report carrying the correct REC details — and the Certificate of Electrical Safety where rectification work was actually carried out.
The record is kept until the next check replaces it, so when a tenant makes a written request you're answering from a file, not a search. Single rentals and portfolios both work; five or more properties are arranged as one agreement with one schedule and one point of contact.
Your aircon service, done before summer — without the annual reminder. Filter and coil clean, refrigerant and drainage check, operational test. One split system or several at the same address, all on the same visit.
It gets booked ahead of the season rather than during the first hot week, which is when every installer in Melbourne is already committed and a tired unit picks its moment to stop. Handling refrigerant requires an ARCtick licence — Yiannis holds one, which is why this is a service and not something to attempt with a garden hose.
A date worth planning around, not panicking about.
From 13 October 2026, every residential rental agreement in Victoria falls under the two-yearly electrical safety check — including older agreements that were never checked, under the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021. The work itself is routine. What trips managers up is keeping every property on its own correct cycle with a current record ready to hand over.
There's no countdown on this page and there won't be one. It's simply easier to book while there's still room to plan around any follow-up work than to book in October alongside everyone else. If you want the full plain-language version first, here's theVictorian rental electrical safety checklist.
What you don't need
A plan shouldn't cover things the rules never asked for.
Some of what gets sold to landlords as compliance isn't the residential requirement at all, and an owner shouldn't be paying for it. So the line is drawn plainly here, even where drawing it means selling less:
Test and tag isn't part of it. That's a workplace measure, not the standard residential tenancy requirement — here's the regulation itself.
Short-stay sits outside the residential rules. Holiday and short-stay accommodation is excluded from the residential tenancy provisions, so it needs its own advice rather than being folded into a rental plan — the exemption, and where it stops.
The gap that usually does matter is the safety switch. Plenty of older rental stock has a breaker on every circuit and no RCD at all. That's a real minimum-standards gap, and it's the first thing worth looking at.
One sparky, accountable
The trade-off, stated plainly.
Thunderman is one registered electrical contractor. Yiannis runs the call, does the job, writes the report and sends the invoice — the same person every time, no call-centre step and no rotating subcontractors. For recurring scheduled work that's close to ideal, because the calendar is planned months ahead rather than fought over on the day.
It also has a ceiling, and pretending otherwise would be the wrong way to start a yearly arrangement. One pair of hands is not round-the-clock cover and doesn't come with a fixed response window. If what you need is same-hour attendance across every suburb at once, he isn't that, and he'll say so before you sign up rather than after. If what you want is one accountable licensed electrician keeping your recurring checks in order, that's exactly the fit. Volt, the chat assistant on this site, answers any hour — Yiannis answers his own mobile during working hours.
Any time before the next visit is booked — no lock-in
Service area
Greater Melbourne & surrounds
Insurance
Full public liability and professional indemnity (COI on request)
How a plan runs.
1. Tell him what you've got. The property or properties, the units, and any check dates you already know. Incomplete is fine — working out what's actually due is part of the job.
2. He confirms the scope and the cycle. Which checks are due when, and what each property genuinely requires. Nothing added that the rules don't ask for.
3. It goes in the calendar. Booked ahead around tenant access and around the season, so it clears steadily instead of all at once.
4. The record comes back and stays current. Written, photographed, with the correct REC details — ready to keep on file until the next check replaces it, and to hand to a tenant within seven days of a written request.
5. Next year it just happens. Same electrician, same schedule. Cancel any time before the next visit is booked if it stops being useful.
Service plans — common questions
How often does a rental electrical safety check have to happen?+
At least once every two years, by a licensed electrician, under the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021. From 13 October 2026 this applies to every residential rental agreement in Victoria — existing agreements included, not only leases signed after that date. The smoke alarm check is separate and runs annually. A plan keeps both on their own cycle, so the two-yearly and the yearly obligation do not have to be tracked by hand.
How long do we have to keep the safety check record, and when does the tenant get a copy?+
The rental provider keeps the record until the next check replaces it — there is no fixed number of years in the Victorian rules. The tenant is entitled to a copy within seven days of making a written request. That is exactly what a plan is for: the current record is always the one on file, so a request is answered from a folder rather than a search through old email.
Is a service plan just a way of locking us in?+
No. The plan is billed once a year and can be cancelled any time before the next visit is booked. There is no minimum term and no exit fee. The reason a plan is worth having is not the contract — it is that the check, the record and the next due date sit with one licensed electrician instead of with whoever happens to remember.
Do we need test and tag on our rental properties?+
No. Test and tag is a workplace occupational-health-and-safety measure, not the residential rental requirement. What the residential rules actually call for is a working safety switch (RCD) on the power circuits, working smoke alarms, and from 13 October 2026 the two-yearly electrical safety check of the fixed installation. A plan covers what is genuinely required — which is often less than landlords are told.
What does the annual aircon service actually include?+
Filter and coil clean, refrigerant and drainage check, and an operational test of the unit, booked ahead of summer rather than during the first hot week when every installer in Melbourne is already committed. Additional units at the same address are done on the same visit. Yiannis is ARCtick certified, which is what handling refrigerant legally requires.
What happens if the check finds a fault?+
You are told what was found, what it means and what it would take to put right, before anything is done. The same licensed electrician can rectify it — usually the sensible way to schedule it rather than chasing a second contractor — but rectification is quoted separately and never assumed as part of the plan. Nothing gets fixed on the quiet and appears on an invoice afterwards.
Can one electrician really cover a whole portfolio?+
Honestly: it depends on the size and the spread. Thunderman is one registered electrical contractor, Yiannis Knodarites (REC 28523) — the same person books, attends, reports and invoices. Inside the northern and north-western corridor that model holds up well, and scheduled recurring work is precisely what suits it, because the calendar is planned rather than reactive. For a large multi-suburb portfolio needing simultaneous same-day attendance everywhere, he is better used as a named preferred contractor for this corridor than as a sole panel option — and he will tell you that rather than over-commit.
Put the yearly checks on someone else's calendar.
Tell Yiannis what you've got — a rental, a portfolio, or a couple of split systems at home. He'll confirm what's actually due and what a plan would cover. Free quote, no lock-in.
G'day! I'm Volt — Thunderman's AI helper. Yiannis built me to be his right-hand while he's elbow-deep in a switchboard. I can't quote prices or book jobs myself, but I can walk you through what you need so when Yiannis calls you back, you're both on the same page. For anything urgent, call0434 254 474.
