What happens if extra work is found during the job?

In older homes around Altona, Williamstown and Footscray, opening up a job can reveal rubber-insulated cable that's gone brittle, a joint buried in the ceiling, a circuit with no safety switch, or a burnt connection behind a power point. In newer homes it's more often a circuit that's already fully loaded or a connection that was never properly tightened. On the air conditioning side, it might be a corroded pipe joint, a blocked drain or a damaged isolator.

We show you what we found, with a photo if it's in the roof or inside a wall. We explain whether it's a safety problem, a compliance issue or something that can wait. Then we give you the price for the additional work. Nothing extra goes ahead until you agree.

Sometimes the rules decide part of it. The Wiring Rules require additional safety switch protection when an existing circuit is altered, so adding a power point to a circuit without one can mean adding a safety switch too. Where we can see that coming, we'll raise it when we give the original price.

You can decline. If it's a defect rather than an immediate danger, we'll note it so you have a record for later. If it's dangerous, we'll recommend not using that circuit or appliance until it's fixed and, with your okay, make it safe before we leave, which may mean switching off one circuit.

Renters should pass what we found to the rental provider or agent. A dangerous electrical fault is on the legal list of urgent repairs for Victorian rentals.

Any electrical installation work we do, including repairs agreed on the day, needs a Certificate of Electrical Safety, so the extra work is recorded along with the rest.