Common-area electrical work is one of the easiest things for a strata committee to defer. It is also one of the most expensive things to fix in a hurry after a failure.
Common-area electrical work is one of the easiest things for a strata committee to defer. It is also one of the most expensive things to fix in a hurry after a failure.
Strata electrical work has its own rhythm. The owners corporation pays, the strata manager coordinates, the executive committee approves, and the residents only notice when something goes wrong. That sequence makes routine maintenance harder than it needs to be, and emergency work more expensive than it should be.
This guide covers what an owners corporation is actually responsible for, the annual inspection cadence that keeps premiums and risk under control, the most common failures we see in Sydney strata buildings, and what an emergency lighting compliance visit covers.
Strata legislation in NSW makes the owners corporation responsible for common-property electrical infrastructure. That includes lobby lighting, lift power supply, common-area powerpoints, basement and corridor lighting, intercom systems, emergency lighting, and the main switchboards feeding the building.
Inside individual lots, the lot owner is responsible. The boundary is the inside face of the unit wall, where the lot wiring takes over from the common supply. We map this clearly on every site visit so there is no ambiguity later when something fails on the boundary.
We recommend every Sydney strata building schedule an annual common-area electrical inspection. It is a half-day visit for a small block, a full day for a larger one. The findings feed straight into the ten-year capital works fund forecast.
Every common-area switchboard gets a visual inspection and a thermal scan with an infrared camera. Hot connections, ageing breakers, and loose terminals show up as bright spots on the scan. We log the readings, flag anything urgent, and quote any planned upgrade work.
Emergency lights and exit signs must run a 90-minute discharge test annually and a brief functional test every six months. We carry out both, document the results, and replace any unit that fails. This is the area where most strata buildings have compliance gaps.
Every safety switch in a common-area switchboard gets a button test and a trip-time test with a calibrated meter. Earth continuity gets verified at common-area outlets. Any failures get logged and quoted.
Across hundreds of strata buildings we look after, the same handful of failures account for most emergency call-outs. Knowing the pattern lets us pre-empt the work during planned visits.
Lobby and corridor lighting failures from end-of-life LED drivers. Lift supply problems caused by ageing main switchboards. Emergency lighting batteries that have lost capacity below the legal minimum. Intercom systems that fail after lightning surges. Each of these has a planned-maintenance fix that is far cheaper than the emergency callout.
Emergency lighting is the area where we see the most regulatory exposure for owners corporations. The Building Code of Australia and AS 2293 require functional testing every six months and a full 90-minute battery discharge test annually. The results must be recorded in a logbook on site.
We provide the logbook, complete every test on schedule, replace any unit that fails, and supply the compliance certificates the strata manager keeps on file. If the building is ever inspected after an incident, the documentation is there. If it is not, the questions become much harder to answer.
Many Sydney strata buildings still operate on switchboards that were installed in the 1970s or 1980s. They lack modern RCBO protection, they cannot be safely worked on under load, and they need replacement before they fail rather than after.
A planned switchboard upgrade for a small block is typically a one to two day job, scheduled around resident notice, with brief supply interruptions managed in advance. An emergency switchboard replacement after a failure is a multi-day job at full emergency rates, with no choice about timing. The cost gap between the two scenarios is substantial.
Most strata committees we work with set up a standing annual electrical inspection in the same week each year, often tied to the AGM. The findings go into the capital works planning, the urgent items get scheduled in the same quarter, and the rest spread across the next twelve months.
Done this way, the strata electrical budget becomes predictable, the building stays compliant, and emergency callouts drop sharply. It is the single change that most reduces total electrical spend across a five to ten year horizon for a Sydney strata building.
If your safety switch is more than ten years old, or it trips for no obvious reason, it is already telling you something.
Most EV owners do not think about their home charger until the car arrives in the driveway. By that point, the install is a rush, and rushed installs go wrong.
Federation cottages, post-war fibros, 1970s brick veneers. They share one thing. Their switchboards were not built for 2026.
Fill in your details below and we'll get back to you within 20 minutes or less.
From blown fuses to full rewires, we're here to power your day.