QLD Urgent repairs only 2 weeks after settlement

Hi all,
I purchased a property in Queensland last January but the settlement was in late March.
The property has been tenanted for a couple of weeks and to my surprise I have now been informed by my property manager that she arranged urgent repairs. Please see below.

Due to new legislation from Energex they now require all new installations/rectifications of switchboards and existing switchboards will require their meters to be located at the front of the property or within the first 2 m along an adjacent side of the premises, were they are readily accessible for meter readers.
Meters are also now legally required to be back wired & located within a hinged enclosure with a door.

The quote is for $3,200.

Am I right to be worried with the situation? Should I ask for a second quote?

Regards

 

Ask your PM to send you a link to the relevant leglislation

I have not heard of that leglislation. From the wording it seems to apply to new meters, or rectification work to existing meters. You may not be affected.

 

This. If this applied retrospectively the uproar would be felt all over this forum.

 

It’s a Energex specific requirement.
Definitely required at a new connection but I have never heard of an existing property being forced to change. Especially now meters are being read remotely.
I would be asking if this has come from Energex directly or if it’s just a Electrician attempting to upsell.
I’d say 30% of houses have meters outside that 2m ruling, not a big deal

 

i live in the Brisbane area , and find that astounding , i would ask further questions , PROBING questions

cheers

 

LOL

Never heard of that ever before. I would not be doing a single thing.

P.S welcome to the world of property investment where headaches are a daily occurrence. For some reason every single public holiday in the last year one of my tenants needed an emergency callout. FML!! Adds up to be ALOT of money.

Enjoy the fun thats coming your way.

 

after the exploits of some meter readers over the decades .. 'uproar' is very polite

my mum's place wasn't physically read ' for over 30 years because of 'a big dog' the had been deceased for over 20 years .. the subtle hint was there was no front fence for at least 15 years

( BTW that particular dog was scared of toads and green tree frogs and 32kg in NOT big )

 

Yeah but headaches coming from poor legal interpretation of your own property managers should be something investors are spared from.

Or even worse, its some attempt to get work for their own related business or something.

 

Sparky from Brissy here.

We have two sets of rules. Australian standards and Energex metering manual.

There's a few times when things are required to be brought into the current rules.
A few big ones:
Meters must be mounted on a non combustible panel(chipboard was common for many years!)
Meters must be on a hinged panel
Meters must have an isolation link for Meters to be swapped without pulling fuse
Meter neutral must be sealed in enclosure to prevent tampering
Must be accessible, within 2 Meters of the front of the house. This is able to be relaxed with application. The other rules still must apply.

Here's a classic rental board I upgraded.

So? What triggers these?

Work to main switch, new mains, solar or new metering.

How about sale or change of retailers? No, unless defects are found.

Note. Some retailers are upgrading to new smart 4g Meters with remote read for all clients. This is a grey area. Many will simple swap over with no questions asked. Some won't and issue form 3 for rectification.


Cheapest solutions: go with a company happy to do meter read on existing meters. If tennants aren't happy, pay for their power until you do the below?

better option...Add new meter panel to front with new mains/earth stake to existing location and leave existing switchboard as is. Cost should be around $1000 pending access/asbestos/length.

Best option. Move to all new circuit protection and extend existing power and lighting circuits.

Get another quote. Any more questions ask away.

 

If you get anything else than this sort of install, find a better guy. I had to cut the brick to recess the new size board in, keeping the pathway clear and water out. All old cable joined with new with resin filled heat shrink and waterproof, especially important near the salt air where this one was. Entire board was treated with a clear lacquer over the paint to preserve it for years to come.

 

That sort of neatness calms the nerves. Clearly done by someone who takes pride in their work. Love it.

 

Thanks mate. I was up there for the week to do the AC units. I always price enough time to do it neat and right every time. I'm "too expensive" for some but the cheap guy pays twice. See a few more jobs I threw in the mix. The PCB is a controller I built in my spare time for programmable led strip on my deck. Someone smart designed it I just copied. Lost of 1mm2 components and soldered (most job pics are on my work app on another phone)

Our company very very rarely makes the defect list, even on $200+K jobs.

 

4G when the world ( apparently ) is ready to bask in 5G technology ??

i will be watching to see if my energy retailer tries that one on , considering the current ongoing dispute

 

This is why people want these smart devices. 15 minute read intervals means you can track your usage. I never use it as I've got full consumption monitoring on the solar but. It might be good for someone without solar. Also keeps big brother informed. Some don't use 4g, they use a local frequency and data loggers that pickup the data through the lines. not sure exactly if that's still used.

 

Nice work, CleanCookie.
I have been putting off getting solar on my home because it requires a new board and mains connection. And a new board and mains connection means a relocation of the board to where it is accessible. The cost for that? $9,000.
It's a complicated property - 3 phase power and a main board that feeds three sub boards.
I'll bite the bullet one day because our power bills are nuts.
Scott

 

I like the way you set those heat pumps up looks good,just one item with the ladder at night after you have been working 12 hours -- make sure that ladder is set for the unknown ..

 

I think I left that up overnight due to laziness tbh. My wife was a very big help, she was chief pipe feeder into the roof space for me. Best apprentice I've ever had tbh. Not one of them was back to back!

 

Your electrician can apply for permission not to relocate.

 

The sooner you do it, the more you'll save

 

But 30kw on 20c FIT would pay for that 30k investment pretty quickly!