For property managers
Electrical Maintenance for Rental Properties
The tenant-reported fault is the unit of work. What is in the work order decides how fast it gets closed out, so this page starts with what a useful one contains.
NextPoint Electrics. Registered electrical contractor REC 346464. Lifetime workmanship warranty.
Electrical maintenance on a rental is a paperwork job as much as a wiring job
Most electrical maintenance on a rental property in Geelong starts with a tenant ringing your office about something that has stopped working, and it ends with an owner reading a line on a statement and deciding whether it was money well spent. What happens in between is a work order, an attendance, and a record. Get the work order right and the rest is straightforward. Get it wrong and you pay for a second attendance to find out what the tenant actually meant.
Two ways to reach us
General enquiries, new agencies and anything you want quoted: info@nextpointelectrics.com.au, or ring 1300 322 320 and ask for Luke Evans, Director.
Property managers we already work with: send work orders to workorders@nextpointelectrics.com.au. That address exists so a job lands in one place with the address attached instead of chasing a personal inbox on a day full of ladders.
Call out
$0There is no call out fee. Attending the property and diagnosing the fault costs you nothing. Anything beyond diagnosis is priced before it happens, and that price is fixed before we start.
What a useful work order contains
This is the most valuable part of this page, so it is worth being blunt. A good work order answers the five questions an electrician would otherwise have to ring you to ask.
- The full property address, including the unit number. Obvious, and still the thing most often missing on a complex in Torquay or Drysdale.
- The access arrangement, stated. Agent keys, tenant home, or lockbox with the current code. Not "arrange with tenant", which puts your job at the back of somebody else's day.
- What the tenant reported, in their own words. "Power point in the second bedroom sparked when I plugged the heater in and now that room has no power" tells us the likely fault, the likely part and the likely time. "Power issue" tells us nothing and buys you a diagnostic visit.
- Whether it is a safety issue. Burning smell, sparking, exposed wiring or water near electrics changes the order of the day. Say so plainly at the top rather than in the last line.
- The owner approval limit. A dollar figure we can work to. Without one, every fault above a fuse turns into a second trip.
A useless work order is one line long, has no access arrangement and no limit, and reads "tenant reports electrical fault, please attend". It is not that it cannot be worked, it is that it costs the owner more than it needed to.
The faults tenants actually report on the Bellarine, and what they usually are
After enough rental call outs the same six complaints come around, and the honest version of what is behind them is worth knowing before you approve anything.
- Power point not working. Most often a tripped circuit that has not been reset, a failed point on an older circuit, or a loose connection at the back of the socket. On coastal stock at Barwon Heads or Portarlington, corrosion in an outdoor point is common. Usually a same visit fix.
- Safety switch tripping. Rarely the switch. Usually a faulty appliance, moisture in an outdoor circuit, or a failing element. The fault has to be traced circuit by circuit, which takes time, and that is why it is diagnosed before it is quoted.
- Hot water gone cold. Usually the element or the thermostat, sometimes the off peak supply or a tripped breaker. Worth checking the tariff before assuming the unit has died.
- Oven not heating. Often the element, sometimes the thermostat, occasionally the connection at the isolating switch. If the appliance is old, the honest advice is usually replacement rather than a repair the owner pays twice for.
- Exhaust fan noisy or not clearing steam. A worn motor, or a fan that was never ducted properly and has been pushing moist air into the roof space for years. That second one matters, because it shows up later as mould in a ceiling and a much larger conversation with the owner.
- Lights flickering. Sometimes a lamp or a driver, sometimes a loose neutral, which is the one on this list that should not wait. Anything flickering across several rooms at once gets treated as urgent.
When the fault is bigger than the work order allowed for
It happens on older stock, and the process is the same every time. Stop. Report what was found. Quote it. Wait for approval. Nothing above the owner's limit gets done because it seemed sensible while we were standing there, and you never get an invoice with a number on it you have not already seen.
What you get in that moment is a call or an email with what was found, what it means for the tenant in the meantime, and a fixed price to fix it. If the property is unsafe to leave as is, we will make it safe, tell you exactly what was isolated and why, and quote the rest. Making a circuit safe is not the same as authorising a repair, and we will not blur the two to get a bigger job through.
End of tenancy and pre-letting checks
The gap between tenants is the cheapest time to do electrical work on a rental, because the house is empty and nobody needs notice. A pre-letting check picks up the things that turn into after hours calls in month three: dead points, a light fitting with a broken lens, an outdoor point with no weatherproof cover, an exhaust fan that does not clear steam. Getting it done in that window means one attendance rather than two.
What the owner sees afterwards
Every maintenance job comes back with a written note of what was found, what was done, what it cost and anything left outstanding, plus photographs taken on the job. Photos settle arguments. A picture of a scorched power point or a corroded outdoor socket explains a $200 line on a statement better than any paragraph, and it gives you something to forward to an owner who is a thousand kilometres away and understandably sceptical.
One electrician, and what that honestly means for you
When you ring, you get somebody who can take the fault down properly the first time, and that description goes to the electrician attending rather than being repeated at the door. What was quoted and what was done are written up the same way every time, so the job can be picked up by whoever is next at that property without losing the thread.
The other side of that is capacity, and it would be dishonest not to say it. Booked work gets booked dates, and if a day is full you will be told it is full rather than strung along until four o'clock. An agency that needs thirty jobs attended in a week probably needs more than one contractor, and we would rather be one of the two you trust than the one that let you down in January. What you can rely on is a straight answer about when the job can happen, and after hours care when something goes wrong at night.
Agencies generally want the predictable work running to a schedule so that only the unpredictable work comes through as a work order, and that is how we set it up. The rest of what we cover is on the all other services page.
Real reviews
On communication, which is the part that matters to an agency
Published on our Google Business Profile, reproduced word for word. Both are homeowners rather than agencies, and they speak to the thing property managers ask about most.
Luke was great with communication and always keeps us informed about timing & punctual. He has a lot of experience and I would highly recommend him. So happy with his work & everything. Love all the work that was done inside & outside our house. Keep up the great work.
Absolutely terrific to work with. Luke's professional manner coupled with friendliness, all the while keeping us updated on progress. Have no hesitation in recommending Luke.
Maintenance questions
Asked most often by property managers
Is there a call out fee?
There is no call out fee. Attending the property and working out what is actually wrong costs you nothing, and what you pay for is the work itself at a price agreed before it starts. If a job needs a second attendance because parts have to be ordered, that is explained when the quote is given rather than appearing later.
Can you deal with the tenant directly to arrange access?
Yes, once you have authorised it and given proper entry notice. The usual arrangement is that you send the work order with the tenant's name and number, we contact them to agree a window, and you get told the date. What we will not do is take instructions from a tenant about extra work. If a tenant points out something else while we are there, it comes back to you as a note, not as an invoice.
What happens if the tenant is not home when you arrive?
You get told straight away, with the time we were there. Whether the job can be rebooked without another call out depends on the reason, and the honest answer is that a wasted trip is a wasted trip. This is the argument for agent keys or a lockbox where the owner will allow it, particularly on a rent roll where the same properties come up repeatedly. Access failure is the single biggest cause of maintenance jobs costing more than they should.
How do you handle an owner approval limit?
Put the figure on the work order and it is worked to. Anything under it gets fixed on the spot and shows on the invoice with a note and photographs. Anything over it stops, and you get what was found and a fixed price before a decision is made. If the property is unsafe, it gets made safe first and you are told exactly what was isolated, but making safe is never treated as approval for the repair.
Do you take on maintenance for agencies not on the smoke alarm program?
Yes. There is no requirement to bundle anything. Plenty of agencies start with one tenant reported fault and never do anything else with us, and that is fine. Where it does tend to go is that once one contractor is doing the compliance and the maintenance, there is one invoice format, one report style and one number to ring, and that is worth more to a busy portfolio than any discount. Ring and ask for whichever piece you actually need.
Send the next work order through
Give us the address, the access arrangement, what the tenant said and the owner's limit. That is enough to book it and to give you a date the same day.