Electrical Testing And Tagging For Common Property

Test and tag gets raised at most committee meetings and it is frequently misunderstood, in both directions.

Some buildings tag things that do not need it. Others miss the items that do.

What it actually covers

Testing and tagging applies to portable electrical equipment: things with a flexible cord and a plug.

It does not apply to fixed wiring, to hardwired equipment, or to the building's installation. Those are covered by different requirements, including the [safety switch testing](/blog/safety-switches-and-electrical-testing) regime.

So the question for a residential building is what portable equipment the owners corporation actually owns and uses.

The list in a typical building

Shorter than people expect.

Cleaner's equipment, if the owners corporation owns it rather than the contractor. Vacuum cleaners, polishers, pressure washers.

Pumps and tools in plant rooms that are plugged in rather than hardwired.

Extension leads and portable power boards, anywhere in the building. These are the highest risk items and the most likely to be missed.

Equipment in a shared facility, such as a gym, a common laundry, a barbecue area or a common room. A common laundry with plug-in washers and dryers is the clearest case in a residential building.

Portable heaters, fans and lights kept for common use.

Christmas and event lighting, which appears once a year and is almost never tagged.

Where a contractor brings their own equipment, tagging it is the contractor's obligation, not the building's. Which is worth confirming in the contract rather than assuming, and worth spot checking, because an untagged lead in a building's switch room is a finding regardless of who owns it.

The intervals

They vary by environment and by equipment type. Equipment in a harsh or wet environment is tested more often than equipment in a dry office-like one.

For most residential common property, the practical answer is an annual round, with anything in a wet or outdoor area on a shorter interval.

The register matters as much as the test. A tag with a date on the item, and a record listing every item, its result and its next due date. A test with no register is unprovable, and provability is the point.

What the test involves

A visual inspection, which finds most of the actual faults: damaged cords, cracked plugs, taped repairs, missing earth pins.

Then an instrument test for earth continuity, insulation resistance and polarity.

Then a tag, and a record.

Most failures are found visually. Which means a competent person walking the building and looking at every lead catches most of the risk before an instrument comes out.

Where the real risk sits

Not in the vacuum cleaner.

Extension leads run permanently, which happens in plant rooms and store rooms and is a genuine hazard. A permanent extension lead means a power point is needed, and installing one is a small job.

Daisy chained power boards, same problem.

Leads through doorways and across wet floors.

Equipment in the carpark or a wash bay, where water and electricity meet.

Residents' equipment in common areas, such as a fridge in a shared space or a charger in a carpark. The ownership is murky and the risk is the building's.

EV charging leads, which are now common and are portable equipment with a substantial current behind them. Worth including in the round, and it sits alongside the wider [EV charging in strata](/blog/ev-charging-in-strata-buildings) question.

Doing it efficiently

Test and tag on its own is a small job with a callout attached to it, which makes it inefficient.

Batched with the [safety switch testing](/blog/safety-switches-and-electrical-testing), the emergency lighting check and the general electrical items, it is one round for one team and the building gets its whole electrical compliance picture at once.

That is also when the register gets built properly, which is the part that saves the committee time at every subsequent renewal.

What to ask for

A register listing every item, its location, its result and its next due date. Tags with legible dates. A written note of anything that failed and what was done about it. And a note of anything found that is not a tagging item but is a defect, because that is usually the most valuable part of the visit.

Ample handles test and tag alongside the rest of the electrical compliance round across apartment buildings in the eastern suburbs and inner city.