Does This Job Need an Inspection? High-Risk Electrical Work and Mains Work in NZ

If you are an electrician standing in front of a job and wondering whether it needs an independent inspector, the answer turns on one question: is the work high-risk prescribed electrical work? If it is, you cannot sign it off yourself. Someone independent has to inspect it and issue a Record of Inspection before the work is complete. This guide sets out what counts, what does not, and where the regulations and the regulator do not quite agree.

What counts as high-risk electrical work in New Zealand?

High-risk prescribed electrical work is defined in regulation 6A of the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010. It is prescribed electrical work that is not low-risk work and that falls into one of the categories the regulation lists. In everyday residential and commercial practice the category that comes up most often is mains work. High-risk work must be independently inspected.

The regulations sort prescribed electrical work into three tiers:

• Low-risk. Maintenance or replacement of a fitting in an existing installation. Regulation 6A(1) also includes relocating or extending a conductor to facilitate that replacement. No inspection required, and a certificate of compliance is optional.
• General. Anything that is neither low-risk nor high-risk: new circuits, alterations, additions, rewires. A certificate of compliance is required. No inspection required.
• High-risk. The categories listed in regulation 6A(2). A certificate of compliance and an independent Record of Inspection are required.

The high-risk categories in regulation 6A(2) are, in plain terms:

• Mains work on an installation.
• Installation of a photovoltaic system, or of a mains parallel generation system.
• An extra-low or low voltage installation that will not comply with Part 2 of AS/NZS 3000, and any installation operating at high voltage.
• An installation in a hazardous area, other than an ERZ0 or ERZ1.
• An installation intended for use with electrical medical devices.
• Work on animal stunning or meat conditioning appliances.
• Work on low voltage AC railway signalling equipment, in defined circumstances.
• A set of mining categories, including fittings that control earth potential rise and the settings of gas monitors and isolation fittings.

Which of those eCertify attends. Two of them: mains work, and photovoltaic. That is the whole list. Medical, hazardous area, mining, railway signalling and high voltage work are all genuinely high-risk under the regulation, but they are specialist fields and we do not attend them. If your job sits in one of those categories, you need an inspector who works in that field, and we would rather tell you that than take the booking.

Does mains work need an independent inspection?

Yes. Mains work is high-risk prescribed electrical work under regulation 6A(2)(b), and regulation 70 requires all high-risk work on a low or extra-low voltage installation to be inspected. Regulation 71(2) then says who cannot do that inspection: anyone who personally carried out the work, supervised someone else carrying it out, or issued the certificate of compliance for it.

That last point is the one that catches people out. It is not that your work is suspect. It is that the regulations deliberately put a second, independent set of eyes on the part of an installation where a mistake is least survivable. You cannot inspect your own mains work, and neither can the person who signed your certificate of compliance.

What "mains work" actually covers. Regulation 4 defines it as work on the mains, including connecting the conductors of the mains at a MEN switchboard; work on main earthing systems, including connecting those conductors at a MEN switchboard; and work on the connection between earth and neutral made by the removable link in the MEN switchboard closest to the point of supply.

Three things are carved out of that definition and are not mains work:

• Removing or replacing the MEN link purely for the purposes of testing.
• Work on fittings used for generating electricity for the owner's own use and not for supply to anyone else.
• Installing a revenue meter, but only where the work cannot affect the integrity of the neutral or transpose the neutral and an active conductor. If it can, the carve-out does not apply and you are back in mains work.

When does electrical work need an independent inspector?

Work the job through in this order.

1. Is it prescribed electrical work? If not, the inspection regime does not apply.
2. Is it maintenance or replacement of a fitting in an existing installation? If yes, it is low-risk, and no inspection is required. Relocating or extending a conductor in order to make that replacement is expressly included in low-risk.
3. Does it touch the mains, the main earthing system, or the MEN link? If yes, it is mains work, it is high-risk, and it needs an independent inspection.
4. Is it a photovoltaic or parallel generation installation? If yes, it is high-risk. The Electrical Workers Registration Board is explicit that a photovoltaic installation must be inspected before it is energised, in accordance with AS/NZS 5033.
5. Is it in one of the specialist categories? Medical, hazardous area, high voltage, railway signalling, mining. If yes, it is high-risk and needs an inspector qualified in that field.
6. None of the above? It is general prescribed electrical work. Certificate of compliance, no inspection.

If the answer at step 3 or 4 is yes, the job is not finished when the power goes back on. Under regulation 65(4), high-risk prescribed electrical work may not be treated as complete until both a certificate of compliance and the required Record of Inspection have been issued.

What does the inspector actually check on mains work?

Regulation 70(3) sets the standard rather than a checklist: the inspector must carry out whatever tests, visual inspection and other actions are necessary to satisfy themselves that the work was done in accordance with the regulations, and that the installation is, and will be when enlivened, electrically safe.

On a typical mains job that means:

• The main earthing conductor: size, condition, route, terminations, and continuity back to the earth electrode.
• The earth electrode itself, and its connection.
• The MEN link: that it is present, correctly located in the switchboard closest to the point of supply, correctly made, and that there is only one.
• The mains conductors: size against the maximum demand and the protective device, insulation, mechanical protection, terminations and torque.
• Polarity and the integrity of the neutral, including anywhere the neutral could have been transposed.
• Submain arrangements and protection where a separate building or board is fed.
• The certificate of compliance, and that it matches the work actually in front of us.

If something fails, you get a written report of what needs doing rather than a refusal. Fix it, and we re-inspect. More on how the visit runs is on our electrical inspections page.

What paperwork do you end up with, and who issues each part?

Three documents, from two different people. The electrician who did the work issues the certificate of compliance and, once the installation is connected and safe to use, the electrical safety certificate. The independent inspector issues the Record of Inspection, and under regulation 74F it is the inspector, not the electrician, who lodges the high-risk work details on the WorkSafe high-risk database, within 20 working days of the date on the Record of Inspection.

For the full breakdown of ESC, COC, ROI and CoV, and which one your situation calls for, see our guide to electrical certificates.

Does a switchboard or meter-board upgrade need an inspection?

This is where the legislation and the regulator pull in slightly different directions, and it is worth being straight about it.

Read strictly, regulation 6A(1) makes maintenance or replacement of a fitting in an existing installation low-risk, and expressly includes relocating or extending a conductor to facilitate that replacement. On that reading, swapping a switchboard for one of the same capacity, even with the mains extended to reach it, is low-risk work that needs no inspection.

The Electrical Workers Registration Board takes a firmer line. Its guidance treats installing a higher-capacity board to support increased usage as an alteration, not a replacement, and therefore high-risk. It treats relocating a MEN switchboard where the existing mains are extended, jointed or rerouted as high-risk. And where there is doubt, it says to inspect.

eCertify follows the Board.

The regulations tell you what you can get away with. The EWRB tells you what they expect to see. They are the ones who prosecute when it goes wrong, so at eCertify we work to their guidance, not to the minimum the legislation allows.

Jordan Statham, registered electrical inspector and founder of eCertify (EWRB reg. I 272615, Electrical Inspector class)

To be clear about what that means: we are recommending inspection in a case where a strict reading of the regulations may not demand it. We are not telling you the law requires it. Where the law does require it, we say so and cite the regulation.

Meter boards, and the line we do not cross. Replacing a meter board often means the energy meter has to be opened, moved or unsealed. That is not our work. eCertify is not a Metering Equipment Provider. We do not install, relocate, re-seal or inspect energy meters. Metering work is arranged through the property's energy retailer or its metering equipment provider, and is inspected by a network warranted electrical inspector. We will tell you when that is what you need. Note also the point from regulation 4 above: installing a revenue meter is only carved out of "mains work" where the work cannot affect the integrity of the neutral. Where it can, it is mains work, and it is high-risk.

What does an inspection cost, and how fast can you get one?

A mains work Record of Inspection is a fixed-price service. Current pricing and online booking are on the mains work ROI page, so the figure you see there is always the live one.

On timing: our standard commitment is your Record of Inspection in hand within 48 hours. If you are holding a livening up or a client is waiting on power, tell us when you book and we will fit an urgent attendance in where we can. Two separate statutory clocks sit behind that. The inspector must provide a copy of the Record of Inspection to whoever contracted the work within 20 working days of issuing it, and an electrical safety certificate must be issued no later than 20 working days after connection. Those are the legal outer limits, not a service standard, and they are not what we work to.

Don't think of inspections as just a cost to be incurred. It's about 1. keeping people safe and 2. keeping you, as the electrician, protected.

If what you installed starts a fire or gives someone a shock two years from now, an independent record of inspection may be the one thing that saves you when standing in front of the board or the judge.

Jordan Statham, registered electrical inspector and founder of eCertify (EWRB reg. I 272615, Electrical Inspector class)

Frequently asked questions

What is considered high risk electrical work?

High-risk prescribed electrical work is defined in regulation 6A(2) of the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010. It covers mains work, photovoltaic and mains parallel generation systems, installations that will not comply with Part 2 of AS/NZS 3000, high voltage installations, hazardous areas other than ERZ0 and ERZ1, installations for use with electrical medical devices, animal stunning and meat conditioning appliances, certain railway signalling work, and a set of mining categories. All of it must be independently inspected.

What is a Record of Inspection (ROI)?

A Record of Inspection is the written record an independent inspector produces after inspecting high-risk prescribed electrical work. Under regulation 72 it must identify the work inspected, be signed and dated by the inspector, state whether the work was done in accordance with the regulations, and have the certificate of compliance attached. The work is not complete until it is issued.

Who can issue a certificate of verification?

A certificate of verification confirms that an existing installation is safe for continued use. It is issued by a person authorised to certify mains work, following verification of the installation in accordance with AS/NZS 3019. Regulation 74 requires one before supply is reconnected to a low voltage installation that has been disconnected for more than six months.

Can I do my own electrical work in NZ?

Within narrow limits. Section 79 of the Electricity Act 1992 lets an owner do certain domestic electrical wiring work on their own home, and regulation 57 sets out exactly what that covers: a defined list of fitting replacements and subcircuit work on a domestic installation with a maximum demand at or below 80 amperes per phase single-phase, or 50 amperes per phase multi-phase, carried out and tested in accordance with ECP 51. Subcircuits and submains must be tested and certified before connection by a person authorised to inspect mains work. Mains work, switchboard work and anything high-risk are outside the exemption entirely.

What are the requirements for electrical compliance in New Zealand?

Prescribed electrical work must be done by a registered and licensed person, must leave the installation electrically safe, and must be certified. General and high-risk work needs a certificate of compliance. High-risk work additionally needs an independent Record of Inspection and lodgement on the WorkSafe high-risk database. An electrical safety certificate must be issued once the installation is connected and safe to use, no later than 20 working days after connection.

Booking an inspection

If you have mains work or a photovoltaic installation waiting on an inspector, you can book a mains work Record of Inspection online, or call the office on 09 302 0884 if you would rather talk it through first. If you are not sure whether your job is high-risk, tell us what the work involves and we will give you a straight answer, including when the answer is that you do not need us.