TL;DR
Upgrading electrical systems in a Sydney apartment requires navigating strata bylaws, identifying whether work affects common property, and ensuring compliance. Before starting, consult your owners corporation, ensure work is performed by an accredited Level 2 electrician, and secure a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work (CCEW).
Table of Contents
If you live in an apartment block or a strata property, your property probably feels every bit as much your own as if it were a detached house. There are differences, of course, because there are parts of the whole building that you share with other residents, and the chief difference is that if you want to make major changes affecting the utilities – electricity, water, gas – what you do may have an impact on your neighbours.
Electricity upgrades in New South Wales must comply with the Service and Installation Rules of NSW and Australian electrical safety standards, while strata properties often require a formal by-law for changes affecting common property, adding high-load circuits like EV charger installations, or expanding total building capacity.
While these requirements could be seen as added complications, there are plenty of advantages in what could loosely be called community living.
Strata Approval Classifications: Cosmetic, Minor, or Major Work?
Upgrades can be major or minor, and they can affect your unit’s ability to handle 21st century electrical demands or they might be purely small tweaks that are not going to affect anyone else. Whether you are adding smart home electrical upgrades or evaluating how much rewiring costs, knowing your scope determines the approval path required.
To determine where what you have in mind falls in the grand scheme of things you will have to consult the local authorities and give them details. The Safework website of NSW Government contains plenty of general advice and warnings about potential hazards, plus information about what to do next when it comes to permission.
It is important to know who your energy distributor is – that’s the company that brings power to your property via overhead or underground cables. There are three for different areas in NSW, and yours should be named on your bill, or you can look it up on the Australian Energy Regulator website.
To have this kind of work done you will need an accredited service provider (ASP) or Level 2 electrician staffed by qualified electricians who have the skills and, vitally, the qualifications needed. They will also know what permissions you require and should be experienced in working on apartment blocks and strata.
Common Property Infrastructure & Supply Capacity
“Common property”, which is what we’re dealing with here, has infrastructure that is not for the individual to interfere with without the agreement of everyone else involved. The supply capacity will have been established when the building was constructed and therefore may have been overtaken by the modern reliance on electrical devices. Unless a major switchboard upgrade or supply transition (such as upgrading from single phase vs 3 phase power) has already been carried out on an older building, capacity can easily become strained.
Mandatory Compliance: Type A/B RCDs & CCEW Certification
A Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work (CCEW) in New South Wales must be submitted electronically via the BCNSW eCert portal by licensed contractors whenever notifiable electrical installation work—such as a switchboard upgrade involving Type A or Type B RCDs (safety switches)—is completed.
Summary & Action Steps for Owners
If you are thinking about a major electrical upgrade, first of all you should contact your local government department or owners corporation to explain what you have in mind. They will want to know if you have talked to the other stakeholders – fellow residents etc.- and found an ASP. Knowing electrician hourly rates beforehand will also help you budget effectively for the job.
If you’re still unsure of the steps you need to take, reach out to our team here and we can help.
