Compliance - changing light fittings and plug sockets

[Richard S]

I have a tenant who has taken it upon herself to change a light fitting for aesthetic purposes.
Besides the fact that it concerns me because I have no idea of her capabilities, does this effect compliance? What about changing a plug socket? Just replacing, not adding to the installation.

[SeanM]

Evening Richard

With regards to changing a light fitting this wont affect your certificate of compliance as your compliance is only up to the point of consumption ( point of outlet or the supply terminal of machinery) therefore your light fitting is not part of the installation.

Changing a socket outlet can affect your compliance as this forms part of the installation i.e: if the new socket outlet is not SABS approved then you compliance will be invalid.

NB- The OHS act states that ," A registered person shall exercise general control over all electrical installation work being carried out, and no person may allow such work without such control"

Installation work means-

(a) The installation, extension, modification or repair of an electrical installation
(b) The connection of machinery at the supply terminals of such machinery (changing a light fitting is a good example)
(c) The inspection, testing and verification of electrical installations for the purpose of issuing a certificate of compliance.

So unless your tenant is a registered person or she is supervised by a registered person I would not advise she does this.

[AndyD]

I don't think there's a clear cut answer. Changing the light shade or even the type/colour of globe would be fine but there could be compliance issues if for example a 12v downlight fitting is replaced with or converted to a 230v downlight fitting regarding the different earthing requirements of the fittings even though they look almost identical.

In theory, if it's a like-for-like replacement item there isn't any implication for compliance as long as the person doing it is competent to do so and as long as it's done per manufacturers instructions.

Problem is that sometimes the differences between items can be barely noticable to an unskilled person but they can be electrically significant and there can be fundamental differences in the way they must be installed...as per the example above where a 12v downlight can look almost identical to its 230v counterpart.

I think bottom line as a landlord, to play it safe you'd have to forbid the tenants themselves from replacing any accessories (sockets, switches etc), any fixed appliances (stoves, geysers etc) and any light fittings as well.

[Richard S]

Morning Fellers, thanks for your advice, more or less what I suspected. The info on the socket outlet and using different types of fittings was also interesting.

Your responses are greatly appreciated.