[Question] Certificate of compliance

[Tradie]

2 questions:

1/ If you DOL registration expires on the 1 of August 2025 and you hand in all your documentation today for renewal and you are currently registered and paid for the next years years, what happens from the 1/08/2025, can you still issue COC's and submit your current registration to lawyers and now I see the council also requires a copy of your DOL registration for SSEG registrations (no we are not going down the SSEG registration road today)

2/ If you have a male socket outlet on the side of a building, with a changeover panel and all the equipment in place, just not the generator, do you tick the "IS THE ALTERNATE POWER SUPPLY INSTALLED". So everything is in place but no alternate power supply installed, which will also be relevant if the person selling a property is taking their generator with, when they leave? No need to fill out a test report for the alternate power (it is plugged, so it is not part of the electrical installation.

I would assume that if you decided to connect a generator, then the person who supplies and connects the generator or any other power supply to the plug, must issue an additional test report and attach it the current COC ?

You cant issue a test report and test results if there is no alternate power supply on site?

[Dave A]

1/ If you DOL registration expires on the 1 of August 2025 and you hand in all your documentation today for renewal and you are currently registered and paid for the next years years, what happens from the 1/08/2025, can you still issue COC's and submit your current registration to lawyers

The short answer is NO.
The electrical contractor registration has expired and you are not legally registered until you have that new registration in hand.

That said, my experience in eThekwini this year is that if all is in order, the registration certificate is processed very quickly. However, getting it into your hands may take a little time. They have introduced a verification process which a percentage of renewals go through - and it adds time.

[Tradie]

I was told it is going to take 60 days to process the renewal, best you get your application in at least 60 days before your expiry date.

Someone mentioned that people are asking for a copy of your DOL registration, people must be reading these posts .

If your DOL registration expires, what is the penalty consequences for operating as a pirate?

If it is just a renewal and you have paid and submitted your documents, and you are just waiting for the document to be processed, is the penalty consequences the same?

This would be a good way to clean up the industry and reduce the competition

How many companies are going to be affected by this 60 days delay? Looks like some people are going to need to call a friend.

[Tradie]

Tell us more about this, are you saying there are too many registered elctrical contractors?

The short answer is NO They have introduced a verification process which a percentage of renewals go through - and it adds time.

[Tradie]

Lets get this right, because I do believe this could affect a number of contractors, it is not just about issuing COC's, it will also affect contracts that you are busy with, insurance claims for properties that you have issued a COC and the property sale agreement that is just what I can think of off the top of my head.

For example if you are currently working on a large project, you will have to put the project on hold until your registration is finalised, or you will be operating as a pirate contractor, all your projects will have to be put on hold and if you do COC's for property sales, and your COC is investigated, that COC for the property sale now because null and void, because the COC is not valid.

Could it affect a customers insurance or warranty claim, this could be the same as the lightning on the day of a surge claim, no valid registered valid contractors COC, no claim..... eeeeish.

Maybe this is something people need to be aware of before they employ the services of an elctrical contractor, now you need to request the skill level card of the person working on your sites and get a company of the companies DOL electrical contractor registration?

Lets get the facts right, will the date you hand in the documents be the valid date, or the date the documents is processed and released to the contractor.

If it is the date it is processed then, best you go check your renewal date and get that application in 60 days before the renewal date.

[Dave A]

I was told it is going to take 60 days to process the renewal, best you get your application in at least 60 days before your expiry date.

They are selecting a percentage of renewal applicants and doing interviews to check the registered person has a reasonable knowledge. Apparently about 50% of people are failing this screening.
And then they deliver the certificate as part of an address verification process.

In our case, it took about 10 business days for the process to complete. (Yes, we passed )
My IE might have called a friend to get a screening appointment quickly though.

[Tradie]

I noticed you have to provide a proof of home address for the registered person and proof of address for the company.

[Tradie]

My concern, documents that arrive in my email, and the COC being reviewed for the customer, might have an expired date of registration, which could result in the the COC being invalid, we then need to ask, does that mean the property sale agreement is invalid, if there was an insurance claim which might have been caused by an electrical fault, will the insurance cover the claim, it starts creating a bunch of new challenges.

We have starting to get a lot more requests for COC from random customers who own industrial and commercial properties, requesting a COC for a recent inspection visit. When I ask the reason for the COC/test report request, it sounds like they had a visit.

[Tradie]

To complicate matters, you would need a copy of the registration to confirm the registration is valid for 3 years. This could be why people are requesting the copy.