Leasing a Shop, Office or Warehouse on the Gold Coast? Electrical Checks to Do Before You Sign

Byron Knight, Licensed Electrical Contractor

QLD Lic. 1511406 · 20+ years’ experience · Gold Coast & SEQ · Updated October 2026

Most people inspecting a commercial space look at the floor area, the foot traffic and the rent. The switchboard gets a glance, if that. Then the coffee machine goes in, the second oven goes in, the air-con runs flat out in January, and the main switch trips at lunchtime. Or the tenant finds out the “existing fit-out” was wired by someone who never issued a certificate.

This guide is the check we’d want done before signing any shop, office, clinic or warehouse lease on the Gold Coast. It covers what to inspect, the questions to put to the landlord or agent, who is legally responsible for what once you move in, and how long power upgrades can take. It’s general information, not legal advice. Have a solicitor review the lease itself.

Why the electrical check belongs before the signature

Once you sign, your bargaining power drops. Before you sign, a capacity problem or a tired switchboard is a negotiating point: a rent-free period, a landlord-funded upgrade, or a clause that puts the cost where it belongs. After you sign, it’s usually your problem.

The Queensland Small Business Commissioner’s tips for entering a commercial lease list exactly these questions: are the existing fixtures, plant and equipment “in good working order,” “who must repair or maintain them,” is there a condition report with photos signed by both parties, and do you have to make good at the end? The Queensland Government’s lease signing checklist also asks whether the lease requires you to maintain the premises, and at whose cost.

The pre-lease electrical checklist

Here’s what a licensed electrician should look at, and what each finding means for your negotiation.

Questions to put to the landlord or agent in writing

1. What is the supply to this tenancy (single or three-phase, and what rating), and is there spare capacity at the main board?
2. Are there certificates of testing for electrical work done in the tenancy, especially by the previous tenant?
3. When were the safety switches and emergency lights last tested, and can I see the records?
4. If the switchboard or supply needs upgrading for my use, who pays?
5. What does the make-good clause require me to remove or reinstate at the end of the lease?

Who is responsible for the electrical once you move in?

This is where most tenants are surprised. Under Queensland’s Electrical Safety Act 2002, the “person in control” of electrical equipment must make sure it is electrically safe (section 38). Section 24 says the occupier of the place where the equipment is located “would ordinarily be the person in control”, although a contract or other arrangement can shift that. On top of that, every business has a primary duty to be conducted in a way that is electrically safe (section 30).

In practice, for a leased tenancy that usually means you, the tenant, unless the lease clearly says otherwise.

The Small Business Commissioner’s repairs and maintenance fact sheet puts the usual split in plain English:

• Tenant: generally responsible for “upkeep to infrastructure for services and utilities (e.g., wiring, wall plugs, taps and pipes in the premises)”, unless the lease provides otherwise.
• Landlord: generally the structure and common areas, and must fix or replace the air-conditioning system if it stops working despite proper maintenance.
• Safety switches in shops: the fact sheet says a working safety switch is mandatory in shops, the tenant is responsible for its upkeep, and liability may fall on the landlord if the tenant doesn’t have access to it.

Fire safety installations follow the same occupier logic. The Queensland Government’s fire safety installations page says that if a building is occupied by a tenant, “the tenant must ensure that fire safety installations are maintained”. Check your lease and the building’s arrangements so it’s clear who is booking the emergency lighting tests.

For how fit-out electrical costs are commonly split between landlord and tenant (main board, tenancy board, emergency lighting), see our commercial fit-out electrical guide. We won’t repeat that table here.

Retail shop leases: the 7-day disclosure window

If your lease is a retail shop lease under the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994, you get extra protection. The landlord must give you a lessor disclosure statement at least 7 days before you enter the lease. If it isn’t given, the QSBC says the tenant may be able to end the lease within six months. Retail tenants with fewer than five retail leases must also get signed legal and financial advice reports before signing.

Not every commercial lease is a retail shop lease. The QSBC’s guide to what counts as a retail shop lease explains the tests. Premises must be under 1,000 square metres, and the business must either be a listed retail business or be in a centre with at least five retail shops. Most offices and warehouses fall under general commercial lease law instead.

Either way, the seven days (or however long you have before signing) is your window to get the electrical inspected.

Need more power? Plan for the Energex step

If the tenancy can’t handle your equipment, the fix might be a switchboard upgrade, extra circuits, or a bigger supply from the network. Our three-phase vs single-phase guide explains when each makes sense.

Where the supply itself needs increasing, your electrical contractor lodges a supply upgrade request with Energex through its Electrical Partners Portal. That request has to be linked to a connection application for the change. Energex’s supply upgrade guide is blunt: if the network can’t supply the extra load, a supply availability enquiry comes first, and the request “WILL NOT be progressed under any circumstances until the network is confirmed.”

Energex doesn’t publish a fixed timeframe for upgrades, so don’t plan an opening date around one. If your business depends on more power, find out before you sign and build the time into your fit-out program.

Leasing on the southern Gold Coast

Two patterns are common in the strip shops and small centres between Palm Beach, Burleigh Heads, Miami and Coolangatta: older buildings re-let many times, each tenant adding a few circuits, and boards near the beach that suffer from salt air. Our post on why Gold Coast switchboards corrode faster explains what that does over time. Light industrial units around Burleigh Waters and Varsity Lakes raise more questions about three-phase supply and capacity, and so do business and industrial premises in Bundall and Molendinar.

For a pre-lease check, we usually combine a switchboard inspection and test with a commercial thermal imaging scan. You get a written summary you can hand to your solicitor or the leasing agent. If the board can’t carry what you plan to run, a commercial switchboard upgrade is usually the fix, and the summary gives you something to negotiate with. Once you’re in, a fixed-price maintenance plan keeps the testing obligations covered. Our commercial maintenance guide sets out what’s legally required.