Hiring an Electrician for a Body Corporate: Quotes, Spending Limits, Insurance and SWMS

Byron Knight, Licensed Electrical Contractor

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

Most body corporate electrical jobs start the same way. A light is out in the car park, the intercom is playing up, or the emergency lights failed their test. Someone on the committee or the building manager rings an electrician. That’s fine for a small repair. It’s where problems start for anything bigger: one quote when two were required, a project split into pieces to fit under the limit, or a contractor whose insurance nobody checked.

This guide is for committee members, strata managers and building managers in Queensland. It covers the spending limits and quote rules, what to check about the contractor, when to ask for a SWMS, and how to brief an electrician so the quotes are comparable. It’s general information based on Queensland Government guidance for schemes under the Standard, Accommodation and Small Schemes modules. Commercial Module schemes work differently. Your body corporate manager can confirm what applies to your scheme.

Step 1: Know the two spending limits

Queensland body corporate rules use two different limits, and they’re often confused.

Both can be changed by ordinary resolution at a general meeting, so check your scheme’s minutes before relying on the defaults. The figures come from the Queensland Government’s pages on committee spending limits and major spending. The committee page also says the committee must allow for GST in its spending.

A worked example

Take a 25-lot building with default limits. The committee can spend up to $5,000 (25 × $200). The major spending limit is $10,000, because that’s less than 25 × $1,100. So:

• A $1,500 switchboard repair: the committee can approve it, and one quote is enough.
• A $7,000 car park lighting upgrade: it’s above the committee’s limit, so it needs a general meeting resolution. It’s below the major spending limit, so one quote is enough.
• A $14,000 intercom replacement: it needs a general meeting resolution and at least 2 quotes, which must be included with the notice of meeting.

What about emergencies?

Under the government’s guidance, the committee can only spend over its limit if it’s authorised by an ordinary resolution, all owners consent in writing, an adjudicator has authorised it to meet an emergency, or it’s needed to comply with a statutory order or a court or adjudicator’s order. Making a dangerous situation safe on the night is usually a small cost. A larger repair that follows may need one of those approvals. Talk to your body corporate manager before you commit to a big emergency job.

Step 2: Get quotes that can be compared

Two quotes only help if they’re for the same thing. The most common problem we see is one electrician quoting “replace 20 fittings” and another quoting a full redesign. The committee then compares a cheap number against a complete one. Give every contractor the same brief:

1. Describe the problem, not the solution. “Car park is too dark at night and fittings keep failing” gets better answers than “replace the lights”.
2. Ask for an itemised scope. Fittings, quantities, labour, access equipment, disposal and testing listed separately.
3. Ask what standard the work is designed to, where one applies, such as for car park or emergency lighting. Our strata car park lighting guide explains why this matters.
4. Ask about exclusions and assumptions, such as switchboard capacity, after-hours access or making good.
5. Ask for a fixed price, not an estimate, and how long it’s valid for.

The government’s major spending page says one quote may be enough in exceptional circumstances, where it isn’t possible to get two. For example, only one supplier can maintain a proprietary system. If that applies, record why in the minutes.

Step 3: Check the licence and insurance

Every contractor should give you an electrical contractor licence number that you can check on the Electrical Safety Office’s licence search. A worker licence isn’t enough on its own. We’ve set out how to check, and what the licence classes mean, in how to check an electrician’s licence in QLD.

On insurance, WorkSafe Queensland says an electrical contractor licence requires public and products liability insurance with a limit of indemnity of at least $5,000,000, and consumer protection insurance of at least $50,000. Ask for a certificate of currency before the first job and keep it on file. Diarise the expiry date, as well as the licence renewal, because contractor licences are issued for one year.

After the job, the contractor must give you a certificate of testing. WorkSafe says contractors must keep a copy for five years. The body corporate should keep its own copy too. Our compliance certificate guide explains what it shows.

Step 4: Safety on site and SWMS

Common property electrical work often involves ladders or elevated work platforms in car parks and stairwells, roof access, and live switchboards. That’s where a safe work method statement (SWMS) comes in.

WorkSafe Queensland says a business carrying out high risk construction work must make sure a SWMS is prepared before the work starts, that the work follows it, and that work stops if it doesn’t. A SWMS identifies the high-risk work, the hazards and risks, and the controls, and describes how those controls will be put in place and monitored. WorkSafe gives work where a person could fall more than 2 metres as one example. It also describes working on or near energised electrical equipment as high-risk work that SWMS help manage.

The contractor prepares the SWMS, not the committee. But it’s reasonable for the body corporate or building manager to ask for it before high-risk work starts, and a professional contractor will have one ready.

Step 5: Set it up once, not every time

For buildings with regular electrical work, it’s simpler to have the paperwork sorted in advance: an approved contractor with licence and insurance on file, a standing brief for common jobs, and a scheduled maintenance program. That way routine work happens within the committee’s limit, larger items come to the AGM with proper quotes, and testing such as emergency lighting checks isn’t left to chance. A fixed-price preventative maintenance plan helps with budgeting too.

If an owner wants work on common property for their own benefit, such as an EV charger, that’s a different approval path. See our EV charger body corporate approval guide. And if you’re unsure whether a fault is the body corporate’s or a lot owner’s to fix, start with body corporate vs unit owner electrical responsibilities.

Body corporate electrical work on the southern Gold Coast

We work with committees, strata managers and onsite managers in buildings from Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach down through Burleigh Heads, Palm Beach, Kirra and Coolangatta. Typical jobs include car park lighting, emergency and exit lighting, intercoms and access systems and switchboard work in multi-residential buildings.

As a strata and body corporate electrician, we quote in a format committees can vote on: fixed price, itemised scope, licence and insurance details attached, and a SWMS for high-risk work.