What is a Certificate of Verification?
A Certificate of Verification is the document a Registered Electrical Inspector issues after independently inspecting specified high-risk prescribed electrical work. If your job involves mains work, certain switchboard work, or falls into the high-risk categories under NZ electrical regulations, an electrician’s Certificate of Compliance alone is not enough: the work must also be inspected and a COV issued before it can be connected and relied on.
A COV can only be issued by a Registered Electrical Inspector. Most electrical companies do not employ one; Ballard Services does. On site, that means a physical inspection of the work, testing against the standard, and a certificate that records exactly what was inspected and against what. Insurers and buyers ask for COVs in some sale and claim situations, which is why real estate agents and property managers are regular clients.
Records of Inspection
A Record of Inspection is the formal record that accompanies inspected high-risk prescribed electrical work, tying the inspection to the Certificate of Compliance for the installation. We issue ROIs for our own installations and for work carried out by other electrical contractors. The paperwork is completed on site and lodged properly, so the installation’s compliance trail holds up years later when a buyer’s lawyer or an insurer goes looking for it.
Switchboard and insurance reports
Insurers, buyers and property managers ask for these when a building changes hands, when a policy is renewed on an older property, or when a commercial tenancy needs evidence its infrastructure is sound. The report covers the condition of the board and installation, protection devices, visible wiring condition, and anything that needs attention, stated plainly with photographs. If your insurer has asked for an electrical report on an older home, or you need a switchboard upgrade quoted off the back of one, both come from the same crew.
Certificates of Verification on the North Shore
We issue Certificates of Verification across the North Shore from our Devonport base: Devonport, Takapuna, Belmont, Milford, Birkenhead and the suburbs between, without your job waiting on an inspector coming over the bridge. For real estate agents, property managers and insurers working to settlement dates, same-side scheduling is the difference between a condition met and a condition missed.
COV and inspection work also travels further than our general electrical work. If the job is in wider Auckland, send the address anyway.
Why in-house matters
Most electricians subcontract inspection. The work sits finished but unconnected while everyone waits for a third party’s diary, and details get lost in the hand-over between trades. Ballard Services designs, installs and inspects under one roof. Nothing waits weeks for an external inspector, and the person who signs the certificate has stood in front of the work. For independent inspections of other contractors’ work, the same applies in reverse: you get the inspector on the phone, not a dispatcher.
Who we work with
- Homeowners needing a COV, an insurance report or a pre-purchase electrical check
- Real estate agents and property managers with sale or tenancy deadlines
- Insurers requiring condition reports on residential and commercial switchboards
- Electrical contractors needing independent inspection of high-risk prescribed electrical work
Inspection work pairs naturally with fault finding when a report turns something up. Every job carries a 12 month workmanship guarantee, and we cover the North Shore daily with inspection work travelling further.
Reviewed by Toby Ballard, Registered Electrical Inspector
