Test and Tag Leased Office Melbourne: Landlord or Tenant? (2026)

You've just signed the lease for a new office in Melbourne. The fitout's done, the desks are in, the staff are starting Monday. Now someone asks: "Who's responsible for test and tag — us, or the landlord?" The short answer: almost always you. Here's the full answer, in plain English.

This is one of the most common questions we get from Melbourne businesses moving into leased premises — whether it's a floor in a Collins Street tower, a tenancy in a South Melbourne business park, a suite in a Richmond co-working conversion, or a fitout in Docklands. The confusion is understandable. The lease says one thing, the OHS Act says another, the landlord's property manager says something else, and suddenly nobody's quite sure whose job it is to make sure the staff room kettle won't electrocute someone.

We've seen businesses move into brand-new offices with zero test and tag history because the landlord assumed the fitout company would handle it, the fitout company assumed the tenant would, and the tenant assumed the landlord had it covered. Six months later, an insurance claim gets denied or a WorkSafe inspector walks in — and that's when everyone finds out what they should have known on day one.

This guide breaks down exactly who is responsible for what in a leased office, what your landlord is (and isn't) obliged to do, what the law actually requires of you as a tenant, and the grey areas that catch Melbourne businesses out every week. By the end, you'll know exactly what you need to do — and what to ask your landlord and your test and tag provider before the first day of business.

1. The Short Answer (For People in a Hurry)

If you're leasing an office in Melbourne, you're almost certainly responsible for test and tag of all portable electrical equipment used in your tenancy — regardless of who owns it. This includes equipment you own, equipment your staff bring from home, and equipment that came with the fitout (kettles, microwaves, printers, power boards, everything that plugs into a wall).

Your landlord is responsible for the building's fixed electrical installation — the switchboard, the wiring in the walls, the hardwired light fittings, the fixed RCDs in the main board. Under the Victorian OHS Act 2004, you as the employer (or "person conducting a business or undertaking") are responsible for the safety of your workers — and that includes every plug-in appliance they use.

2. Landlord vs Tenant — Who Tests What

Here's the split, as it works in practice across Melbourne commercial leases:

The split is clean in theory but messy in practice, particularly around shared areas, fitout-supplied equipment, and the transition from fitout to tenancy. We'll cover each of those below.

3. Fixed Wiring vs Portable Appliances — The Critical Split

This is the distinction that makes the whole test-and-tag-for-leased-offices question make sense.

Fixed electrical installation (landlord's responsibility)

Anything permanently wired into the building's electrical system — the switchboard, the wiring in walls and ceilings, fixed light fittings, hardwired appliances like ducted air conditioning, hardwired water heaters, permanently installed lifts and escalators. These are covered by AS/NZS 3000 (the Wiring Rules) and periodic electrical inspection, not by test and tag.

Your landlord is obliged to maintain this installation in safe condition. They typically do this through an annual or biennial electrical inspection by a licensed electrician, and a separate fire safety program.

Portable appliances (your responsibility)

Anything that plugs into a power point — computers, monitors, printers, kettles, microwaves, fridges, lamps, power boards, extension leads, phone chargers, fans, heaters, coffee machines. Also, anything that was permanently installed as part of your fitout but is portable in nature (a benchtop microwave, a plug-in dishwasher, a freestanding bar fridge).

All of this falls under AS/NZS 3760 and is your obligation as the business operating in the space. The lease may say the landlord maintains the building — it doesn't say the landlord maintains your appliances. Those are separate obligations under separate legislation.

4. The Fitout Period — Where Everyone Gets It Wrong

The fitout period is the most confusing time for test and tag responsibility in a leased office, and it's where most Melbourne businesses fall into a gap.

During fitout, the space is technically a construction site. AS/NZS 3012 applies. The principal contractor (usually the fitout company) is responsible for ensuring all equipment on site — including subcontractors' tools — is tested and tagged to 3012 standards.

Once fitout is complete and your business moves in, AS/NZS 3760 applies. Your obligation begins. But here's where it gets tricky:

• The fitout company's testing expires the day fitout ends. Tags applied during fitout are valid for the construction quarter — not for the next three years of office use.
• Fitout-supplied appliances may or may not be tested to 3760 standards. If the fitout company tested them to 3012, they may not have done the full 3760 test battery (particularly leakage current on kitchen appliances).
• Nobody hands over a complete equipment register. The fitout company leaves, the fitout manager moves on to the next project, and you're left with a kitchen full of appliances with no testing history.

The smart move: on your first day, book a baseline test and tag under AS/NZS 3760. It gives you a clean register, a known testing history, and a next-test-due date you can actually rely on. This should happen before your staff start using the space, not six months later when someone asks "is this microwave safe?"

5. Office Items Tenants Routinely Miss

When a new tenant moves into a Melbourne office and asks "what do we need to test?", they usually think of the obvious stuff — computers, monitors, printers. They miss everything else. Based on hundreds of first-visit office walkthroughs, here's what consistently surprises tenants:

• The staff room microwave and kettle: Often inherited from the previous tenant or donated by staff. These are some of the oldest, most worn items in any office and they need testing on day one.
• The bar fridge: Almost never tested unless someone specifically thinks of it. It sits in a corner, hums away, and accumulates damage no one notices.
• Power boards and extension leads: Particularly the ones left behind by the previous tenant or the fitout company. If they're old, damaged, or daisy-chained, they need replacing.
• Portable heaters and fans: Seasonal items that get pulled out of storage when the weather changes. If they haven't been tested since last winter, they need testing now.
• Phone chargers: Every staff member has one or two. Cheap, unbranded chargers are a genuine fire and shock risk — and they're almost never tested.
• The "spare" toaster, air fryer, or slow cooker: Personal items staff have brought from home, sitting in the kitchen, technically your OHS responsibility.
• Desk lamps: Particularly in older office fitouts. The cords get twisted, the plugs get bumped, and nobody notices the damage.
• The POS terminal or EFTPOS machine: If you run a retail or hospitality component in the office, its power supply needs testing.
• The music system, speakers, and streaming device: Set up once, left alone for years, and the power supplies can overheat in enclosed shelves.

Our 25-forgotten-appliances checklist is written for restaurants, but most of the items apply equally to offices — particularly anything in the staff kitchen or break room.

6. What Your Lease Should Say (And What It Usually Doesn't)

A well-drafted commercial lease in Melbourne should explicitly address electrical safety compliance — but most don't. Here's what a good lease includes:

• Clear split of responsibilities: "Landlord maintains the fixed electrical installation. Tenant is responsible for all portable electrical equipment used within the tenancy, regardless of ownership."
• Compliance with OHS legislation: A general clause that both parties comply with applicable legislation — which pulls in the Victorian OHS Act and your test and tag obligation as tenant.
• Handover documentation: On commencement, the landlord provides documentation of the fixed installation's last inspection and any known defects.
• End-of-lease condition: What electrical compliance documentation the tenant needs to provide at the end of the lease.

Most Melbourne commercial leases — particularly older ones, or ones drafted by smaller landlords — don't include any of this explicitly. The tenant signs, moves in, and only discovers their test and tag obligations when they're told by a WorkSafe inspector, their insurer, or their own OHS consultant.

If your lease is silent on test and tag, the default position under the OHS Act still applies: you as the employer are responsible for the safety of your workers, which includes every plug-in appliance they use. Silence in the lease doesn't remove your obligation.

If you're negotiating a new lease, ask for the electrical safety responsibilities to be written explicitly. It costs nothing and prevents arguments later.

7. End-of-Lease Obligations Most Tenants Forget

Here's something most Melbourne tenants don't think about until the landlord's agent walks through at the end of the lease: what happens to the test and tag register, the tags, and the compliance history?

• Your tags and register belong to you, not the next tenant. When you move out, the next tenant has no right to rely on your tags — they don't know your testing history, and they need their own baseline test. Remove or overwrite your tags if you're taking equipment with you; if you're leaving equipment behind, the new tenant will need to test it fresh.
• Your register is your evidence trail. If an incident involving equipment you used during the tenancy happens after you've moved out, your register is your proof that you maintained equipment properly. Keep it for at least seven years.
• Equipment you're leaving behind needs to be either tested and tagged, or clearly marked for the next tenant to test. If you leave a faulty microwave in the staff room and the next tenant's employee gets a shock, the liability question becomes messy — and the next tenant's insurer will come looking for documentation.
• The "make good" clause may require you to leave the electrical installation in a specified condition. If the lease requires you to hand over the tenancy "in good repair," that includes any portable equipment you've agreed to leave behind.

8. Insurance, WorkSafe, and What Happens When Things Go Wrong

Let's be blunt about the stakes, because this is where theoretical "who's responsible" questions become very practical.

Insurance implications

Most Melbourne business insurance policies — public liability, property, workers' compensation — have clauses requiring the insured to maintain equipment in a safe condition. If an electrical incident happens in your leased office and you can't produce a current test and tag register, the insurer can deny the claim. This isn't hypothetical. We've seen it happen.

WorkSafe implications

If WorkSafe Victoria inspects your office — which they can do at any time — and finds untested or overdue portable equipment, they can issue improvement notices, prohibition notices (shutting down specific equipment), or in serious cases, infringement notices with fines.

And if the landlord says "but we're responsible for electrical safety" — that doesn't hold up in a WorkSafe inspection. Your obligation is separate and runs in parallel with theirs. You can't outsource an OHS duty to a landlord.

Shared areas — lifts, lobbies, common kitchens

Appliances in common areas — the building's shared kitchen, the lobby coffee machine, the conference room shared between tenants — are usually the landlord's or body corporate's responsibility. But the boundaries matter. If your staff use the common kitchen regularly, your OHS duty extends to ensuring the equipment they use there is safe — even if it's technically the landlord's appliance.

9. A Practical Checklist for Your First Week in the New Office

If you've just moved into a leased office in Melbourne, here's what to do in your first week — in order:

1. Ask the landlord for their last fixed electrical inspection report. They should be able to provide it. This is for the switchboard and wiring — not the appliances — but it's important background information.
2. Ask the fitout company for their equipment register and test and tag report. If they tested to 3012 during fitout, you need to understand what they tested and when.
3. Walk the entire tenancy with an equipment list. Every plug-in item, room by room, drawer by drawer. Include the staff room, the office, any storage areas, any shared areas you exclusively use.
4. Identify inherited equipment. Anything left behind by the previous tenant that you plan to keep using. Treat it as untested until proven otherwise.
5. Identify personal items. Ask every staff member what they've brought from home. Phone chargers, fans, heaters, lunch boxes — all your responsibility.
6. Book a baseline test and tag under AS/NZS 3760. This gives you a clean register, current tags, and a clear next-due date for every item. Schedule it for after-hours to avoid disrupting your first week.
7. Ask about microwave leakage testing for the staff room microwave. It's often overlooked in standard test and tag but important for a microwave used dozens of times a day.
8. Set up your automated reminder system. Whether it's our automated reminders or your own calendar, make sure someone is tracking next-due dates. Annual testing under 3760 is the minimum — and it's easy to forget.
9. Document everything. The register, the report, the date of first testing. Keep it for the entire tenancy and beyond.