The electrical certificate of compliance (COC) in South Africa

What the certificate says

The electrical certificate of compliance is a statement by a registered person that a defined electrical installation, at a defined address, was inspected and tested on a given date and found to be reasonably safe under the Electrical Installation Regulations, which are made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The test report attached to it records what was measured: earth continuity, insulation resistance, polarity and the earth leakage test among them.

It is a statement about that installation on that day. It does not warrant work done afterwards, and it does not cover the gas installation, the plumbing or a solar system that was added later, each of which carries its own certificate.

Who may issue one

Only a registered person may issue an electrical certificate of compliance. Registration is with the Department of Employment and Labour, in the categories the regulations define, and the registered person must be employed by or be a registered electrical contractor. A qualified electrician who is not a registered person may do the work but may not sign the certificate.

The Electrical Contractors Association operates an electronic certificate for its members, which replaces the paper book with a serial-numbered record. Whether a certificate is paper or electronic, the buyer, the conveyancer and the insurer will ask for the number, the date and the name of the registered person.

Selling a property

On transfer of a property the seller must give the buyer a valid certificate of compliance. Conveyancers treat a certificate older than two years, or one issued before later electrical work, as needing a fresh inspection. The inspection often produces a list of items to correct before the certificate can be issued, and that list is the electrician's quote.

Because the certificate is tied to the installation and not the owner, a certificate issued for a previous sale can be reused within its period if nothing has changed. Confirm the current rule with the conveyancer handling the transfer, because practice differs between provinces and firms.

Keeping the records

Two records need keeping. The certificates you issue, with their test reports, should sit against the job and the address so they can be found when a client, an insurer or a conveyancer asks years later. And the registrations that entitle your people to sign should have expiry dates that somebody watches, because a certificate signed by a person whose registration had lapsed is a problem discovered at the worst moment.

What Omni Field does about this

• The certificate and its test report attach to the job card as documents, against the client and the site address, and can be shared with the client through the portal. Deposits, Discounts & Document Controls
• Each technician has a certification register with issue and expiry dates; alerts fire at 90, 30 and 7 days, and dispatch can be blocked for a job that needs a registration the technician no longer holds. Team Certification Management
• The inspection list of items to correct becomes a quote, then a job, then a VAT invoice with a payment link, without retyping. Quoting & Invoicing