Direct answer: Test and tag is not compulsory under a single New Zealand law. What the law does require is that businesses keep people safe, and that includes making sure the electrical equipment people plug in and use is safe. Testing and tagging to the standard AS/NZS 3760 is the recognised way to show you have done that.
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Is test and tag a legal requirement in NZ?
No single law makes test and tag compulsory for every workplace in New Zealand. The duty sits one step back from that. Under New Zealand's health and safety law, every business has to keep people safe, so far as is reasonably practicable, and that includes making sure the electrical equipment people use is safe. WorkSafe is the regulator that enforces it.
Test and tag is not the only way to meet that duty, but it is the recognised one. Testing and tagging to AS/NZS 3760 gives you dated, documented proof that each appliance was checked and passed. If something goes wrong, or if WorkSafe or your insurer asks, a current tag is evidence you took practicable steps to keep people safe.
Some settings go further. Construction and demolition sites, for example, follow a separate standard, AS/NZS 3012, with much more frequent testing, because the environment is harder on equipment. So while "is it the law?" has a nuanced answer for a general office, on a building site regular testing is effectively expected.
"Most business owners think test and tag is either compulsory or pointless. It is neither. It is the simple, documented proof that the gear your team plugs in every day is safe, and that is worth having long before anyone asks for it."
Jordan Statham, Registered Electrician and Electrical Inspector, The Conduction Company
Have you seen an insurer or WorkSafe ask for test and tag records?
Not an insurer, but WorkSafe, yes. The Conduction Company has seen WorkSafe ask a client for its test and tag records after a worker received a significant electric shock from one of the client's appliances.
The Conduction Company keeps a register of every appliance it tests for each client, so the client could hand over the log books from its regular testing. That matters, because after an incident WorkSafe can require a business to produce its documents. Where records are kept, AS/NZS 3760 says they should be retained for 7 years.
A tag is not a guarantee, though. In WorkSafe's words, testing and tagging "doesn't guarantee future electrical safety, what it does is provide a snapshot of how safe the appliance is at the time of testing." A cable can be fine on the day of the test and damaged the next.
"It's not foolproof," says Jordan Statham, director of The Conduction Company. "But the testing frequency means you're much more likely to catch something before it becomes a problem, rather than having a dangerous lead in continued service for years."
What is test and tag, and what does it involve?
Test and tag is a two-step safety check on electrical equipment: a visual inspection, then an electrical test with a proper appliance tester. Equipment that passes gets a durable tag. Equipment that fails is taken out of service.
Here is what happens on the day:
- Visual inspection. We check the appliance, its plug, and its lead for damage, wear, and anything that looks unsafe. A lot of faults are caught right here.
- Electrical testing. We test the appliance with certified equipment, an appliance tester or multifunction tester, to confirm it is electrically safe.
- Tagging. Anything that passes gets a durable, non-reusable tag. Under AS/NZS 3760 that tag shows who tested it, the test date, and when the next test is due. Anything that fails is tagged out and removed from service so no one plugs it back in by mistake.
That tag is the whole point. It is on-the-spot proof, on the appliance itself, that the item was checked and passed.
Do you need to test and tag new equipment?
In New Zealand, yes. AS/NZS 3760 says new equipment is inspected, tested and tagged when it goes into service here, unless it is supplied through an electrically safe RCD that has a current tag itself. Australia is different: there, new equipment need not be tested. The Conduction Company's advice is the same for new and old gear: test it, and tag it.
Brand new is no guarantee. The Conduction Company recently tested a batch of machinery and power tools a client had imported from overseas, already in use on site. The very first machine, a brand new table saw, failed: its metal casing was not properly earthed. That told the team the factory may not have been following safety standards or checking its work. About a quarter of the batch had similar faults. The Conduction Company fixed them on site the same day, but the repairs cost the client significantly more than the testing alone.
Whoever sells or supplies a new appliance in New Zealand must make sure it is electrically safe, under regulation 80 of the Electricity (Safety) Regulations. Import it yourself, and there is no New Zealand seller standing behind it, so the checking falls to you.
Markets and events often ask for it too. The Conduction Company sees event organisers want every portable appliance at a stall tested and tagged, to keep the public safe. AS/NZS 3002, the standard for shows and events, names farmers' and craft markets, and says equipment used at a stall is tested to AS/NZS 3760. Check your stallholder terms before the day.
How often should appliances be tested and tagged?
How often depends on the environment the equipment works in. The harder the environment, the more often you test. AS/NZS 3760 sets out indicative intervals, from every 6 months in a busy workshop to up to 5 years in a low-wear office.
How often The Conduction Company tests and tags, by environment and equipment type.
Factories, workshops, and places of manufacture. Every 6 months.
Equipment that flexes, gets knocked about, or works in a hostile environment. Every 12 months.
Offices and other low-wear environments. Up to 5 years.
Hotels, motels, hostels, and boarding houses. Every 2 years.
Commercial cleaning equipment. Every 6 months.
Hire equipment. Before every hire, then at least every 3 months.
Repaired or serviced equipment. Re-test before it goes back into use.
Second-hand equipment. Test before it is sold or put back into service.
These intervals are from AS/NZS 3760, Table 2.4.
Construction and demolition sites are a special case. They follow a separate, stricter standard, AS/NZS 3012, with much shorter intervals than office or workshop equipment. If you are running gear on a building site, talk to us about the right schedule for your site.
The Conduction Company tests construction-site gear to AS/NZS 3012: power tools, leads, cord extension sets and portable outlet boards are tested before they first go into service, then at least every 3 months.
Two honest caveats. These are indicative intervals. A business with the right expertise can vary them based on a documented risk assessment, and manufacturers' instructions or industry rules can set shorter periods. The one exception is hire equipment, where the intervals are fixed, because the hirer cannot control how it gets used.
How often does my equipment need to be retested?
It depends on the business, says The Conduction Company. Some clients choose not to test and tag at all. Others build it into their safety procedures, and they usually take The Conduction Company's recommendation on how often.
On The Conduction Company's rounds, construction gear is retested every 3 months and office equipment about every 12 months, depending on the risk and the wear and tear the gear gets. The schedule follows the AS/NZS 3760 intervals listed above. That table allows up to 5 years only where cords are not flexed in normal use, not open to abuse, and not in a hostile environment.
How long does a test and tag round take for a typical office?
About two to four minutes an item, says The Conduction Company. A typical medium-sized office has about 50 items to test and tag, which comes to roughly 100 to 200 minutes of testing. A bigger or more spread-out site takes longer.
How do you keep a business running while you test its equipment?
Mostly, nothing has to stop. The Conduction Company tests portable appliances, and they are not usually in use while they are being tested. Where gear has to keep running to keep production going, The Conduction Company books the testing outside business hours or on a weekend.
What gets tested?
Test and tag covers portable electrical equipment that plugs into a normal socket by a flexible cord or lead. If it has a plug and a lead, it is usually in scope.
Typical items include:
- Power tools and heavy-duty tools like high-pressure washers and grinders
- Extension leads, cord sets, and portable outlet boards
- Chargers, power packs, and battery chargers
- Kitchen appliances, computers, and office equipment
- Portable RCDs and portable socket-outlet assemblies
Fixed wiring and switchboards are a separate job. If you are not sure where the line sits for your site, that is exactly the kind of thing we sort out in the first visit.
Which items fail test and tag most often, and why?
Power tools, says The Conduction Company, and usually because of the cord. On rough sites a lead gets run over by machinery or a pallet jack, or a tool like a grinder cuts through its own cord. That hard use is why construction gear is tested more often.
Do landlords need to test and tag appliances in a rental?
Not usually, says The Conduction Company. Tenants mostly bring their own appliances, and anything they plug in is theirs to keep safe. The landlord's part is the fixed wiring, including the power points.
Appliances the landlord supplies are different. Under regulation 15A of the Electricity (Safety) Regulations, a landlord must not provide electrically unsafe appliances, and must give tenants instructions for using them safely. A landlord-supplied appliance counts as electrically safe if it has a current AS/NZS 3760 tag, or if it was first supplied through an electrically safe RCD (regulation 26).
So if you supply several appliances across your rentals, The Conduction Company tests and tags them and keeps the records together. It is part of its electrical work for property managers.
Who can carry out test and tag?
Test and tag has to be done by a competent person, someone with the training, skills, and test equipment to do it properly. Under AS/NZS 3760 that person does not have to be a registered electrician.
Here is where it pays to use one anyway. We do test and tag as a qualified electrical contractor, so if a test turns up a fault, we can fix it on the spot rather than just tagging it out and leaving you to find someone else. Jordan Statham is a Registered Electrician and a registered Electrical Inspector, and we are Master Electricians members with 600+ five-star Google reviews and more than 2,000 clients served across Auckland. If appliance safety ties into wider compliance, our inspection and certification page covers how we handle it.
Can a business train its own staff to test and tag?
Yes. In New Zealand the person who tests and tags does not have to be a registered electrician, but they must be competent. WorkSafe says a business can "get the testing equipment and train up a worker, or hire a third-party to carry out the testing".
The Conduction Company sees industrial firms do exactly that. "If you're in a high-use environment and you've got thousands of tags that need to be put on every three months, it's definitely a good investment in the future if you can train one of your core staff to be qualified and competent at testing and tagging," says Jordan Statham. Test and tag training is usually a one-day course run by a training provider, and NZQA has a unit standard for it, 6705.
What a trained staff member cannot do is fix what fails. A damaged plug, cord or appliance comes out of service and goes to a registered electrical worker for repair, which is where The Conduction Company comes in.
How much does test and tag cost?
Test and tag is priced per tag, plus a call-out fee to get us on site. The Conduction Company charges $7.99 plus GST per tag and a $54.90 plus GST call-out fee. A minimum fee applies for jobs under 10 tags, and for large batches we can negotiate a lower per-tag rate.
We quote on facts, not guesses
Before we give you a price, we carry out a proper assessment of your site and how many items need testing. That way you know exactly what you're buying and the total cost, with no surprises. Clear expectations from the outset, start to finish.
What test and tag actually costs
The estimates below are for standard test and tag on portable appliances. Final pricing will be confirmed after we assess your site.
The Conduction Company's testing and tagging rates, plus GST.
Per tag. $7.99, charged per appliance tested and tagged.
Call-out fee. $54.90, a one-off fee to attend your site.
Jobs under 10 tags. A minimum fee applies, and it covers small jobs. Talk to The Conduction Company for the exact figure.
Large batches. A lower rate is negotiable. The Conduction Company can agree a lower per-tag rate for high volumes.
For thermal imaging of your switchboard and fixed wiring, which is a different check for a different kind of fault, see our guide on thermal imaging inspections in Auckland.
What makes one site's test and tag bill higher than another's?
Volume and frequency, says The Conduction Company. Construction sites, and construction departments inside larger organisations, have their tools and equipment retested every 3 months under AS/NZS 3012, often hundreds of devices across several sites. That adds up to a much bigger bill than a standard office with 20 to 30 appliances tested about once a year.
What should a business have ready before you arrive to test?
Everything in one place. If all the devices are gathered together or laid out in one area, The Conduction Company's technician can test them one after another. Time spent waiting for gear to be dropped off, or searching for it around the building, is charged as extra labour, so having it ready keeps the bill down.
How does drop-off test and tag work?
A tradie drops off a load of tools at The Conduction Company in Onehunga in the morning. A qualified tester works through them during the day, and anything that needs a repair can be fixed in the workshop. The tools are ready to collect, freshly tagged, at the end of the day.
The estimates below are for standard drop-off test and tag.
The Conduction Company confirms final pricing after a property assessment.
The Conduction Company's drop-off rate is $57.50 including GST for the first item, and $17.25 including GST for each item after it ($50 and $15 plus GST).
Why choose TCCO for test and tag in Auckland?
Appliance safety is not just a box to tick. Done properly, it protects your team, keeps you on the right side of your obligations, and gives you clean records when an insurer, an auditor, or WorkSafe asks. Done as a tick-box, it does none of that.
We keep it straightforward. We set up a schedule that suits your site, remind you before the next round is due, test to AS/NZS 3760, fix what we can on the spot, and give you clear records. If test and tag sits alongside other compliance work, we can pick that up too, because we also handle inspections, certification, and switchboard work in-house. Businesses that want ongoing cover can roll it into our maintenance and servicing work. If you also want to understand certification more broadly, our guide on electrical certification in NZ breaks it down. And because RCDs are part of a full safety picture, our post on what to know about RCDs is worth a read.
In short
Test and tag shows the gear people plug in was safe when it was checked, not that it still is. Based on its own Auckland rounds, The Conduction Company tests construction gear every 3 months and most offices about every 12 months, and tags new equipment when it goes into service, as AS/NZS 3760 requires in New Zealand. Power tools and their cords fail most often. A business can train its own staff to test, but anything that fails goes to a registered electrical worker for repair.
Ready to sort your appliance testing?
If you want your workplace appliances tested and tagged properly, get in touch or call us on (09) 390 0525. We will set up a schedule that fits your site, do it to the standard, and give you records you can actually use. Happy to help.
Frequently asked questions
Is test and tag a legal requirement in NZ?
Not under a single law. No New Zealand law makes test and tag compulsory for every workplace. What the law does require is that every business keeps people safe, so far as is reasonably practicable, and that includes making sure electrical equipment is safe to use. Testing and tagging to AS/NZS 3760 is the recognised way to show you have done that. Some settings, like construction sites, effectively expect regular testing.
How often does test and tag need to be done?
It depends on the environment. AS/NZS 3760 sets indicative intervals, from every 6 months in a factory to up to 5 years in a low-wear office. Hotels and hostels are every 2 years, and hire equipment is checked before every hire. Construction and demolition sites follow a separate, stricter standard, AS/NZS 3012, with much shorter intervals, so harder environments mean more frequent testing.
Does test and tag have to be done by an electrician?
No. Under AS/NZS 3760 test and tag must be done by a competent person, someone with the right training, skills, and equipment, but that person does not have to be a registered electrician. The advantage of using a qualified electrical contractor is that any fault found can be fixed on the spot, rather than just tagged out.
What is AS/NZS 3760?
AS/NZS 3760 is the Australian and New Zealand standard for the in-service inspection and testing of electrical equipment. It sets out how to inspect and test portable appliances, how often to do it, and what a compliant tag has to show. It is the standard behind the term test and tag.
What happens if an appliance fails a test and tag?
It is taken out of service. Under AS/NZS 3760 any item that fails is tagged as non-compliant and withdrawn so no one plugs it back in by mistake. Because we do test and tag as a qualified electrical contractor, we can often repair a minor fault on the spot and re-test it, rather than leaving you without the gear.
How much does test and tag cost in Auckland?
The Conduction Company charges $7.99 plus GST per tag, plus a $54.90 plus GST call-out fee to attend your site. A minimum fee applies for jobs under 10 tags, and we can negotiate a lower per-tag rate for large batches. Every total is an estimate until we know how many items you have and where they are, so we confirm it after a quick assessment.
Who can test and tag electrical equipment in NZ?
A competent person, says The Conduction Company: someone trained to use the tester safely who understands AS/NZS 3760. They do not have to be a registered electrician. Repairs to anything that fails need a registered electrical worker.
Is there a test and tag course in NZ?
Yes, says The Conduction Company. Training providers run one-day test and tag courses, and NZQA has a unit standard for it, 6705. WorkSafe asks for competence, not a particular course.
