This is a rough guide to legal issues surrounding home cabling.

The material on this page is for information only, Homewired assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of this information or any injury or property damage caused by following any of this information.

If you are in doubt about the legality of what you're doing then get a professional to do it.

What the home owner can't do

Electrical

It should go without saying that you can't do any electrical wiring yourself, you must use a registered electrical contractor. It is also illegal to install extension cords or power cords as fixed wiring.

Communications

It is also illegal for home owners to install or modify any cabling that can be connected to a telecommunications network. This includes the telephone line and any extensions that have been installed. It also includes any Cat5 cabling, even if you only intend to use it for an internal network. The theory behind it is that you could connect a phone line to the Cat5 cabling using a patch cord, then it would be directly connected to the telecommunications network. Unfortunately the law still applies even if the Cat5 cabling is nowhere near any telecommunications cabling or even if your home is connected to the network via optic fibre (which doesn't conduct electricity) or wireless. If you want an extra phone point or Cat5 cabling installed you must use an ACMA registered installer.

What the home owner can do

Pretty much anything else, provided the voltage is not exceeding 42.4 V peak or 60 V DC. This includes audio visual signal cables including HDMI (which includes a 5V power supply line) and speaker cables and TV antenna cables. Though there are no specific regulations covering this type of cabling in the interests of safety you should follow the same principals of separation of services and health and safety awareness.