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inner_grace
Posts: 38 Forumite
Hi
I recently brought a 4 bed detached house and paid the price of what the house was valued at based on acceptable electrics.
The seller did not reply to the electricity questions nor did she provide an indemnity policy for an extension (I paid £100 for it just before completion at mine and my solicitors disgrace) I was given a brief reply to the electrics question also right at the last minute. She said she had not required the electrics apart from adding electric sockets in the conservatory. Also said she was advised to update the earth on the cooker 15 years ago. She told us when she showed us around that she extended the kitchen but told the solicitor the people she brought the house of didn't provide her with indemnity policy for the extension? I didn't expect much electrical work because the consumer unit is modern with new cables running around it.
Upon changing lights we discover it's not the cooker that needs an earth. There is no cooker point as the oven is gas. It's the lighting circuit that needs the earth! She had metal fittings up which have all been ripped down and changed to plastic for safety. Some of the plug sockets were not left safe inside, some also having old early 1960s wiring. The new cables I spotted around the fuse box are for the kitchen as that has been done on a new circuit with earthed lighting.
So my point here is I told my solicitor something was a miss as she has a new consumer unit but no electrical certificate for it? She said you would not always get a certificate. Didn't question with the seller anymore. The seller knew what she was doing and why didn't she say that the property had been partly re wired?
She had alot of money from us for the house and eith everything looking nice on the outside. Nicely decorated, new carpets ect. Underneath it all is mostly old wiring and now we are left with a big bill at some point to put right work that she should have done beforehand.
Not sure if I have any legal rights but I feel that she has mis led us and the solicitor could have been a bit more through on the electrical side?
Has anyone else had a similar experience, did you pursue and what was the outcome?
My solicitor just said I could take to small claims court and an independent legal advisor said it's a difficult one and to go through purchase documents to look for mistakes the solicitor may have made.
Your advise appreciated.
I recently brought a 4 bed detached house and paid the price of what the house was valued at based on acceptable electrics.
The seller did not reply to the electricity questions nor did she provide an indemnity policy for an extension (I paid £100 for it just before completion at mine and my solicitors disgrace) I was given a brief reply to the electrics question also right at the last minute. She said she had not required the electrics apart from adding electric sockets in the conservatory. Also said she was advised to update the earth on the cooker 15 years ago. She told us when she showed us around that she extended the kitchen but told the solicitor the people she brought the house of didn't provide her with indemnity policy for the extension? I didn't expect much electrical work because the consumer unit is modern with new cables running around it.
Upon changing lights we discover it's not the cooker that needs an earth. There is no cooker point as the oven is gas. It's the lighting circuit that needs the earth! She had metal fittings up which have all been ripped down and changed to plastic for safety. Some of the plug sockets were not left safe inside, some also having old early 1960s wiring. The new cables I spotted around the fuse box are for the kitchen as that has been done on a new circuit with earthed lighting.
So my point here is I told my solicitor something was a miss as she has a new consumer unit but no electrical certificate for it? She said you would not always get a certificate. Didn't question with the seller anymore. The seller knew what she was doing and why didn't she say that the property had been partly re wired?
She had alot of money from us for the house and eith everything looking nice on the outside. Nicely decorated, new carpets ect. Underneath it all is mostly old wiring and now we are left with a big bill at some point to put right work that she should have done beforehand.
Not sure if I have any legal rights but I feel that she has mis led us and the solicitor could have been a bit more through on the electrical side?
Has anyone else had a similar experience, did you pursue and what was the outcome?
My solicitor just said I could take to small claims court and an independent legal advisor said it's a difficult one and to go through purchase documents to look for mistakes the solicitor may have made.
Your advise appreciated.
0
Comments
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When buying a house it's down to you to check it's condition,usually by a survey of anything you are in doubt about. It's known as buyer beware.
Any time or money you spend chasing the vendor will be wasted unless you can prove they lied to you.I am not a cat (But my friend is)0 -
Did you ask for an EICR? (Electrical Installation Condition report) It would have cost less than £200 and would have told you what's wrong and would have enabled you to negotiate the selling price to cover some of the cost of repairs.
1960's wiring is not necessarilly dangerous, plenty of it still safe and secure. Lighting without an earth probably pre dates that. Still safe to use with class 2 fittings, and you can get some metal class 2 light fittings.
The extension work should have had an EIC (Electrical installation Certificate) and if not was probably a DIY or cowboy job. That should have forced some of the older stuff to be upgraded, but until recently building control were not very hot on things like that so may have let it slip through.
I doubt there is much you can do.0 -
What did your survey say? I bet it just said you should get a full electrical check, which you decided you didn't need to do.
What did you expect your solicitor to do? He never visited the property, and he's not an electrician. You were well aware that her answers on the PIF were sketchy - you even questioned them. Your solicitor is right - you don't always get an electrical certificate. None were issued prior to Part P of building regs coming in in 2005 - and even since then, people haven't always obtained them. You bought an indemnity certificate which, presumably, covers you against the legal costs for a prosecution relating to a breach of building regs regarding the electrical installation? Lovely, but that's not what's happening here, so it won't pay out.
Caveat emptor. The time to satisfy yourself about condition was before purchase.0 -
Shocking!!"You were only supposed to blow the bl**dy doors off!!"0
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tt
My advice is to get 3 electricians to give you quotes to rectify all the problems.inner_grace wrote: »Hi
....
Not sure if I have any legal rights
few
but I feel that she has mis led us
You feel she misled you, or she has misled you?
If she has, please quote the exact words she put in her written replies to your questions regarding the electrics. We can then advise if this constitutes any legal commitment.
and the solicitor could have been a bit more through on the electrical side?
True. He could have visited the property and completed a complete elecrical check.
Oh! No - I mean an electrician could have visited the property and completed a complete elecrical check.
Has anyone else had a similar experience, did you pursue and what was the outcome?
Not many people will have experienced this. Most people are cautious about what they are about to spend several hundred thousand pounds on.
My solicitor just said I could take to small claims court and an independent legal advisor said it's a difficult one and to go through purchase documents to look for mistakes the solicitor may have made.
Your advise appreciated.
Then pay the cheapest or most professional-sounding one to do the work.0 -
and the solicitor could have been a bit more through on the electrical side?
True. He could have visited the property and completed a complete elecrical check.What did you expect your solicitor to do? He never visited the property, and he's not an electrician.
He's not even a man. The OP's solicitor appears to be one of those lady lawyers. I hear they're all the rage these days.
(seriously, most fee-earners doing residential conveyancing are female, so why the assumption that they're male, even after you've been told they're not?)0 -
maninthestreet wrote: »Shocking!!
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:0 -
It's always somebody else's fault isn't it? No body wants to take responsibility for their own actions.Eat vegetables and fear no creditors, rather than eat duck and hide.0
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May I refer my learned friend to section 6 of the Interpretations Act, 1978?He's not even a man. The OP's solicitor appears to be one of those lady lawyers. I hear they're all the rage these days.
(seriously, most fee-earners doing residential conveyancing are female, so why the assumption that they're male, even after you've been told they're not?)6 Gender and number.
In any Act, unless the contrary intention appears,—
(a)words importing the masculine gender include the feminine;
(b)words importing the feminine gender include the masculine;
(c)words in the singular include the plural and words in the plural include the singular.0 -
"I recently brought a 4 bed detached house and paid the price of what the house was valued at based on acceptable electrics."
They were acceptable to you since you bought it.
They were acceptable to the previous owner since they did nothing about it.
Whether they were acceptable to an electrician you will never know since you never bothered to ask one.0
This discussion has been closed.
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