Legal rights after buying a house with dangerous electrics.

G_M · 7 July 2017 at 11:17PM

3mph wrote: »

"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.

If either the OP, or their mortgage lender, had a Valuation done, I very much doubt it said: "Valued at £X00,0000 if the electrics are acceptable".

00ec25 · 7 July 2017 at 11:45PM

you had the right to ask the vendor if they would agree to and allow an electrican to do an inspection

you had the right to ask the vendor if they would pay for such an inspection

you had the right to pay for the inspection yourself

you had the right to take note of, or ignore, the findings of the inspection

you had the right to ask the vendor to reduce the purchase price based on the findings of the inspection

you had the right to walk away from the purchase if the vendor refused your revised offer

you had the right to impose conditions in the contract

your rights are now in the past....

you exchanged contracts and your vendor neither implied nor stated anything at all about the electrics in that contract, which you failed to have inspected to establish what their actual state was. The contract completed on that basis and caveat emptor therefore now applies. They are now your electrics and your problem

Davesnave · 8 July 2017 at 7:24AM

inner_grace wrote: »

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 have needed to rewire two of three houses I've purchased.

I didn't 'pursue' anyone, except an electrician, because I either knew the house needed the electrics sorted, or I accepted that what was there, though safe, wasn't worth preserving.

In other words I'd done due diligence when examining the house and understood that rewiring is a fundamental activity when considering a property's long-term future. It's not something one does after other alterations are complete.

If that's an accurate account of what they said, it sounds as if your legal advisors here are talking BS.

silvercar · 8 July 2017 at 10:32AM

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.

Plenty of homes are like this, fitted out before it became a requirement to earth the light circuits. If your seller's were still living in the property, they would still be living like this. The general guidance, for anyone not rewiring immediately, is not to have metal switches.

Changing the fittings for plastic is a further safeguard, though a lot of people would just be mindful not to swing from the lights with wet hands!

martindow · 8 July 2017 at 10:33AM

Davesnave wrote: »

I have needed to rewire two of three houses I've purchased.

Was this due to safety issues though. Rewiring I've had done has been due to the fact there were only one or two sockets in each room and I wanted more. The wiring was old but not dangerous.

Bonniepurple · 8 July 2017 at 10:34AM

When we bought this house we knew that the electrics were probably going to need updating, so before exchange we asked our electrician to go in and test. What we asked for was "opinion on the electrics and to tell us if it was safe to plug in a kettle on moving day". He tested it, told us that it wasn't as bad as we thought, and we exchanged. It wouldn't have put us off, but I wanted the reassurance.
Buyer beware.

AdrianC · 8 July 2017 at 10:42AM

silvercar wrote: »

Plenty of homes are like this, fitted out before it became a requirement to earth the light circuits.

<nods>
It's probably worth pointing out that earthed lighting circuits only became a requirement for new installations from 1998.

So, unless your house has been rewired since then, it's entirely possible - likely, even - that the lighting is not earthed.

Davesnave · 8 July 2017 at 1:03PM

martindow wrote: »

Was this due to safety issues though? Rewiring I've had done has been due to the fact there were only one or two sockets in each room and I wanted more. The wiring was old but not dangerous.

Err, would you believe rubber cable? OK it's going back many years, but even in those heady days of practical naivety, I knew perishing when I saw it.

Here, in the present house, I had some interesting live cables where they ought to have been dead, and no certification for any of the more modern work, but overall it didn't look too bad.

I didn't claim both houses were potentially dangerous, but both shared the common theme of vendors who weren't capable of giving reliable answers, and I suspect that's the case with the OP as well.

bxboards · 8 July 2017 at 1:26PM

Lots of older installations have no earth in the lighting , this is quite normal for older houses. You actually do not NEED to do anything, just fit Class II fittings. No earth is so normal, B&Q sell Class II.

Older wiring does not mean things are unsafe - just avoid metal fittings.

PS: houses are 'bought' not 'brought' they are not movable objects, so you can't 'bring' them from one place to another!

sheff6107 · 8 July 2017 at 2:52PM

Try living in my temporary rented house - tin wiring, no earths, every plug socket is wired into a 4 way adaptor screwed to the wall. We had to get an electrician round for something else and he was very annoyed there was nothing in law that would let him condemn the house.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Legal rights after buying a house with dangerous electrics.

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free