RU SURE YOU ARE NOT PAYING YOUR NEIGHBOURS BILL??

peterbaker

I live in a six year old apartment block built by Fairview Homes.

I recently discovered that my neighbour pays my electricity bills and vice versa.

The wiring in my apartment is appalling (like stretched spaghetti up in the loft) so I was not surprised to learn the meters were transposed in the network's database (London Energy in my case).

I think it is an absolute joke that the law is about to be changed to prevent people like me doing their own wiring.  I could make a ten times better job of it than the supposed IEEE certified cowboy that wired this place originally for Fairview Homes and London Energy.

Who checks up on the work new housebuilders say they have done?  Not a damn soul.  Building regulations inspectors certainly don't go looking for anything they aren't shown as far as I am aware.  Did one of them ever climb into my loft?  I doubt it.

Did London Energy send an inspector to test all the (apparently undated) meters that Fairview installed? Nah I don't think so or they would have found that mine fed the apartment next door and vice versa.  Of course all I get from London Energy now is letters telling me (incorrectly) that I owe them money.  I suppose I will have to get angry with them on the telephone again sometime in 2005.

Idiots the lot of them!

King_David_2

Changing the law so numb-nuts members of the public don't kill themselves when they try to do the wiring themselves is a good idea.

Remember, there will always be people who think they are great at DIY when they can't actually do a thing.

Feel free to break the law.

How you will be reported for it is anyone's guess!

peterbaker

Why do we need another law that restricts our freedom to use knowledge acquired at school/university or wherever? I have bought five houses in my life and four out of five had stupid mistakes in the installation by so called "qualified" electricians. Oh, and at a rented house last year I discovered another stupid mistake by another London developer's electrician when I volunteered to wire in my landlord's new washing machine! I feel safer checking my own electrics thanks!

Why not just tell the !!!!!! that buy houses without giving a thought to whether the electrical installation needs refurbishing before they switch on, that they might be the !!!!!! and candles might be safer until someone they trust has had a good look?

How long before there's a law that says we can't serve our own elderflower wine without a victuallers license and host and product liability insurance I wonder?

alanobrien

I agree, i have lived in a few houses wired by so called electricians that i would not trust to change a fuse.

As an multi disiplined engineer of many years a spur, consumer unit replacement or for that matter a simple house rewire is well within my grasp, in fact i have done all these in the past but i will not be able to do it in the future according to the law.

Same with installing a window, now you need a FENSA certificate for stuffing a plastic or aluminium square into a brick hole ridiculous!

I agree the intention of the law is well meant i.e. to stop numb nuts killing themselves or someone else but it wont work simply because it cannot be properly policed.

The down side for the public of course is the potential to be ripped off by the need to have a piece of paper for every little thing that is done in a house.

We live in ever more challenging times.