Electrician survey- didn't uncover a problem

sueaye

I wonder if anyone can help or give advice for this problem.

We moved into a house, paid an electrician to do a survey of the house. He did the survey for £150 and then wrote a report on what needed doing. At the time in particular lights were flickering in our living room.

He came back with a quote of £670 for all the work including a new fuse box, new socket, sorting out various other bits. There is a guarantee on all his work for 5 years.

Then......1 month later the living room flickering lights are back? We called him and he said it was a new fault and would cost money to sort out- £30-£40.

Is this right? Surely we are covered cos he did a survey and obviously didn't fix/find the problem. We shouldn't pay any money surely?
Also we have an electric certificate for the house and it is registered with the council. I thought the certificate was to say our house was electrically safe.

Advise appreciated.

dannyxx25

Flickering lights normally indicate that you're losing voltage somewhere, there's some sort of resistance happening. Can be quite serious or could just be something very minor that you could fix yourself. Was this particular electrician the only quote you had? Why did he replace the fuse box? I think you may need to see another electrician.

baldelectrician

Flickering lights indicate a loose wire (it maybe on the supply or meter)

Have a look (but don't touch) your meter. Call the local power company to have a look if required

Get it checked

diable

Can you confirm that it is just the living room lights and what type are they? It could be a loose wire in the switch or the feed to the fitting/switch or even a duff fitting.

fluffpot

As diable says it might just be a problem with the living room light fitting and switch. Are they on a circuit with other lights? (your newly labelled fuseboard should tell you) If they are and the other lights are OK, then 99% it's just the living room. Have you changed any bulbs in the lights recently? Sometimes if they're not in properly then they can flicker

Fluff

jdturk

sueaye wrote: »

I wonder if anyone can help or give advice for this problem.

We moved into a house, paid an electrician to do a survey of the house. He did the survey for £150 and then wrote a report on what needed doing. At the time in particular lights were flickering in our living room.

He came back with a quote of £670 for all the work including a new fuse box, new socket, sorting out various other bits. There is a guarantee on all his work for 5 years.

Then......1 month later the living room flickering lights are back? We called him and he said it was a new fault and would cost money to sort out- £30-£40.

Is this right? Surely we are covered cos he did a survey and obviously didn't fix/find the problem. We shouldn't pay any money surely?
Also we have an electric certificate for the house and it is registered with the council. I thought the certificate was to say our house was electrically safe.

Advise appreciated.

An electrical certificate should be treated as an MOT, when he checked your electrics they were ok except what he has changed. His guarantee is for the things he replaced NOT your whole electrical layout

sueaye

diable wrote: »

Can you confirm that it is just the living room lights and what type are they? It could be a loose wire in the switch or the feed to the fitting/switch or even a duff fitting.

It is not just the living room, it is also a storage room next to the living room. Previously the electrician changed the switches from dimmers to normal. There are two lights, a double switch one side of the room and a single switch the other side of the room.

sueaye

jdturk wrote: »

An electrical certificate should be treated as an MOT, when he checked your electrics they were ok except what he has changed. His guarantee is for the things he replaced NOT your whole electrical layout

Yes but we told him when he first came here that the living room lights sometimes flickered. He said he would look at it. Also he said the survey would take 3/4 hours but for 2 1/2 hours it just appeared that he tested sockets. After this he came with the quote £670, we let him do the work. Then he said it would take 3 1/2 days but he did it in less than 2 days. This is why we doubt things. Maybe he didn't check properly.

sueaye

fluffpot wrote: »

As diable says it might just be a problem with the living room light fitting and switch. Are they on a circuit with other lights? (your newly labelled fuseboard should tell you) If they are and the other lights are OK, then 99% it's just the living room. Have you changed any bulbs in the lights recently? Sometimes if they're not in properly then they can flicker

Fluff

Apparently they are on a circuit with the kichen and hall lights, then they go to the living room and cupboard. The kitchen and hall lights are fine. We haven't changed any bulbs.

sueaye

dannyxx25 wrote: »

Flickering lights normally indicate that you're losing voltage somewhere, there's some sort of resistance happening. Can be quite serious or could just be something very minor that you could fix yourself. Was this particular electrician the only quote you had? Why did he replace the fuse box? I think you may need to see another electrician.

We had another two quotes- British Gas wanted to rewire the whole house and one electrician quoted £600 without doing a survey. The fuseboard was ancient!!

sueaye

jdturk wrote: »

An electrical certificate should be treated as an MOT, when he checked your electrics they were ok except what he has changed. His guarantee is for the things he replaced NOT your whole electrical layout

Interesting way of seeing it. I just worry that his survey wasn't good enough.