homebuyers survey & electricity safety

dreamerxxx

Hello! We have had an offer accepted on a house we love, there was another couple going for it so we had to effectively bid up to the max we could afford. We have had a homebuyers survey done which states the building is fine but the electrics/gas/heating haven't been recently checked or serviced and we have been advised to pay an electrician and gasman to carry out a safety test/survey before contract exchange. For us, every penny counts and we love the house so much it is only going to be a major problem that would stop us going ahead. The surveyer said the electricity consumer unit is dated - does anyone know if this is dangerous or how much we would be looking at to update this? or indeed how urgent the work is likely to be? I guess we should pay for an electric survey but the if work is expensive we are not going to be able to afford it. It also picked up on the lack of fire doors or seperate escape from the loft... but that is not illegal if its an older loft extension is it?

Many thanks for any advice!

poppysarah

Save a few quid now and risk needing to spend a lot when you move in?

G_M

The surveyor is not an electrician. 'Dated' means old. Surveyor cannot/will not tell you if it is safe or dangerous. Only an electrician can do this. Either you pay an electrician and find out now, or you buy the property and find out later.

For prices for a new consumer unit (fuse box) see here. Remember if the wiring is really old (like 1950s rubber) you may need a full rewire which of course costs more.

Same applies to gas/boiler etc. Only a GasSafe engineer can tell you. How old is the boiler? Did you ask the vendors? Ask for a receipt for proof? Does the heating work? Ask them to turn it on and show you!

If it's not too old and works, well, deal with futureproblems if they arise. Or pay for an inspection now.

Building Regulations change all the time. Nowadays they are very specific on attic conversions, but depending when it was done BRs may not have required fire doors/whatever.

However, it's not just the certification to consider. The need for fire doors, proper stairs, safety access etc is because people have died in attics. Are you happy for your kids/yourself to sleep/work/play up there and take the risk?

dreamerxxx

Thank you for your advice. The house was built in 1960 so hopefully it won't be in too bad a condition. We are going to get the electrical survey done now. I have to be honest - we didn't ask the vendors how old the boiler was - would the ea agent be annoyed if we e-mailed him with questions for the vendor now or should we ask through solicitor? Again we didn't ask about the heating - their family has lived there for many years and it is an elderly mother, couple in their forties, and two children sleeping in the attic rooms. I figured that the electricity and heating must have been fine if they have been living there happily. There are two fireplaces which we didn't check either.
I realised they were not fire doors but we aren't going to be using them as bedrooms (not unless we have loads of children and then its going to be a good few years in the future) but of course I worry about safety and we may well used them as guest rooms on occassion - is that something we would ask the vendor to update/consider in the price or is it just a case of we know about it know and will need to update them as soon as we can in future?

Thank you again for your advice... it is really helpful.

poppysarah

dreamerxxx wrote: »

I figured that the electricity and heating must have been fine

I worry about safety

Have another viewing.

Ask to look at the fuse box. If it's a strange looking bit of dark bakelite then it's probably in need of replacing.

If light switches are all the same and you have no brown twisted wires for the lights then the wiring might well be ok.
How many sockets it might have might cause you issues if you run lots of stuff off electric.

BUT there's nothing to stop you getting an electrician to give it the once over - ditto gas - either before you offer (when you can negotiate any repairs needed off the asking price) - or after you've bought it - when you take the burden of the cost yourself.

For your peace of mind you could ask your local fire service to come in and give you fire safety advice. This is usually free - but you would probably have to do this after you've moved in. They give away great smoke alarms too.

Recently done electrics should be part p. If any work has been done it should be registered with the building control at the council.

it's always interesting to look the property up on planning and building control section of the council although this is sometimes limited in what information you can see.

poppysarah

dreamerxxx wrote: »

would the ea agent be annoyed if we e-mailed him with questions for the vendor now or should we ask through solicitor?

You could always have another viewing. As long as you don't expect to view it every day there should be no problem.

Second viewings are usually when you view things more sensible and relise that the third bedroom is actually a cupboard

m_13

We had a gas safety check on the property we've just exchanged on. The boiler was condemned and if it had been serviced last year would have been condemned earlier (or not condemned at all if the work had been done a couple of years before that). It had rusted inside and made the gas inlet pipe oversized and more gas than the boiler could burn was being released. As it is a back boiler on the gas fire, the extra gas was escaping wherever it could, including into the lounge as the seal had gone.

The electric are 1950s and black rubber with wooden back boxes. Even the light pendants are wooden!

I can understand people not having electrical checks but why wouldn't somebody have their boiler serviced especially if they have children!

Gas check was £50 from a gas safe engineer which normally does landlord inspections. We know the electricians and they're NICEIC registered inspectors and did the inspection free of charge.

dreamerxxx

Thank you. I have got a quote for an electricity safety test which is £75 which seems reasonable so we have booked that. After reading the last post we are going to opt for a gas safety check too. It is better to be safe than sorry it is just when you are buying a house everything seems so expensive. Thank you for helping me see the 'bigger picture'. Having looked at online quotes for fire doors it would cost us about £500 to replace the two which we aren't going to be able to afford at the moment but will definately get it done before we use the loft rooms as bedrooms.

I guess I just thought the survey would be comprehensive enough... was a bit of a shock when it referred me to extra call outs!

Thankfully we intend to live in this house for many many years to come!

m_13

I think you've made a good decision. Our seller's solicitor has whinged about taking a hit on the price due to the allowance for the new boiler but when the sellers claimed the gas boiler and heating was in good working condition they really had no idea! The solicitor claims we must have known that the boiler was not working when his own clients were claiming it was. They were shocked when the boiler was condemned and it's a good job neither of them smoked as there could have been an explosion.

The sellers didn't want to do the work or have it done whilst they live there therefore have had no heat or hot water since it was condemned.

We agreed that we would have the boiler replaced straight after completion and it's being done the first week in May. The back boiler is being capped off and a new high efficiency boiler installed in the garage. There isn't a retention on the mortgage but they have asked to see the GasSafe certificate from the installation.

It's hard when you're stretched financially but the last thing you want it so inherit some expensive problems you can't afford to fix.

Jenniefour

dreamerxxx wrote: »

Thank you. I have got a quote for an electricity safety test which is £75 which seems reasonable so we have booked that.

Read very carefully indeed what you have signed up for there - it is not a safety inspection. These cost more and take about three hours. I think you will find some kind of small print about not all wiring, plug boxes etc have not been checked. If you go ahead make doubly sure that at least they are going to check that there is bonding where it needs to be - bathroom and kitchen.