Selling a house with upstairs lighting problem?

dbs

Thinking a selling my 40 year old house worth about £115,000 but the upstairs lighting has no earthing in the wiring will this be picked up in a survey? and if so how much should I reduce the price?
If I have it all rewired I would have to redecorate all the rooms and this may not be to the taste of potential buyers so reducing the price of the property seems the best option what would you do?

bockster

there are 3 levels of house survey, basic valuation for mortgage (no chance of picking up earthing fault), homebuyers report( possible chance of picking up on fault), full structural survey( probable chance of being rumbled). most people go for the basic valuation

i stand to be corrected on the above

leaving myself open here, but, if it were me, rightly or wrongly, i would say nowt and leave it up to the buyers, play dumb.

by the way if it is just the upstairs lighting cicuit, depending on the existing installation, it may be possible to pull in new cables with the old ones to the switches then most of the wiring is up in the loft. have you had someone look at it? it may not be as bad as you think.

divadee

I had my lighting ring rewired a couple of years ago, and no damage was done to my walls, they managed to pull the new wires up through the conduit in the wall. BUT they did say they might have had to chissle some channels out. Get a sparky round and ask him.

If not you could play dumb, BUT if they do have a survey that shows this, they might negotiate on the price.

garysletters

it;s very difficult for even a sparky to say if its possible to pull the new cable through with the old stuff.
If it's in a decent size conduit its easier, if its not in conduit, it cant be done. so much crap falls into conduit, thus blocking the way for the cable that even if a sparky thinks it can be done, it may all go pear shaped when they try.

There is nothing legally wrong with unearthed cable for lighting in an old system.
The only problem comes when you want to add metallic switches or fittings.

I wouldn't say anything.....unless asked.

dougk_2

And the homebuyers report will say:
Get the electrics checked by a qualified electrcian as they always say this!

Many Estate Agents will advise the buyer that this is a normal comment and to ignore it.

Unless asked don't say anything - in fact thats a good policy with sales of anything - only mention the positive things!

Pal

It is not illegal to have old wiring, but be aware that in order to rent your house out, the wiring would need to be upgraded. This might put off any potential BTL landlords or lead them to drop their price by the amount of the rewiring work.

I would simply ignore the issue, but don't lie if anyone specifically asks.

dbs

Thanks for the information I am sure the wires are not run in conduit so its going to ruin the decorating so I think I will let it be.