Buyers' Queries

Dukesy

ValHaller wrote: »

Wrong argument. You should be arguing against bodging, not against DIY. The vast majority of DIYers will do fine at fitting a pendant.

I AM arguing against bodging. The big problem is that for plenty of people out there, what is perhaps an honest attempt at DIY ends up as a bodge job. With a lot of DIY, it just means that the end result looks crap, but there are some areas in which mistakes can be truly dangerous.

lazer

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

Yeah but no but ?!

I am not qualified to IET wiring standards edition 1 through 18 whilst I am actually a Chartered Engineer via the IET.

I do have a book on "Household wiring", and have replaced a number of ceiling roses with more funky lighting (including an Outside bulk head light in my son's bedroom, above the loft bed, which can not be broken by my head).

Technically it's no more complicated than wiring a plug *.

That said, if the seller had some nice lights and was insisting that they take them with them, I'd be insisting that they used a professional to replace them with a standard set up.

* on the other hand : wiring a plug is something that people don't seem capable of, which is why appliances have to come with them fitted, and is the main reason why house fires have decreased over the last 15 years.

The latest version is the 17th Edition (with amendment) so you couldn't be qualified to 18th Edition!

OP - I think the sellers are annoyed at you taking all the light fighting and curtain poles etc (and IMO rightfully so as must people would tend to leave them unless they were crystal chandeleirs or something)

So they are trying to make you life difficult now - and actually I think they are within their rights to ask to get wiring done by a professional.
If I was them and you have now admitted doing other electrical stuff DIY I would ask for a full Electrical survey and you would be surprised at the number of things that might not be up to current standards.

martinsurrey

lazer wrote: »

The latest version is the 17th Edition (with amendment) so you couldn't be qualified to 18th Edition!

OP - I think the sellers are annoyed at you taking all the light fighting and curtain poles etc (and IMO rightfully so as must people would tend to leave them unless they were crystal chandeleirs or something)

So they are trying to make you life difficult now - and actually I think they are within their rights to ask to get wiring done by a professional.
If I was them and you have now admitted doing other electrical stuff DIY I would ask for a full Electrical survey and you would be surprised at the number of things that might not be up to current standards.

They are no more within their rights to ask for this than they are that all the cleaning is done by a professional cleaner from now on...

The OP is LEGALLY and MORALY allowed to do his own switch, as long as he knows what he is doing. If they want reports done, so be it, at their own expense.

I agree though, that the reason this is all happening, is the OP takinge verything, including stuff that is screwed down!

Prothet_of_Doom

lazer wrote: »

The latest version is the 17th Edition (with amendment) so you couldn't be qualified to 18th Edition!

OP - I think the sellers are annoyed at you taking all the light fighting and curtain poles etc (and IMO rightfully so as must people would tend to leave them unless they were crystal chandeleirs or something)

So they are trying to make you life difficult now - and actually I think they are within their rights to ask to get wiring done by a professional.
If I was them and you have now admitted doing other electrical stuff DIY I would ask for a full Electrical survey and you would be surprised at the number of things that might not be up to current standards.

Indeed, I couldn't remember whether I wasn't qualified to 18, but I knew I wasn't qualified to 17, and I was pretty sure there wasn't a 19, so I forced a guess. :rotfl:

On my first house the seller wanted us to pay £500 extra for her hideous lights in lounge and dinning room, and we refused. They put some cheap fittings in place, but I had my dad check them out, and he wasn't impressed. He then spent the rest of the afternoon, inspecting all the other sockets and light fittings, but found no other faults. That was 4 hours I could have been abusing his good nature on better things :rotfl:

lazer

martinsurrey wrote: »

They are no more within their rights to ask for this than they are that all the cleaning is done by a professional cleaner from now on...

The OP is LEGALLY and MORALY allowed to do his own switch, as long as he knows what he is doing. If they want reports done, so be it, at their own expense.

I agree though, that the reason this is all happening, is the OP takinge verything, including stuff that is screwed down!

They are within their rights to ask - the seller doesn't have to agree though, but if they didn't I would get a full survey by a fully qualified Electrician (Just so happes that my husband is an Electrician)
They should get the report done at their own expense but then if anything isn't up to current standard they will use it to negotiate a lower price.

The OP has to realise that taking everything is OTT, my house purchase nearly fell through due to an arguement about Curtains (Tensions were us after months of legal issues about right of way, planning etc and it was a final straw really - but we got through it!)

DRP

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

I would much rather have been left with holes in the walls than the huge lumps of filler that our sellers left us with in every single room where they removed wall shelves. I don't know how we're going to flatten them, we will be sanding for hours.

We didn't even ask for holes to be filled, it didn't cross our minds! I get the feeling our sellers didn't like us but we were possibly the least demanding buyers ever, judging from threads I read on here.

Exactly!

I am removing some of the curtain rails at our place and I won't be filling them.

A strange request imo.

Risteard

lazer wrote: »

The latest version is the 17th Edition (with amendment) so you couldn't be qualified to 18th Edition!

Indeed. In fact, to be precise, it is now the IET Wiring Regulations, 17th Edition incorporating Amendment No. 2, otherwise known as BS 7671:2008 (2013).

Leodogger

When selling a house, all fittings not expressly included in the published details are excluded, such as curtains, curtain poles, carpets, light fittings, bathroom cabinets and toothbrush holders etc. We have always taken all these things and this has been agreed with the estate agent at the outset. We included our bedroom fitment this time but this was expressly mentioned in the details. Although our cooker was included in the details, we told the estate agent we may have to take it with us if there wasn't one where we were going and they agreed to mention this to the potential purchaser which they did, and we are taking it with us this time, the purchaser although not 100% happy, agreed to let us have it. Everything is negotiable !

As regards light fittings being removed as an excluded item from the sale, you are told to leave ceiling roses which we have always done OURSELVES, my husband is a handy DIY but there is no requirement to ensure this is done by an electrician as long as you know what you are doing.

If we had paid every time we moved house to have every item removed by a professional and every item of work carried out by a professional, we would have been bankrupt by now ! We have moved 8 times !!!!

We have bought houses in the past where the seller didn't even leave us a lightbulb and switched a brand new gas fire included in the particulars for a tatty metal one he had been using in his transport cafe with cigarette stubbing marks all over it and they even took the handles off doors! :rotfl:

phoebe1989seb

JWhite wrote: »

We have bought houses in the past where the seller didn't even leave us a lightbulb and switched a brand new gas fire included in the particulars for a tatty metal one he had been using in his transport cafe with cigarette stubbing marks all over it and they even took the handles off doors! :rotfl:

Same here - we bought our third house (a slightly dilapidated 4 bed Victorian detached) from a very old lady (in her nineties) who was buying an upmarket retirement flat. The fixtures & fittings list said curtains & poles were being left, yet she took those and all the light bulbs We had to string blankets across the windows on the first night......

Regarding picture hooks, curtain poles etc, we took some (relatively expensive) poles from our last house and did fill the holes/make good as we still had the paints used, but the picture hooks we actually left in the wall - mainly as there were sooooo many it would have taken forever to fill and repaint. We did (and usually do) leave tins of the emulsions used to decorate with labels for each room though

In previous houses my dad always took down the light fittings and replaced with a rose & flex when DH and I were moving as we have some antique fittings (wall and ceiling) that cannot be replaced, but last time he was too ill (and whilst DH is brilliant at DIY, he won't touch electrics) so we got an electrician to do the work. We left the obvious ones (kitchen down lighters, bathrooms, some basic shades and main living room light which the PO had custom made for the vaulted ceiling) and it cost £60 to remove the remaining seven or so light fittings, which I thought was well worth it.

Slightly off topic, but when we bought our current house in 2011 we did inherit literally hundreds of hooks - but these were cup hooks attached to the ceiling beams.....we initially thought he'd used them for naughty games (nudge-nudge, wink-wink!) but it turned out the PO used them to string cables across whilst he was replacing timbers etc as there were only rudimentary electrics in the downstairs There was also some rather fetching carpet gripper rod attached to the bare stone walls from which the PO hung old bits of carpet in lieu of curtains......nice, eh

ey143

We're about exchange on a large old detached and our structural survey recommended an electrical safety check, which we did not do because like pretty much everything in a building survey, its littered with get out clauses.

However, maybe the vendor spoke to the surveyor or got hold of the report somehow, but he has carried out an electrical safety check on his own accord (the house is complicated with multiple meters to different areas of the house - due to granny annexes etc.Anyway the result has come back with I assume serious issues that need sorting which he is will be undertaking remedial works on it even though it needs rewiring totally.

I have also asked him to leave old stuff e.g. curtain poles etc where they are of no value to him, so that the property remains secure after I get it. Let's see about that.