Recently bought a house with indemnity policy on electrics...

zardos6ix

hi I'm hoping someone can give me advice or point in me in the right direction.

I have recently bought a house and my seller took out indemnity policies on the electrics and gas boiler. Now having moved in I've had an electrician check out the mains and consumer unit. The result of which he says do not meet regulations and would need rewiring/replacing and in additional the kitchen sockets aren't done properly and would need wiring correctly.

So my question is should i be able to claim off the indemnity policy that was taken out?

G_M

No.

That (almost certainly) only covers you in the event of the local authority prosecuting for non-compliance, or enforcing BRs.

Shop around, get 2 or 3 quotes, and get the job done.

DaftyDuck

.... and the job may not really need doing. Very few properties rewired five years ago will meet all current standards. Doesn't really mean they need the work done.

Worth a second (and third ) opinion...

Thrugelmir

zardos6ix wrote: »

Now having moved in I've had an electrician check out the mains and consumer unit. The result of which he says do not meet regulations and would need rewiring/replacing and in additional the kitchen sockets aren't done properly and would need wiring correctly.

Should have had this looked at prior to purchase.

mattyprice4004

As above, why on earth would this all not be checked out before exchange?
It's not like they will have suddenly become like that overnight, it should have been picked up beforehand.

moneyistooshorttomention

What a weird thing for the vendor to do.

I've heard of people taking out indemnity policies when houses get sold for quite a variety of things and reasons seemed perfectly understandable - but never that one.

I would rather tend to regard the presence of that indemnity policy as translating into "The seller knew very well that the electrics etc need money spending on them - and not just for a 'bring up to current regulations' reason either. They really need money spending on them".

So, in your position, I'd be getting a couple of opinions as to what needed doing/cost of doing it. If the electrics are that bad - then I guess you will have things like an original (old-style) fuse box (rather than modern circuit breaker board) in place. You would likely also find things "blowing" on you a bit - eg my recently-bought house had the lights in one room blow on me and, in the process, all the lights in the place blew at the same time. I also found it was still the original fusebox. Electricians who came in told me that I literally couldn't add something as basic as the missing electric cooker point to the existing fusebox if I wanted to.

My suspicions would be that you do need work on the place.

As to whether you can chase the vendor for the cost - that's one of the things I find odd about him having taken out an indemnity policy. Reason being = I wouldn't have thought you could do so for the cost of the work. So what else might you possibly chase him for then? and there is only answer I can think of to that. That answer being the vendor being "chased" for having killed or injured you with their faulty electrics/etc.

HappyMJ

It's very unlikely the indemnity policy will provide the cover you think it might.

Did the seller not get Part P compliance certificates on some work that had been done and that was the reason for the indemnity policy?

AdrianC

HappyMJ wrote: »

Did the seller not get Part P compliance certificates on some work that had been done and that was the reason for the indemnity policy?

That has to be the most likely scenario.

As far as "meet regulations" go, the current (17th edition) wiring regs were launched in 2008, and updated in 2011. Unless a house has been completely rewired in the last four years, let alone the last seven, it's very unlikely it'll meet the current regulations. Care to take a guess as to what proportion of properties that is...?

martindow

[QUOTE=HappyMJ;69029949
Did the seller not get Part P compliance certificates on some work that had been done and that was the reason for the indemnity policy?[/QUOTE]
Presumably for the kitchen wiring that the OP mentions. You need to ask the electrician what the issue is and perhaps get them to remedy this.

Not being up to current standards is not the same as being dangerous.

red_imps_2003

Aye, my wife and I had concerns about the conditions of the electrics in a house we were about to purchase earlier this year and the vendor's 'solution' was to offer an indemnity policy of some sort. We never got around to ascertaining exactly what this indemnity was supposed to cover because we pulled out of the purchase for a number of other reasons. I am curious as to why they thought such a policy would be of use to us, though.

DaftyDuck

...... Might pay your funeral costs? Presumably only if cremation had already been achieved, somehow at zero cost to the policy...

Buyers: Check if electrics are "safe". Safe enough! Checking if they are "up to current standards" is just a waste of effort. As said above, if wiring is over ~ 8 years, they definitely aren't "up to standard", certainly meaning you are bound to die as soon as you cross the threshold, simples. Or that the electrician's wife needs a new posh hairdo... Or somewhere in between!

And "safe" is a movable feast. If you are two "adult" adults, sensible and careful, old fashioned wired fuses can be safe enough, until you've collected enough moolah for a new consumer unit (which may come with much other work to be signed off). If you have two likkle angels, who like to poke snotty fingers in every orifice, animate or inanimate then, aside from having my deepest sympathies, it's probably advisable to have the electrics polished up before you move in. You can even go "better" than current standards, of course. It will cost....

In all these cases, the buyer really does need to do some intelligent homework to best inform himself. I'd love to know exactly what the OP's electrician is actually recommending be done, and why.

The

kitchen sockets aren't done properly

could mean you are in serious danger when you next plug a kettle in, or it could mean he's seen he can make a quick buck re-sleeving a couple of wires in sockets with pretty(er) earth sheathing.