Vendor sold house with very unsafe electrics

The_Shadow

We have recently bought and moved into a house and found a number of very serious defects with the electrical system. The issues are live exposed wiring in a number of places and kitchen appliances connected to trailing extension leads on the floor behind kitchen units and undersized wiring, we are also getting electric shocks when touching the kitchen sink.


We have forwarded a very competitive estimate to the vendor to have work put right but he is unwilling to pay.


These defects would not have shown up on a full structural.


Any advice would be most welcome


The Shadow

alchemist.1

No advice apart from you're going to take the hit on the cost.

There is no way of pursuing the lender for the amount it is going to cost you unless you have been mislead in any manner (which is difficult to prove anyway).

lincroft1710

If you live in England in England or Wales, my advice would be to find a competent electrician and pay him to rectify the problems. You have have no comeback with the vendor.

dj1471

lincroft1710 wrote: »

If you live in England in England or Wales, my advice would be to find a competent electrician and pay him to rectify the problems. You have have no comeback with the vendor.

This. Unless the vendor made an untrue statement as to the condition of the electrics you can't hold them liable. Your surveyor no doubt recommended getting the electrics inspected prior to purchase, you should have done so.

societys_child

We have forwarded a very competitive estimate to the vendor to have work put right but he is unwilling to pay.

Why do you think he should, it's your property now?

These defects would not have shown up on a full structural.

Did you not have an electrical report done?

alchemist.1

societys_child wrote: »

Did you not have an electrical report done?

Just out of interest, how much does one of these cost?

G_M

Who is going to benefit from fixing these issues? You or the vendor?

Why did you pay for a survey (if indeed you did)? Presumably because you wanted to identify any problems with the construction of the property before taking ownership. (and if you chose to save money and skip the survey, you accepted there was a risk you were prepared to take).

Similarly, if you wanted to to identify any problems with the electrics in the property you should have had an electrician do a report before taking ownership.

Welcome to home ownership. You are now responsible for maintaining your own home.

G_M

alchemist.1 wrote: »

Just out of interest, how much does one of these cost?

Example:
http://www.electrical-inspection-certificate.co.uk/

But shop around locally.

Davesnave

The_Shadow wrote: »

We have forwarded a very competitive estimate to the vendor to have work put right but he is unwilling to pay.


These defects would not have shown up on a full structural.

It sounds to me as if you had no survey at all, otherwise you would surely have written "did not."

However, as they might not have shown up, it was surely in your interest to get an electrical report, if you valued one.

The_Shadow

alchemist.1 wrote: »

No advice apart from you're going to take the hit on the cost.

There is no way of pursuing the lender for the amount it is going to cost you unless you have been mislead in any manner (which is difficult to prove anyway).

Hi many thanks for the responses, we were in fact mislead. On the Law Society form which was submitted by the vendor they stated that no work had been undertaken on the electrical system. In fact a new fitted kitchen had been installed with work on the sockets and switches which should have been Part P notified to building control with certification. . New lighting circuits had been installed with incorrect cable. Within the garage lighting cable had been used instead of 2.5mm twin and earth serving a number of 13amp sockets. Live terminal blocks are also on show.

moneyistooshorttomention

They outright lied then at that point - ie the "no work done".

My suspicion is that you probably won't get anywhere chasing them to pay any of the cost though - even though I am very surprised at someone selling a house on to another person with it being that unsafe that its causing electric shocks when touching the sink. In the vendors position, I would have protected my backside from the risk of a claim coming in against me for injuring/killing someone because of dangerous elements to the electrics that I could have "reasonably foreseen" by getting that element at least dealt with in advance of putting it on the market. So hence that surprises me that someone would risk knowingly damaging someone else's health and think they wouldn't be at risk of a claim back in response for that.

It is what it is though and, as long as they haven't killed or injured you with not fulfilling the "duty of care" I would have thought they might have - then I doubt you would get anywhere.