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Seller lied on property questionaire - Electrical fire
sean1989_2
Posts: 97 Forumite
Hi,
After me and the fiancé purchased our first house back in June we were very pleased and excited in the new venture in our lives.
Last night however this came to an abrupt stop. The shower randomly stopped working and I presumed the power had tripped – when I went to inspect I was greeted with electricity arcing smoke and a strong smell of burning or fishy smells.
We called out an emergency electrician and it appears that the previous owners have altered and tampered with the electricity control unit and the wiring around the house. We were advised that the condition of the electricity consumer unit is highly unstable and dangerous and subsequently have had to seek other accommodation as we cannot supply power to our house.
The electrician has found that the cooker has been disconnected completely and no longer links to the isolation unit, instead this travels upstairs and controls the power shower.
It also appears that the upstairs lights have been rerouted to run off the cooker connection as now this has been disconnected there are no functioning lights upstairs.
It’s also apparent that the sockets upstairs are linked to an old water heater that’s no longer installed in the property (presumably due to the electric shower being installed)
The downstairs sockets are linked to what’s labelled as lights and the downstairs lights are running off what was labelled as “cooker” but the sparky believes these are actually being ran off the sockets.
To make matters even worse the consumer box states to never exceed 60 amps – the total of all fuses installed totals around 150 amps.
There is not a single wire inside of the consumer unit that hasn’t started to burn and melt – one wire was burnt so bad it was arcing to the inside of the consumer unit.
The unit is very old and contains big 2 pronged boxes with 2 red or a red and white button on them stating the amps.
The shower fuse was a tiny loosely pronged 30 amp fuse that had melted to the consumer unit and the wire inside was burnt to a crisp.
On the questionnaire the sellers have marked “Electrical works” as “No” then circled “to follow” on the paperwork section.
My question here is – can I do something about this? Being told that we are lucky to be alive is quite worrying – we have been told that the only possible way to secure the house is a new consumer unit and a full house rewire to the tune of £4,000 – let alone the damage that will be caused to the house.
Thanks for your time
After me and the fiancé purchased our first house back in June we were very pleased and excited in the new venture in our lives.
Last night however this came to an abrupt stop. The shower randomly stopped working and I presumed the power had tripped – when I went to inspect I was greeted with electricity arcing smoke and a strong smell of burning or fishy smells.
We called out an emergency electrician and it appears that the previous owners have altered and tampered with the electricity control unit and the wiring around the house. We were advised that the condition of the electricity consumer unit is highly unstable and dangerous and subsequently have had to seek other accommodation as we cannot supply power to our house.
The electrician has found that the cooker has been disconnected completely and no longer links to the isolation unit, instead this travels upstairs and controls the power shower.
It also appears that the upstairs lights have been rerouted to run off the cooker connection as now this has been disconnected there are no functioning lights upstairs.
It’s also apparent that the sockets upstairs are linked to an old water heater that’s no longer installed in the property (presumably due to the electric shower being installed)
The downstairs sockets are linked to what’s labelled as lights and the downstairs lights are running off what was labelled as “cooker” but the sparky believes these are actually being ran off the sockets.
To make matters even worse the consumer box states to never exceed 60 amps – the total of all fuses installed totals around 150 amps.
There is not a single wire inside of the consumer unit that hasn’t started to burn and melt – one wire was burnt so bad it was arcing to the inside of the consumer unit.
The unit is very old and contains big 2 pronged boxes with 2 red or a red and white button on them stating the amps.
The shower fuse was a tiny loosely pronged 30 amp fuse that had melted to the consumer unit and the wire inside was burnt to a crisp.
On the questionnaire the sellers have marked “Electrical works” as “No” then circled “to follow” on the paperwork section.
My question here is – can I do something about this? Being told that we are lucky to be alive is quite worrying – we have been told that the only possible way to secure the house is a new consumer unit and a full house rewire to the tune of £4,000 – let alone the damage that will be caused to the house.
Thanks for your time
0
Comments
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What did your survey say about the electrics?0
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I would speak to your solicitor they would definitely be in breech of contractif ifthey have stated no electrical work, when they had carried out electrical work..
It is also now a criminal offence to mess around with wiring like this since I think 2006, sounds like it could have been much worse I.E. started a fire and that could have led to loss of life or serious injury.
They sound very silly and irresponsible people assuming they did this and not another previous owner.
Did you solicitor not follow up on the "to follow" or suggest an electrical inspection?.
Also check your house insurance many will cover you for legal fees for something like this I know ours does.
What an awful think to happen, glad you are OK.Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy - Anne Frank :A0 -
What did the seller lie about exactly? Did your electrical survey not bring any of this up?0
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I think because they had marked "to follow" our solicitors were waiting for the paperwork,
Sure enough none have been received but we have all the paperwork that completed the sale and the deeds. Nearly every section marked as an electrical question has “No” to any changes and "to follow" selected so I see this as either “covering their backs” or deliberately trying to avoid their work.
Am I to presume that this may be something i can take up with our converyancers?
The problem here is the sellers and we used the same company (countrywide) so maybe they just relied on the information that they would be provided with the documentation.
The electrician confirmed that work had definitely been carried out either by themselves or some rogue trader and is willing to provide the report and a testimonial into the matter as he has never seen something wired so dangerously he says.
The matter to take into consideration I believe is also the fact the labels are not correctly linked to any of the respected destinations.
I could have turned off the sockets for example to fit a new one and ended up blasted as this is wired incorrectly!
I plan on contacting the house insurance, conveyancing service and my supplier.
Simply contacting my supplier due to the fact – a month ago they replaced the credit meter and I questioned the ECU back then as I thought it looked old – they told me it was fine and said why bother replacing it… Scottish power at its finest…
I hope people use this as a warning when buying a house though… you don’t seem to be able to trust companies or people
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Question 12.1 asks if there has been any testing of an electrical installation by a qualified electrician. It said No. So there wasn't any. If I saw "to follow", I'd have queried this personally.
Question 12.2 asks if any electrical work has been done since 2005. If they answered "no", and you can demonstrate their death trap bodges were done since then, you might have a case.
You would have seen that the distribution box was old when you viewed the property. Your surveyor would have commented on this too. This decision not to have this inspected was yours.
So what it boils down to is whether you have evidence the dodgy wiring was post 2005."Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance" - Confucius0 -
cattermole wrote: »That NO electrical works had been carried out?!
It didn't say this, because there isn't a question phrased in that particular manner."Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance" - Confucius0 -
The unit is very old and contains big 2 pronged boxes with 2 red or a red and white button on them stating the amps.
The shower fuse was a tiny loosely pronged 30 amp fuse that had melted to the consumer unit and the wire inside was burnt to a crisp.
On the questionnaire the sellers have marked “Electrical works” as “No” then circled “to follow” on the paperwork section.
Thanks for your time
Had you checked visually on the consumer unit before you offered .. If it looked that old I would of had an electrician check it out before you started using the electric. I certainly would of considered the property proberly needed re-wiring and budgeted for it just incase
When I moved to my flat the boiler looked so old and in fact it was over 25 years old but the paperwork said it apparently worked. However I did not use the boiler before I had it serviced as honestly it's not worth risking it. It turned out it was unsafe.
A homebuyers survey which is pretty much just visual check over would of suggested the consumer unit was out of date.
You are really lucky you survived !!0 -
Question 12.1 asks if there has been any testing of an electrical installation by a qualified electrician. It said No. So there wasn't any. If I saw "to follow", I'd have queried this personally.
Question 12.2 asks if any electrical work has been done since 2005. If they answered "no", and you can demonstrate their death trap bodges were done since then, you might have a case.
You would have seen that the distribution box was old when you viewed the property. Your surveyor would have commented on this too. This decision not to have this inspected was yours.
So what it boils down to is whether you have evidence the dodgy wiring was post 2005.
Well aware that some of the responsibility is ours however as first time buyers i expected the conveyancer to guide us through.
EDIT - Every part of the paperwork does not mention any electrical report
EDIT 2 - when i questioned the ECU i was told it was replaced in 2007
We didnt advise them to not to complete any tests so presumed the would have been done.
The shower and the oven are very much new - so is the fully fitted kitchen that they had done before we purchased the property.
Since posting i have found that a cupboard with a "fake door" is actually glued shut and sat behind was a chunk of wood screwed in place. When i have unscrewed and removed - behind is a cut cable thats leads to nothing but contains the exact same wiring as the wire wo the showe - theres a wonderful hole leading through the wall to the fusebox - presumably this was the old wiring for the cooker which confirms the electricians suspiscions
Needless to say on the fusebox there is a very clear mark on the wall where the wires would have been travelling under a protective cover.
I am going to guess that there is a possibility of lose wiring throughout the house...
After some reasearch i have found the misrepresentaion act 1967
2 Damages for misrepresentation.
(1)Where a person has entered into a contract after a misrepresentation has been made to him by another party thereto and as a result thereof he has suffered loss, then, if the person making the misrepresentation would be liable to damages in respect thereof had the misrepresentation been made fraudulently, that person shall be so liable notwithstanding that the misrepresentation was not made fraudulently, unless he proves that he had reasonable ground to believe and did believe up to the time the contract was made the facts represented were true.
If i read this correctly then i believe "they" have to prove that everthing was declared and done correctly..not me0 -
fashionvictim wrote: »Had you checked visually on the consumer unit before you offered .. If it looked that old I would of had an electrician check it out before you started using the electric. I certainly would of considered the property proberly needed re-wiring and budgeted for it just incase
When I moved to my flat the boiler looked so old and in fact it was over 25 years old but the paperwork said it apparently worked. However I did not use the boiler before I had it serviced as honestly it's not worth risking it. It turned out it was unsafe.
A homebuyers survey which is pretty much just visual check over would of suggested the consumer unit was out of date.
You are really lucky you survived !!
Its litterally ancient - theres a wood backboard and the breakers are never what i have seen ever. I did question this with my electric supplier when they fitted the new credit meter and they said it was perfectly fine so i took their word for it - i had no reason not to as they said it was installed in 20070
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