Seller lied on property questionaire - Electrical fire

moneyistooshorttomention

- Talking with the neighbours is a good idea. Its down to the "other considerations" - ie that the previous owners were generally totally irresponsible types owing money to people right, left and centre. Personally - I'd want to know just HOW irresponsible they were. All the more so - from the sound of that man turning up and trying their outside door shortly after they moved in and running off when he got yelled at by OP. Who knows what other "irresponsible" and worse these characters knew - and forewarned is forearmed in case of any further door-trying visitors or the like. I was (obviously) not talking about the electrics here (more about the house generally and the security of it).

- Re-wiring with no damage = pull the other one. There is NO way that there wont be rather noticeable damage. I've gone through major electrical work being done on 2 houses now - one a Victorian terrace with "traditional" walls. The second house being concrete blocks and concrete floors (instead of standard normal, ie plaster walls and wood plank floors). In both cases - a LOT of damage was done to d!cor. In the case of the Victorian terrace house - some floorboards had to come up in the course of it.

Its not my idea of fun living in a house having major electrical work done or the redecoration that definitely WILL be necessary afterwards. The only consolation is that it only takes a few days of the bit of chaos whilst the electrical work itself is being done.

Sunshine62

sean1989 wrote: »

So i have a quote of 2.5k i obtained earlier for a full rewire - quite reasonable i suppose but they say this " NO Redecorating Required. No Surface work (trunking) and no need to pay ADDITIONAL COSTS for plasterers or decorators."
They apparenly use the sockets to feed and retrieve wires...

Too good to be true?

Seems too cheap to me, we paid £1,500 on a good size 3 bedroom house 15 years ago, and although registered they were the cheapest and they had to chase out the walls but then some of the sockets were on the skirting boards!


I do remember my family home, built in 1952 having a rewire in the early 80s and there was almost zero damage but I haven't a clue how they did it! it was a chalet bungalow that had hard floors downstairs

Doozergirl

sean1989 wrote: »

So i thought i would enter his name, turns out he is registered....

Im bamboozled to it ... I really am... He promised zero damage what so ever.... But weird, any pro sparkies ever fully rewired without a bit of damage?

The clearest benefit to you of a rewire is that you can have sockets and switches where you want them and in the numbers you want them.

Need more sockets by the TV? More handily placed for charging phones, perhaps? Using an extension cable or multi-plug somewhere? Ideally want to place an electrical item somewhere you can't? Think about the way you want to use the house.

Safety is great but you want convenience from your investment as well as that is what you will feel.

Your electrician must love fishing for wires. I don't think many do.

You've been clear now that a survey was the best thing to do. Yes, of course it is possible to sue people (cost effectively) for major cover-ups but anything major really would be obvious to a surveyor. Litigation is far more expensive than the cost of a survey, which should save more than it costs.

Ultimately, even with a potential win, you can't get blood from a stone; if the vendor has no money, you're getting nothing.

The key to all of this is due diligence. Far less painful.

edinburgher

Seems too cheap to me, we paid £1,500 on a good size 3 bedroom house 15 years ago, and although registered they were the cheapest and they had to chase out the walls but then some of the sockets were on the skirting boards!

It is a mark of my relative ignorance re. house purchasing that I didn't realise that this was unusual when we purchased our flat. Every viewer commented on it

chris_m

sean1989 wrote: »

So i have a quote of 2.5k i obtained earlier for a full rewire - quite reasonable i suppose but they say this " NO Redecorating Required. No Surface work (trunking) and no need to pay ADDITIONAL COSTS for plasterers or decorators."
They apparenly use the sockets to feed and retrieve wires...
Too good to be true?

It "can" be done - they fix the new wire to the end of the old one and use the old one to draw the new through in its place.That's how my parents' house was rewired when I was still living there - although the floorboards had to come up, I don't recall any replastering. It may depend on what the old wire was, in my parents' case it was almost certainly discrete wires in rubber insulation rather than more modern twin & earth bundled cables.

However, consider that this (as others have said) also gives you the opportunity to add/move sockets, etc. so simply replacing the existing wiring may not be the best option for you in the long run.

moneyistooshorttomention

As stated - not absolutely categorically impossible at all times re the rewiring. Just very very unlikely.

I believe people who are very susceptible to EMF's etc can have a house wired in that sort of way (ie with wires enclosed within summat-or-other - piping? cabling? within the walls). I think, from what I can make out that that is how all houses "should" be wired - but I very much doubt more a tiny number have actually been done that way.

I can quite see how new wires could be "tied" to old ones and they got pulled through that piping?cabling? IF it existed. Its just that its highly unlikely to exist:(

EDIT; Think this is where I would do a walk round the neighbourhood personally and check out the standard of workmanship locally generally a bit. Lots of concrete block walls round gardens, instead of brick walls = ?. Then look at those walls sideways on and see how many of them have been built properly (ie straight for a start off!!). I didn't realise its possible for a supposedly straight wall to curve around like a snake ...it is..

chris_m

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

ie with wires enclosed within summat-or-other - piping? cabling? within the walls

Conduit is the word you were after - which reminded me that that is exactly what was in my parents' house, a '30s build, possibly late '20s.
As soon as you mentioned it I recalled that there were no "loose" wires whatsover in the loft and under the ground floor, they were all in metal conduit. Every bend was a fitting with a plate screwed onto it to cover the access holes, so every cable run could be accessed as a straight run and every direction change accessed through the access holes. All the runs to above/below/across were straight lengths of conduit, either linked with 90-degree bend fittings or T-fittings.

Of course, it's far easier (and cheaper) to simply chip out a channel for the wires or to clip them to the structure before the plasterer comes in, so I doubt many houses built in the last 50+ years have used conduit.

AdrianC

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I believe people who are very susceptible to EMF's etc can have a house wired in that sort of way (ie with wires enclosed within summat-or-other - piping? cabling? within the walls).

Conduit. It used to be the standard way - fix black iron conduit to the walls, then plaster over - but with stud-framed and drylined partition internal walls, you'll find the cable's just looped inside.

B'sides, if you're relying on re-using just the original conduit, you're stuck with the original positions of sockets and switches and lights...

Do you really not want to redecorate, OP...? Chasing a channel in the wall for new wiring or a new backbox isn't THAT bad a job with modern SDS drills etc. A quick skim of plaster over that channel is fairly easy DIY if you want to keep the costs down, very different to plastering an entire wall.

Of course, you may find other work needed...

martindow

sean1989 wrote: »

He further said that the home insurance should cover the cost of the rewire and if they dont you may wish to find out why

I would be staggered if home insurance would pay for a rewire. They are not in the business of home improvements.

You've found about about the state of the wiring but there is no real damage which insurance would cover.

stokesley

So would I. Solicitors know nothing of insurance.