unsafe electrics

susanmale59

Good evening all
I've recently guided my daughter and her partner through the house buying process. Their survey picked up a new consumer unit and a compliance certificate for this was requested. After a delay (waiting for vendors electrician to return from holiday) an NICEIC safety certificate for the whole property was provided by a different electrician. Presumably the other electrician wasn't registered!!
Happy that the electrics were safe, i advised them to complete the sale.
A few weeks after they moved in, and on a day I was visiting, my daughter stood on a chair to change a bulb on the light fitting in the lounge. The electric shock she received blew her off the chair, but luckily she landed on the nearby sofa!! An electrician recommended by her friend visited & checked out the fitting. It turns out that fitting was live in the bulb holder, the second fitting in the lounge was all live!! He had floor boards up everywhere and discovered electrics were in a dreadful state.
They are going to have the whole property rewired..my daughter just doesn't feel safe there anymore and is especially worried because of my darling 2 year old granddaughter :heart2::heart2:This is going to cost £3000+!!
If they had known this before purchase they would have obviously renegotiated the price.
Is there any legal recourse with the vendor, or the electrician that provided the certificate? (incidentally, the certificate has never been registered with NICEIC although the electrician shows as being registered!
Any advice would be appreciated.
Regards

Sue XxX

rtho782

Not really.

The vendor is not liable, houses are "sold as seen" and it's a case of buyer beware. Their position will be that they paid an electrician and didn't lie to you at any point.

The electrician isn't liable to you as you have no contract with him the previous owners did. In any case, the work he signed off was the CU not the lighting. It's entirely possible the CU was fine and everything tested fine.

You'd have a lot more recourse if you'd contracted your own electrician to inspect.

MyOnlyPost

rtho782 wrote: »

The electrician isn't liable to you as you have no contract with him the previous owners did.

I disagree with this part. Safety certificates can be passed from vendor to buyer and remain valid, I have bought more than one house with a CP12 Gas safety certificate which covered me until the renewal date, but I don't know that this also applies to electrics. Hopefully someone with more experience will come along but my gut is the electrician has passed the house as safe and who paid him for the work isn't going to change the liability.

rtho782 wrote: »

In any case, the work he signed off was the CU not the lighting. It's entirely possible the CU was fine and everything tested fine.

I do agree with this bit. Even if the certificate is able to be passed to the new owner it doesn't necessarily mean you have a claim as it is possible everything tested fine.

It is always best to get your own electrical survey done and not leave it to the seller

susanmale59

Thanks for replies..I did suspect it would be 'buyer beware' scenario. Just to confirm tho..safety certificate covered the whole house not just CU!
There was also an incident with a live wire in a socket which didn't trip the electrics!!
Just feel so gutted for them..it's an expense they can't really afford!

Sue XxX

MyOnlyPost

As I said I have no experience with this but NICEIC do have a resolution center

https://www.niceic.com/find-a-contractor/help-and-advice/contractors-and-the-niceic/what-is-the-platinum-promise

You could ask how long the contracotr has to register the certificate, whether resolution can start before it has been submitted and what the testing covers. You may have to consider getting your own inspection done at yor own cost as evidence to present or they may offer to do an inspection that will be chargeable if it were to pass safety again.

As I said, I know nothing, just throwing out ideas