Live wires left exposed by electrician

Bored

I am asking for advice on behalf of a relative who purchased a house last year. On moving in she was advised that the bungalow needed a full re-wire as the electrics in the property were old. She paid over £2000 for this and it was completed in July 2016.

Today she was supposed to have smart meters installed for her gas and electric, however she told me that the man was unable to install them because there were exposed three live wires coming from her electricity meter. As you can imagine this is extremely distressing as she reads the meter every month.

The meter installation man secured the live wires (obviously he is unable to install smart meters in these circumstances) and contacted Western Power who are coming to sort the problem, but what rights does she have with regards to the electrician who did the re-wire?

unholyangel

Bored wrote: »

but what rights does she have with regards to the electrician who did the re-wire?

(3)If the service does not conform to the contract, the consumer’s rights (and the provisions about them and when they are available) are—

(a)the right to require repeat performance (see section 55);

(b)the right to a price reduction (see section 56).

Other remedies that could be available would be claiming damages - which would be reasonable losses incurred due to the traders breach of contract.

How much is it going to cost to put right? Has she at least contacted him yet to make him aware?

Bored

I haven't contacted him yet. As you can imagine, I don't really want this electrician going anywhere near the house after discovering this! Western Power will apparently fix this particular problem, but I'm thinking that I should get a different electrician to evaluate the rest of the work he performed on the house to check that they are up to standard. Ideally I would want to reclaim the cost for his from the original electrician.

[Deleted User]

Bored wrote: »

I'm thinking that I should get a different electrician to evaluate the rest of the work he performed on the house to check that they are up to standard. Ideally I would want to reclaim the cost for his from the original electrician.

You may well be over reacting here. It's possible the "electrician" left those wires exposed as an (admittedly dangerous) oversight, but this should have no bearing on the rest of his work elsewhere in the house.

In the first instance, contact the worker and see what response you get.

At this point, I can't see you getting this tradesman to pay for an inspection of his standard of work!

Bored

Even if I can't reclaim the cost, I will probably look to have someone else inspect the work anyway. As you can probably tell, I am not an expert but this just seems like a dangerous oversight to me and I want to make sure the house is safe for my relative.

[Deleted User]

Bored wrote: »

Even if I can't reclaim the cost, I will probably look to have someone else inspect the work anyway. As you can probably tell, I am not an expert but this just seems like a dangerous oversight to me and I want to make sure the house is safe for my relative.

As I said, contact the electrician and inform him, he's likely going to be horrified at his apparent mistake.

Not every tradesman is a rogue and it's important not to assume they all are.

How are you going to choose an electrician to check this work?

Bored

Sorry I didn't mean to imply that every trademan is a rogue, however as a woman living on her own, my relative has been burnt by bad trademen in the past and I am just trying to help her out as best I can. She does have plans to contact the tradesman, as soon as Western Power have dealt with the immediate problem and provided us with more information about this situation.

alumende27

Did they get a certificate for the work done including test results and a completion certificate from the local council?

I'd agree that the first course of action is to contact the electrician and ask him to rectify his fault, but if your relative didn't get the above paperwork I'd have to wonder whether he was suitably qualified to do the work. That's a whole new set of problems, but we'll worry about that depending on your response.

alumende27

... I'm also wary of the "the man was unable to install them because there were exposed three live wires coming from her electricity meter". Generally domestic installations will have one live wire, one neutral and one earth, but it seems terribly careless to have the conductor exposed on all three cables, and only the neutral and live would be connected to the meter.

I'm not sure how someone suitably qualified can secure live wires but not install the new smart meter, given that replacing the meter by it's very nature involves removing and replacing those wires from one meter to another, once the supply is isolated after removing the main supply company fuse. Sounds like the meter installation man is being overly dramatic.

[Deleted User]

Bored wrote: »

my relative has been burnt by bad trademen in the past

Not by those exposed wires, I hope?

Bored

I'll try to track down what certificates she has for the original work and get back to you.

It's difficult because I live far away and am getting all my information second hand. From what I understand the smart meter installation man was very concerned when he found the live wires and rang his boss for advice because he didn't know what to do in this situation. I was told 'three live wires' but this could be wrong. My hope is this will be clearer once Western Power have a look.