Electrical Test on house I'm buying

SuzieSue

cjmillsnun wrote: »

You haven't seen the electrics on the place I've just bought. They'd fail the first edition, let alone the seventeenth.

The report was an important bargaining chip for us as we knocked a couple of grand off towards a rewire, which this place needs as the previous owner was luck not to set the place on fire with his electrical bodging.

But surely it was safe enough if no-one had been electrocuted to date?

jimbog

SuzieSue wrote: »

You have no idea what previous occupants have done to the electrics so this is dangerous advice.

I rented a house recently for a year and to be honest never thought about having the electrics checked

SuzieSue

jimbog wrote: »

I rented a house recently for a year and to be honest never thought about having the electrics checked

Most people don't. But I think landlords should be forced to have electrical safety checks as well as gas (and I am a landlord).

Red-Squirrel_2

SuzieSue wrote: »

But surely it was safe enough if no-one had been electrocuted to date?

Safe enough to move into and get a rewire done first job, which is what I suggested.

I seem to have really bothered you with my comment, how odd!

jamesperrett

SuzieSue wrote: »

But surely it was safe enough if no-one had been electrocuted to date?

Fire could be more of a worry - especially if the old cables are under-rated. A friend of mine lost his house in an electrical fire - but this was caused by work that the electricity supply company had done.

lincroft1710

Would an electrical inspection have picked up the fact that the cable taking the current to an outside light ran diagonally under the plaster? Something we only discovered when doing alterations to the house 10 years after purchase.

ProDave

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Would an electrical inspection have picked up the fact that the cable taking the current to an outside light ran diagonally under the plaster? Something we only discovered when doing alterations to the house 10 years after purchase.

No. How could it, unless there was an obvious bump where the cable had been plastered over. As you didn't notice it for 10 years I suspect it was not noticable.

cjmillsnun

SuzieSue wrote: »

But surely it was safe enough if no-one had been electrocuted to date?

No it was more by luck than anything else. There are exposed wires everywhere and with a pet the house is not habitable. We knew this when buying, hence we are still in rented accommodation until the rewire and other renovations are advanced enough for us to move in safely.

cjmillsnun

jamesperrett wrote: »

Fire could be more of a worry - especially if the old cables are under-rated. A friend of mine lost his house in an electrical fire - but this was caused by work that the electricity supply company had done.

Fire was a real worry. Underrated wires, spurs on spurs from a ring, exposed live conductors... This place was genuinely dangerous. The electrics are currently isolated.

Iwanttobefree

cjmillsnun wrote: »

Fire was a real worry. Underrated wires, spurs on spurs from a ring, exposed live conductors... This place was genuinely dangerous. The electrics are currently isolated.

Would an electrical test pick up spurs taken from spurs though (genuine question, I don't know). I would have thought in order to find out things like that the electrician would be there for about a day removing every single socket, testing where each end goes to etc?

Not a fan of tests like these to be honest. Sure they will throw up problems if the wiring's so bad you could notice it with your naked eye. But they are usually designed by people sat around the table who don't know what they are talking about, as a way of trying to get rid of cowboys.

And of course the cowboys don't care regardless.

My aunt paid an 'professional' electrician and the quality of work was appalling I re-did it safely for her (and no I'm not an electrician). I especially liked him fitting a socket 1ft above the rings on her cooker (and yes the cooker was there when he did it)

I didn't replace my windows as having to get the install inspected by the council was costly (as I would have had to do them over a number of months/years due to health problems).

Anglian did them, an appalling job. I could have fitted each one 10 times better myself, but they don't need an inspection afterwards as they are professionals???

From their way of removing the old ones by burning through the wooden frames with an angle grinder (leaving awful smells in the house for days) or the fact none of them are level, I resealed some myself as they did such an appalling job, I didn't trust them to come back. For example I removed (not sure what it's called) the inside top bit of plaster from one of my windows as it needed replacing and I could see right through to the outside in numerous spots where they had fitted the window and hang fingers out of many of them..

Then there's MOT's sure they spot some things. A friend has just retired from a life long career in the motor trade, he hated them and fell out with the MOT testing whoever and refused to do anymore. The reason he refused to do any more tests (and told the MOT whatever) was that in his words, it's a money spinning exercise and has nothing to do with safety.

It came to a head for him when he failed a car whose brake pads had completely worn out and it was metal against metal. The guy having the car mot's complained to the mot authority that the car passed the MOT brake tests hence he shouldn't have failed it. He said it was dangerous hence he failed it. His decision was overturned and that was the last time he did one (about 20 years before he retired) saying that if he has to pass a dangerous car, then the test is completely flawed.

Then there's my electric meter being swapped over (by my electricity suppliers), a few hours after it was done, their boss turned up for a random inspection of the work, it wasn't up to standard, bare wires showing etc. I asked him if he checks every one, and he said no he just picks random ones.

As for DIY bodges, the thing is, sure there are a lot of DIY bodges, then there are a lot of very very competent DIYers who take pride in what they do and in a lot of cases take more care and time than the so called professionals would do (not knocking the true professionals when I say this)

I remember on a DIY forum me being pulled to pieces by various electricians as I replaced my old style fuse box with the new style one, them saying I don't know how safe it is etc.

I pointed out that I had checked all sockets and found some socket wiring to be below my standards, that the cable had been replaced in the past as the old brittle stuff had been left there (I removed it all) and I had all the floor up etc and checked all cable (all correct size), and it was all in a1 condition.

I also pointed out that the new fusebox couldn't be any worse than what was already there.

And of course it fell on deaf ears.

I've since got an electrician friend to test it out and its all 100% perfect.

Likewise I have replumbed my entire house (as I did my previous one) and have never ever ever had one single leak.

Sure there are a LOT of 1st class plumbers and electricians etc out there. Some charge reasonable rates, many charge extortionate rates.

Trouble is, there are just as many (if not more) cowboys out there. It seems too easy to have one business fail and start up a new one the next month under a different name etc. The cowboys still get away with bad quality work, and all that happens is the competent diyer is penalized or the professional builder undercut.

A friend of mine is a very good builder, he refused to do what a client wanted as he said it was unsafe she needed a lintel there, the wall could collapse etc. So she went with her other quote where they didn't care.

He is also a member of some master building federation which he proudly displays on his van. I asked him what he needed to do to get them "pay them" was his reply.