Electrical Installation Testing- who pays?

victoriavictorious

Our house is SSTC to a first time buyer (at £5K below asking) who had recently had a full structural survey which has flagged up nothing major, apart from an electrical installation test, as the installation has not been tested in the past 10 years.
Our buyer is insisting that we pay to get this done, which we initially refused to do, since we believe it is the buyers responsibility to do all the checks, just as it is ours to do likewise on the property we are buying. We have provided a gas certificate as it was no problem getting this, but I was always under the impression that purchasing a property was 'caveat emptor.'
I'm pretty certain that this is a standard back-covering paragraph that appears in every survey, but the buyers are having none of it and say it is our responsibility. We have lived here for almost a decade with no electrical issues..
However, they are digging their heels in and insisting, so we have reluctantly agreed to do it so as not to lose the sale, but have made it clear that we will not be paying for anything else.
My questions are:
*Whose responsibilty is it to pay for this test - buyer or seller?
*Who pays for any remedial work if required, in order to get the certificate?
*Where would we, as sellers, stand if we had a contract with the electrical company, and something went wrong post purchase?
*How do we even find a reputable company to carry out this test and be confident they aren't ripping us off with unnecessary remedial work, as they are effectively policing themselves?
* What price range are we looking at?
Thank you!

Slithery

You have no obligation to provide a certificate.

If they want one then they pay for it.

This is a standard clause in any survey, as the person that does the survey isn't a qualified electrician. Also the electrical standards change on a regular basis, for example in Jan 2017 the regs changed from all main fuseboxes being plastic to being metal, this doesn't mean that everything previous to that is suddenly unsafe, yet it will still get flagged on an electrical installation condition report (EICR).

If they wish then they can try and negotiate price afterwards, but don't budge. The condition of the electrics in your house was clearly visible when they viewed, so was already accounted into the price they offered.

Standard FTB incompetence. Tell the EA to tell them if they stall any longer then it's going back on the market.

G_M

victoriavictorious wrote: »

My questions are:
*Whose responsibilty is it to pay for this test - buyer or seller?
buyer
*Who pays for any remedial work if required, in order to get the certificate?
The certificate does not require remedial work to be issued. Though it may suggest remedial work is needed.Who pays for remedial work? Negotiation

*Where would we, as sellers, stand if we had a contract with the electrical company, and something went wrong post purchase?
As you'll be advising the buyer to instruct the electrical company to do the inspection, you'll have no contract with them.

If (and only if) you employ an electrical company to do remedial work, then post purchase it's not your problem.

Which is one reason the buyer would be unwise to get you to undertake remedial work.


*How do we even find a reputable company to carry out this test
you don't
and be confident they aren't ripping us off with unnecessary remedial work,
here will almost certainly be aspects of your electrics that 'don't meet current standards'. That is because your house was built earlier than the latest ie current standards.
as they are effectively policing themselves?
* What price range are we looking at?
Thank you!

Tell buyer if they are concerned abut the electrics you will be happy to permit their electrical engineer access to do a report.

AnotherJoe

victoriavictorious wrote: »

Our house is SSTC to a first time buyer (at £5K below asking) who had recently had a full structural survey which has flagged up nothing major, apart from an electrical installation test, as the installation has not been tested in the past 10 years.
Our buyer is insisting that we pay to get this done, which we initially refused to do, since we believe it is the buyers responsibility to do all the checks, just as it is ours to do likewise on the property we are buying. We have provided a gas certificate as it was no problem getting this, but I was always under the impression that purchasing a property was 'caveat emptor.'
I'm pretty certain that this is a standard back-covering paragraph that appears in every survey, but the buyers are having none of it and say it is our responsibility. We have lived here for almost a decade with no electrical issues..
However, they are digging their heels in and insisting, so we have reluctantly agreed to do it so as not to lose the sale, but have made it clear that we will not be paying for anything else.
My questions are:
*Whose responsibilty is it to pay for this test - buyer or seller? It's negotiable
*Who pays for any remedial work if required, in order to get the certificate? It's negotiable
*Where would we, as sellers, stand if we had a contract with the electrical company, and something went wrong post purchase? that's why the buyers should get the work done
*How do we even find a reputable company to carry out this test and be confident they aren't ripping us off with unnecessary remedial work, as they are effectively policing themselves? Good question. But at least if you employ the company you have an element of control.
* What price range are we looking at? Couple of hundred quid tops
Thank you!

Your buyers are idiots if they leave the choice up to you. So it seems that you may have dodged a bullet if they insist you pay for it as otherwise they could hint to a dodgy tradesman that they can get any work paid for. Complete rewire? That will do nicely thank you.

jimbog

How would you feel having paid upfront for a survey and then have them then pull out over the electrics 'not meeting current standards' or any other excuse?

Cheeky_Monkey

Not much point you asking whose responsibility it is now considering you've already agreed to do it.

You know that it's the buyer's responsibility to undertake (and pay for) any checks they want to make, especially as they're not paying the full asking price.

Typical FTBs who have probably been in rented accommodation and expect everything to be handed to them on a plate.

victoriavictorious

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.
I genuinely did not know for sure whose responsibility it was, as it has never arisen in previous sales, which was why I asked - but thank you everyone for confirming it.
It only occurred to me to question whether it was our responsibilty after being backed into a corner under duress.
We refused at first but then doubt crept in, so reluctantly agreed to do it just to keep things running smoothly, especially as we could easily find ourselves going through all this again with any future buyer, if they were to pull out. At worst, we'd have this darn certificate ready and waiting so it wouldn't be entirely wasted!
They have already spent a lot of money so far, although they did say they'd offered too much??!!
I can envisage a price drop coming on further down the line.
I absolutely hate selling to FTBs - something like this always happens; they either 'know it all' (they actually said this test was our responsibility) or they panic over nothing. These do both.
Even their own surveyor said they were very fussy.

It was stupid to agree, I see that now, but's not too late to backtrack and withdraw our offer to get the inspection done, if our solicitor advises that it is their responsibility. Their own solicitor should surely be advising the same thing. If they then decide to pull out over this, well, it's up to them.

victoriavictorious

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

When they get the result of this report, they're going to want more money off. As soon as they see the first out of date item, they're going to see pound signs.

Since you're the one holding the reins with this inspection (silly buyers), you need to get your guy to be very specific about what is and is not absolutely essential.
You're paying the piper, get him to play your tune.
I wonder if you should even tell him the report is for someone else? He might sense money for him in new naive buyers.

Thank you. I would have thought though, that someone out to make money on unnecessary work would do that regardless of who the work was for?

Mr.Generous

I'd very quickly tell the buyer your not paying for anything further and any more messing about it goes back on the market. It's going to be 1 thing after another with these buyers.

victoriavictorious

Mr.Generous wrote: »

I'd very quickly tell the buyer your not paying for anything further and any more messing about it goes back on the market. It's going to be 1 thing after another with these buyers.

We have already told our agent to convey both of these things to them. It would be a shame to miss the Easter market.
We still have another full price offer on the table which predates theirs, but that person has not sold their own property yet.

AnotherJoe

Sorry but those who say it's the buyers responsibility are simply wrong.
Given there is no statutory requirement to have one, it's clearly up for negotiation. It may be customary for the buyer to pay for it, and given they want to see the results it's in their interest to at least action it even if they get the seller to drop their price to accommodate it, but to say it's the buyers responsibility as if there is some written rule stating this, is clearly incorrect.

OP I would still be getting viewers round over this peak Easter period if you can and I would get the EA to tell the FTBs that the reason for this is you beleive they will use the fact some items don't meet current (no pun intended) regulations as would any house not built yesterday is a ruse to try and drop the price.