ElCR problems before purchasing house

antonR

Hi, we are first time buyers and the EICR has picked up a long list of issues with the fuse box, cabling and wiring. It does total up to a considerable amount and interestingly is the only thing left to complete a house purchase - the vendors are on a chain and we want to be fair and reasonable with them but at the some time we do not want to incur all the costs ourselves - is it reasonable for them to share some of the cost e.g. by putting half the cost (£700) into a conveyor's allowance?

Any advice?

G_M

Just to be clear, does the EICR say the electrics are 'not to current standards' or does it say they are actually dangerous?

The distinction is that the 'current regs' are constantly changing, and few properties (other than New Builds or recent renovations) actually get updated to 'current standards'. Other properies remain perfectly safe and servicable.

But of course much older properties, with original or old wiring, may well be dangerous and need a full re-wire.

If your case is the latter, then yes, perfectly reasonable to request a reduction in price.


If you are not sure or the report is ambiguous, ring the sparkie who did the report and ask for clarification.


But do NOT ask the seller to do the re-wire/upgrade themselves - they'll use the cheapest sparkie to do the least work at least cost posible. Who wouldn't if moving out?


Get cash off an do the work yourself (well, arrange it yourself!)

Slithery

G_M wrote: »

If your case is the latter, then yes, perfectly reasonable to request a reduction in price.

Unless of course the condition of the electrics was obviously that bad when you viewed and the property had already been priced accordingly.

Robin9

antonR wrote: »

.............. half the cost (£700)..............

£700 or £1400 ?

Either way this isn't a lot of work - perhaps just a new consumer unit.

kinger101

(a) what did the report say?
(b) how old did the electrics look from your own visual inspection?

antonR

Hi all,

I got the detailed report on my hands now - the overall rate of the property is unsatisfactory with multiple indications of dangerous or nearly dangerous installations. The overall cost (of course we have one quote so far) is over £2500. We want to be reasonable but this is substantive amount of money.

The property is old and the homebuyer's survey identified that an Electronic Inspection is needed as the last was in 2004. Truly I am not electrician or experienced enough to explore electronic connections so we did not notice any problems but neither did the vendors ever raised a concern about it (in fact the dodged the issue and left it really late as we are now close to complete the purchase).

davidmcn

Depends on the overall state of the property, I would say. If it generally needs modernisation I would have expected that to include the electrics. It's not normal for electrics to be regularly inspected (or even for buyers to get reports).

societys_child

or nearly dangerous installations

Not sure what that means :huh: They're dangerous or they're not.



I'd get other quotes for the work. .

antonR

societys_child wrote: »

Not sure what that means :huh: They're dangerous or they're not.



I'd get other quotes for the work. .

I guess it means left unattended it would sooner rather later implicate a danger.

antonR

Hi all, just to update that the vendor was aware of the poor state of the electrics and accepted to cover almost half of the cost - at least we got some help towards the reparation costs which was what we (reasonably) expected..

kinger101

antonR wrote: »

Hi all, just to update that the vendor was aware of the poor state of the electrics and accepted to cover almost half of the cost - at least we got some help towards the reparation costs which was what we (reasonably) expected..

Seems fair. Well done.