Buyer wants an Electrical Report

goodwithsaving

My buyer has requested - at their expense - an EICR on my property. It's sensible from their point of view and understandable, but naturally as a seller it makes me feel uneasy and stressed about everything falling apart.
I haven't tampered with anything myself, everything has been done by professionals so that is okay. The only thing I am worrying about is that properties fall foul of regulations quite quickly because regulations are always updated. My concern is that it will be used as an excuse for a reduction in agreed sale price or cause the buyer to withdraw. I would hope that anything would be more likely to be a price negotiation than withdrawal. 
The consumer unit is a slightly older one and the previous owner had an extra one added when the old bathroom was put in (so there is much in that one which isn't used, as I had the electric shower etc. removed).

Has anyone else had a buyer conduct an EICR? Did they re-negotiate and if so, was it a large reduction?

dimbo61

If the buyer wants to spend money on an EICR and your happy to allow it what is the problem ?
No property over 3 years old is going to meet the latest Electric standard 18th edition unless new build or complete rewire in last few years.
If the electrics are Safe then why worry.
Please read up on the faults the electrician will look out for and what the fault codes mean 

AnotherJoe

You dont have to negotiate.

You are free to say "price includes electrics as is take it or leave it"

You certainly can push back very hard on "does not meet current (ha ha) standards"

dimbo61

http://www.intersafe.co.uk/news/fixed-wire-testing-observation-codes-c1-c2-c3-and-fi-explained/

So your looking to see what the Codes are and what they mean 

goodwithsaving

Thank you. @dimbo61 there's no problem, as I said it seems understandable. As any seller knows it's an enormously stressful time so anything puts me on edge in this process.
Thanks for the codes

purplebutterfly

We asked our vendor if they would mind us having an EICR and they agreed.  It was something that was REALLY weighing on my mind and causing me concern because a full re-wire is a messy and expensive process. 

The electrician told them there was £200 of remedial work to be done on a few C1 issues and they very kindly offered to have the work done at their expense.  They even had the spotlights in the kitchen changed to ones that met the new fire ratings, which we would never have asked for. 

I'm not suggesting you pay for any work  - in our case there are existing issues with a boiler that has no building regs certificate as it was self-fitted (they have had it serviced so we know it is safe) and 2 wood burners that are also self-fitted so have no HETAS certificates or building regs approval.   There's also a missing chimney breast. 

 So I think they just wanted to do the electrical work to give us one less reason to pull out! 

anselld

purplebutterfly said:

The electrician told them there was £200 of remedial work to be done on a few C1 issues and they very kindly offered to have the work done at their expense. 

C1 is immediately dangerous.  They probably didn't want to kill themselves whilst waiting to exchange.

purplebutterfly

anselld said:

purplebutterfly said:

The electrician told them there was £200 of remedial work to be done on a few C1 issues and they very kindly offered to have the work done at their expense. 

C1 is immediately dangerous.  They probably didn't want to kill themselves whilst waiting to exchange.

Well, I think they were C1, the vendor simply told us that the electrician said "there were issues that would fail the inspection" so I took that to mean C1.

He said the work done was things like adding a spur in the garage for the existing light, adding a breaker for the bathroom,  changing the kitchen lights to ones with proper fire ratings and adding an additional circuit for some lights in the extension.

I don't know what any of that means so I assumed it mean they were C1.  

AdrianC

C1 - I'm going to the van for the rubber boots and gloves before I touch that.
C2 - That's really not very clever at all.
C3 - Perfectly safe, but we don't do it like that any more.
FI (Further Investigation Required Without Delay) - I don't like the look of that, but I don't yet know what's causing it.

I suspect the things you listed are C2 at worst - "fail", but not actively dangerous.

C3 is not a fail. EVERY property will get C3s unless it's very recently been rewired.

goodwithsaving

purplebutterfly said:

I'm not suggesting you pay for any work  - in our case there are existing issues with a boiler that has no building regs certificate as it was self-fitted (they have had it serviced so we know it is safe) and 2 wood burners that are also self-fitted so have no HETAS certificates or building regs approval.   There's also a missing chimney breast. 

 So I think they just wanted to do the electrical work to give us one less reason to pull out! 

I'm definitely not paying for anything that needs doing, but you have just made me feel better that all I've been worrying about (in addition to the EICR) is lack of BR for the re-covered roof, a capped gas pipe (done by a GasSafe registered person) and a couple of ceilings with cracks... I don't feel like that is so insurmountable now!

trance_abbey

I've had an EICR done for the property I'm purchasing; it's come back with about 3k worth of works that are suggested (but not life threatening) and then I still want more powerpoints and a few other things sorted. I'm going to ask for a small reduction, but really I just wanted to know if there were things going on that I didn't know about / any shoddy work that I needed to be aware of.