Problem with tenants energy provider and being able to get remedial work done in order to get a cert

LesleySpence

I have a situation I need advice on.
In order to comply with the new electricity legislation for landlord to supply an Eirc, my electrician needs to be able to stop the flow of electricity to the meter. 
The tenant, without my knowledge had a smart meter fitted, but no isolation switch was fitted. Without an isolation switch being fitted the work can not be carried out and I can not get a safety cert.
The tenant has contacted her supplier and they so far have refused to give a date that they will carry out the work. 
The electrician has already been and had to go away again, at which time I got another date pencilled in.
I have tried to speak with Nubuh (the Supplier) and even though the tenant has given written permission for them to talk to me, they still refuse to talk to me and are still refusing to give the tenant a date.
On top of all this, I am also selling my house, the buyers solicitor is wanting the Eirc before setting a completion date, so obviously this problem is holding up my sale. 
How on earth do I get the supplier to do the work necessary so that my house can have the remedial work done. As it is not my fault I can not have the work done, where do I stand legally with this.
Greatful for any advice that any one can give me. 
Thsnks

Reed_Richards

There is never an isolation switch on the supply side of the electricity meter.  Any consumer unit should have an isolation switch on the house side and it should not make any difference which one the electrician uses.  If it was convenient to disconnect the supply to the electricity meter then there would be widespread abuse from people bypassing the meter to steal electrify. 

phillw

Reed_Richards said:

Any consumer unit should have an isolation switch on the house side and it should not make any difference which one the electrician uses. 

It matters if the electrician needs to replace the consumer unit.

You're right though, the isolation switch is going to be after the meter. 

tacpot12

There are some ways that the supply might be isolated but not safely or legally so it can't happen without the supplier's co-operation. 

I don't see complaining to anyone other than Nubuh being useful, due to how long it will take. A formal letter of complaint to Nubuh citing your legal obligation to get an EICR done for your tenant might get things moving.

You might ask your electrician how much of the EICR they can do if the supply isn't isolated. If they can do 90% of it, the buyer may be happy with this, and if so then their solicitor should also accept it. 

Ultimately you many need to tell the solicitor that you are probably not going to get an EICR done and explain why. The buyer might pull out, but until Nubuh give you a date, a full EICR isn't going to happen.

 

unforeseen

Get an electrician who is authorised by the DNO to remove the main input FUSE. 

QrizB

LesleySpence said:

In order to comply with the new electricity legislation for landlord to supply an Eirc, my electrician needs to be able to stop the flow of electricity to the meter.

This is unusual. The meter, and the wiring fron the DNO fuse to the meter, all belongs to the supplier (there's a helpful illustration on page 5 of this SSEN pdf). The supplier should have brought this up to standard when they fitted the smart meter. If it's defective, it's the supplier's responsibility to repair it.

LesleySpence said:

The tenant, without my knowledge had a smart meter fitted, but no isolation switch was fitted. Without an isolation switch being fitted the work can not be carried out and I can not get a safety cert.

As others have stated, an isolation switch goes after the meter will stop the flow of electricity from it, not *to* the meter.

unforeseen said:

Get an electrician who is authorised by the DNO to remove the main input FUSE. 

Yes, this is an option if you get no response from Nabuh.

Reed_Richards

When I moved into my current property I inherited a very old consumer unit with wire fuses.  As part of the re-wiring my electrician replaced this with a modern consumer unit that incorporates an isolation switch.  I don't know how he did this but there is no way to disconnect the power on the supply side of this isolation switch other than by removing the mains fuse and I'm pretty sure he is not authorised to do that.  I can only assume he replaced the isolation switch whilst working with live wires using electricians "tricks of the trade".

I think the OP must have a garbled account of what needs to be done. The fact that the meter has been replaced is a red herring except perhaps that the electrician is annoyed that substandard cables between the meter and whatever isolation switch is there at present (on the house side of the meter) were not replaced at the same time as the meter.  Presumably the electrician needs that to be done by someone with the authority to remove the main input fuse in order to isolate the meter.     

QrizB

From the OP's other thread they seem to be dealing with this remotely, so can't visit the property themselves or have a proper face-to-face discussion with the sparky.

Ectophile

I think there's a lot of unhelpful advice being given here.

If the electrician is doing an EICR, they need to open up the consumer unit. Turning off the main switch on the consumer unit doesn't make it safe, as the switch is inside the unit being opened.

Ideally you need an isolator switch between the meter and the consumer unit. Some suppliers install them as standard. Some will if you ask. Some are cheapskates and make you pay for one.

In the absence of an isolator, the alternative is to pull the main fuse. Most electricians in most regions are not authorized to do that themselves. But many do. If anyone asks what happened to the seal on the fuse, "it was like that when I found it". And it probably was, because the last electrician also pulled the fuse.

However, smart meters will tell tales on you if you do that. They can hold just enough charge to send a "the power's gone off" message when the fuse is pulled. This leaves the electrician to explain why the fuse is out when the people from the DNO turn up to investigate the fault. So the electrician will ask you to contact the supplier to get the fuse pulled officially.

LesleySpence

Yes, that is Thhe exact problem, sparky can not pull the fuse because the smart meter will send a message and they will. Have to send someone out and the sparky will get a huge fine.
I need advice on how to make the provider come out and fit the switch. 
Also legally if they are preventing me from having the work done where do I stand if something goes wrong and something happens to one of the tenants?
Is there some on official I can go to to force this issue? Ombudsmen isn't interested as it has not been 8.weeks yet

elsien

You don’t want to hear this, but there will be a backlog of work because of Covid. 

I’m not sure there’s a way of queue jumping before you’ve even exhausted  any formal complaints process. Or even afterwards, if other people have been waiting for longer than you.