FTB almost at exchange for newly renovated house - advertised rewiring hasn't been done

Five_Alive

I'm a FTB purchasing an old 1900s house that was advertised as a complete renovation job - the vendor bought at auction cheap and did it up including some major internal renovations (moving a staircase, making another bedroom) - at first look it appeared to have been done to a very high standard and I was really looking forward to moving into a "ready made home" without any works needed.

Things have been progressing nicely - my offer was accepted around 9 weeks ago and we are a hair's breadth away from signing, and I was really happy this morning when I saw I'd received the pre-exchange pack with all the searches, reports, etc. There was a little hiccup towards the beginning when we had to renegotiate the price, purely because of the valuation which affected the amount the mortgage company would lend to me and threw up some additional repair work that needed doing, but it was only a small difference and both parties were happy to continue.

Which leads me onto my current predicament. Ever since I saw the Property Information Form where parts had not been filled in I have been paranoid that some documentation might be missing or not forthcoming, however every issue (Building Regs, boiler installation, etc.) has all been resolved. There is one outstanding issue that I'm hoping to get some advice on: as the post title says the house was advertised as having been fully rewired. This was verbally modified by the estate agent to confirm that it had been "almost all rewired" and that the upstairs lighting ring hadn't been touched - I factored all that in when I made my offer and was happy to proceed on that basis.

However it's come to light while reviewing the documentation in the solicitor's report provided that it's likely no rewiring has taken place. Sure there's new sockets, light fittings, and a consumer unit (at least it all looks new to me) but the large, messy job of doing the actual rewiring hasn't been done. I will need to confirm this via the solicitors but I have a copy of the BS7671 EICR that was undertaken after I put in my offer, so I can assume it is up to date, and this states the wiring is 30 years old. It also states work has been carried out in the last year (not by the same person doing the test I assume) but there is no completion certificates or anything to verify this work.

So I see two mains issues that I need to consider here:

1) Do I actually need to rewire the house? The ECIR states the wiring is 'Satisfactory' and lists a bunch of C3 issues that I am assuming (haven't checked yet) are not too expensive to fix, at least compared to a full rewiring. Could I do these and then get another ECIR in say 5 years to make sure everything is still safe? I do not want to have to completely rewire the house and then redecorate it within my first month of owning it, especially as it's already looking nice on the inside.

2) What do I do about the misrepresentation from the seller? If I look at this in the most charitable light possible, then perhaps he didn't know that a rewiring consisted of actually putting in new wires, although as a property developer/investor I find that rather unlikely. My offer was made on the understanding that it had been "almost fully rewired" as mentioned above, so I feel like I'm being taken for a mug here.

At the same time I don't want to be accused of gazundering at this late pre-contract stage, and I'm sure if I just pretended I'd not read the ECIR I could be moving ASAP. So I'm not sure where I stand, and how I should even approach renegotiating again if I was to consider it. I'm thinking that if I try then the worst that can happen is the seller says no, and I have to ask myself the question "how much do you want this house?" I do rather feel that now I am the one holding everything up and it's a lot of pressure on me - I'm sure the seller just wants to get rid of this house which I'm told has cost him more than he thought in renovations and he's probably in a bind financially as well, especially as it sat empty throughout this whole COVID situation. 

I plan to ring the solicitors in the morning and ask them to get some firm clarification on the status of the rewiring, but I know that will take time with the usual back and forth between the solicitors, so I want to use that time to best consider my position and what's the best way forwards. I specifically asked them about this 2 months ago and I rather naïvely assumed they would investigate it, which of course didn't happen. But at the end of the day I'm the one buying the house and it's my responsibility to make sure I'm fully aware of what I'm entering into before I proceed.

I poured over forum posts for hours trying to find people that are in the same situation as myself. I've found many people who wanted to renegotiate based on a lack of electrical work carried but none who were promised a rewiring that didn't turn out to be real. Generally the advice seems to be that old houses have old electrics and that's par for the course, and if it wasn't for the seller specifically saying it was rewired I don't think I'd be anywhere near as aggrieved as I feel now.

Sorry for the essay, but I hope you guys have some experience/advice you can share with this complete housing newbie - thanks!

canaldumidi

Did you get the EICR done? If so, speak to your sparkie and ask his advice.

If not, why not.

Trouble with renovations like this is that it is easy to make things look superficially attractive but you've no real idea what's goig on behind the fancy new kitchen cabinets.

What did your survey report say?

Does the property come with any kind of warranty: NHBC or similar (though they tend to be for New Builds).?

TheJP

There are a lot of perfectly fine wiring in houses older than 30 years, the report you had commissioned has said the wiring is satisfactory. Personally i wouldn't fret on this and the house wont need a full rewire in 5 years unless something drastic happens that could happen if the house was rewired now.

Five_Alive

@canaldumidi The EICR was commissioned by the seller. My understanding was that it had been completely rewired and therefore there would be some kind of official documentation to show this, which is what I've been waiting to see for the past 2 months. The EICR was a surprise as I was expecting a completion certificate for an installation.

The survey report gave the standard line about how they can't test it and I should get a qualified electrician to test it before exchange of contracts.

@TheJP That's reassuring to know. That would be my preferred option rather than ripping out the plasterboard and redecorating.

FreeBear

canaldumidi said: Trouble with renovations like this is that it is easy to make things look superficially attractive but you've no real idea what's goig on behind the fancy new kitchen cabinets.

Recently been doing some work on an old Victorian terrace that had been "renovated". Superficially, it looks OK, but there are a whole raft of issues hidden from view. A skim of multifinish has hidden some of the problems, others are lurking under floorboards (I've seen what is under there, and it is not pretty).

MysteryMe

Personally I would find it odd that an older property advertised as having a complete renovation job would not have included a rewire, it's the obvious time to do it whilst the other building works were taking place.  I'd be a bit wary TBH and might look elsewhere. 

GDB2222

MysteryMe said:

Personally I would find it odd that an older property advertised as having a complete renovation job would not have included a rewire, it's the obvious time to do it whilst the other building works were taking place.  I'd be a bit wary TBH and might look elsewhere. 

The OP has been lied to about this. What else has he been lied to about? 

Five_Alive

Update: Solicitor also agrees with my assessment of the documentation. I'm going to chat with the EA and see if they can get the seller's side of the story any faster than the solicitors can. Turns out (unbeknownst to me!) that we were planning to sign, exchange, and complete all by the end of this week... I had no idea and was under the impression it would be the new year for completion so it all seems a bit of a whirlwind at the moment.

dimbo61

So do you pay £160/200 to have an EICR report done from an electrician YOU trust ?
What are the C3 faults ?
We had a complete rewire of a small 2 bed terraced house with 4 double sockets in the Right locations in each bedroom.
Mains wired interlinked smoke alarms, Alarm system and security lights.
Cost me £3,500 and had to replaster every room in the house afterwards

Brie

Don't be pressured to sign until you know what's happening properly.  If they do try to apply pressure to proceed I'd be even more wary than you are already.

Five_Alive

@dimbo61 The C3 faults are:

1. Old meter tails have been left in this should be upgraded
2. Earth bonding to gas have been installed in a poor state
3. Condition of meter fails - Distributor/Consumer
4. Lack of accessibility of earthing conductor connections (543.3.2)
5. Working space of accessibility to the consumer unit or distribution board not adequate (132.12, 513.1)
6. No presence of RCD six-monthly test notice at or near consumer unit/distribution board (514.12.2)

So another update: the estate agent spoke to the seller who has again confirmed the rewiring was done downstairs, with some of the upstairs sockets (this is new info but nevermind), but not the upstairs lighting ring. He is insisting that he saw the work being done himself, and actually has video evidence of the exposed walls which he's going to send on. The reason for no completion certificate is that the work was done by a friend of a partner (who is now no longer a partner) and has had a couple of different people working on it since then - so no competent person scheme completion certification or anything like that.

I know that doesn't mean the work is dangerous, as the existing ECIR confirms this. I'd just like confirmation that the rewiring has at least been done the way he's said.

He thinks that the ECIR stating the wiring is 30 years old is the electrician covering themselves as it wasn't completely rewired, but I'd like to hear that from the electrician himself. Only problem is I can't find the guy based on his company name, with the exception of his LinkedIn profile (and that's the only online record). So I guess I'll have to reach out that way but I would have preferred to just ring a phone number off a website.

If the electrician who did the ECIR can confirm what the seller is telling me then I might have some peace of mind here, otherwise I'm going to have to get my own ECIR done and specifically ask him to check the things the seller has mentioned.