Close to exchange - unsatisfactory electrical report

dil1976

FreeBear said:

macman said:

How big is this property, how many floors? £12K for a rewire?

Or £3K to rectify the defects.. Sorry, but I would expect a full rewire for that and still have change.

You would be lucky to get a basic 2 up 2 down with extension done for that amount these days, let a lone a town house.

simba_9

macman said:

How big is this property, how many floors? £12K for a rewire?

It a 4 bed 2bath townhouse, 3 floors 

mi-key

simba_9 said:

macman said:

How big is this property, how many floors? £12K for a rewire?

It a 4 bed 2bath townhouse, 3 floors 

Yeah, he is taking the mickey a bit there. A normal 3 bed semi would be less than half that price. Mind you he quoted £3000 for less than £1000 worth of work, so I wouldn't go with him if you decide on a full rewire !

dil1976

mi-key said:

simba_9 said:

macman said:

How big is this property, how many floors? £12K for a rewire?

It a 4 bed 2bath townhouse, 3 floors 

Yeah, he is taking the mickey a bit there. A normal 3 bed semi would be less than half that price. Mind you he quoted £3000 for less than £1000 worth of work, so I wouldn't go with him if you decide on a full rewire !

That depends, if its occupied then it will take longer. Maybe a little on the high side but not massively.

doodling

Hi,

simba_9 said:

Hi there

[...]

Our electrical inspection has come back unsatisfactory and identified a number items with C2 and F1 codes.

Here’s a summary from the electrician: 
“ There are sections of the socket circuits which appear to be wired in cables with a reduced size without adequate fuse protection from overload. There are a number of accessories with defects such as damaged or cracked face plates and defective fixings. The fuse board has aged thermal damage on a circuit which can lead to further problems with the fuse contact. An RCD is installed at the main incoming supply which will automatically disconnect all circuits in the event of fault on any circuit.”

He has quoted a figure of £3000 to do the minimum remedial work this is without making good for decoration. He is recommending a full rewrite (at a cost of approx. £12,000) if we plan to carry our major refurbishment of the property. 

All the above can be made safe (but not really fixed in the case of the undersized cables - see below) by a consumer unit replacement and replacement of damaged accessories.  I would not expect that to cost over £1000 and if I was selling the house that would be my position.

The most dangerous points are:

1. The damaged accessories - these obviously need replacing but I'm guessing that you will have seen those when you looked at the house.

2. The undersized cables - these can only be addressed properly though replacement with cables of the correct size. It is very rare for professionals to install incorrectly sized cables so I suspect that some dodgy DIY has taken place. If the scope of that DIY is limited then it may be just a matter of replacing one or two lengths rather than a whole rewire. It can be addressed temporarily by fitting a circuit breaker in the (new) consumer unit appropriate to the wire size - whether that then causes problems because that breaker keeps tripping depends on the circuit and what is connected / plugged into it.  For example if someone has used 1.5mm sq cable rather than 2.5mm sq for a ring then you might have to live with a 10A (or maybe 16A if you're lucky) breaker on it - that would be fine for an upstairs ring which only gets used for a single hairdryer at a time and nothing much else but would be useless for a kitchen where more than one appliance might be used at the same time.

Hope this helps.

[Deleted User]

A rewire isn't just expensive, it's extremely disruptive and messy. You really need to move out while it is done.

propertyhunter

I bought a house with electrics from the 1950s. While there were issues that were listed as C1 - they could all be resolved for <£1000. I got five quotes in to fix all the issues on the EICR to make sure I wasn't getting ripped off. I told each electrician the house was being renovated in 3 years, and two told me not to bother updating it - even the C1s (IPX4 standards not met, but not hazardous, no grommet on a socket (but easy DIY fix), RCDs not available on some circuits). Also our consumption is low, as there are no kids living here. 

ansaryon

simba_9 said:

Here’s a summary from the electrician: 
“ There are sections of the socket circuits which appear to be wired in cables with a reduced size without adequate fuse protection from overload. There are a number of accessories with defects such as damaged or cracked face plates and defective fixings. The fuse board has aged thermal damage on a circuit which can lead to further problems with the fuse contact. An RCD is installed at the main incoming supply which will automatically disconnect all circuits in the event of fault on any circuit.”

He has quoted a figure of £3000 to do the minimum remedial work this is without making good for decoration. He is recommending a full rewrite (at a cost of approx. £12,000) if we plan to carry our major refurbishment of the property

That really does sound expensive! Last summer I opened a can of worms by wanting a car charger installed. My house is a 1950s bungalow, extended in the 80s, so I expected problems. And as it happened - I had to have lots of remedial work done first. I used a local electrician (the company has a shop in the local town's high street) and it ended up with:

* Replacement of 6-way Wylex fuseboard with 10-way consumer unit

* New earth rod, in pit with inspection chamber

* Replacement of 30m of outside armoured cabling to outbuilding (it came off the kitchen ring main, not allowed any more!)

* New socket and connection for power for gas cooker (apparently the way it was set up wasn't good enough)

* Connection of bonding to water and gas, cabling running externally due to asbestos in floors/ceiling indoors

* Replacement of bathroom and kitchen lights with new "class 2" LED lights

* Replacement of every pendant fitting in the house with "class 2" ones - due to lack of earthing and thermal damage/exposed cables (9 fittings)

* Blank off old immersion heater spur

* Install new meter tails and fire gland

* Blank off wall light circuit in living room

* Replace damaged socket in living room

That took two guys a whole week - longer than they expected.

The total cost? £2,023 inc VAT.

Not bad, I think, considering I'm in Kent.

For your £3,000, I would expect much more work than that!

LegallyLandlord

If it was tenanted until recently,  it should have had a satisfactory EICR (electrical installation condition report) and you would have been acting reasonably to expect not to have to rewire. The landlord will have been in breach of the law in renting a property out without satisfactory electrics.

I would negotiate a price reduction and say you assumed the wiring was up to modern standards as it would have been illegal for him/her to rent it out if it wasn’t. 

dil1976

ansaryon said:

simba_9 said:

Here’s a summary from the electrician: 
“ There are sections of the socket circuits which appear to be wired in cables with a reduced size without adequate fuse protection from overload. There are a number of accessories with defects such as damaged or cracked face plates and defective fixings. The fuse board has aged thermal damage on a circuit which can lead to further problems with the fuse contact. An RCD is installed at the main incoming supply which will automatically disconnect all circuits in the event of fault on any circuit.”

He has quoted a figure of £3000 to do the minimum remedial work this is without making good for decoration. He is recommending a full rewrite (at a cost of approx. £12,000) if we plan to carry our major refurbishment of the property

That really does sound expensive! Last summer I opened a can of worms by wanting a car charger installed. My house is a 1950s bungalow, extended in the 80s, so I expected problems. And as it happened - I had to have lots of remedial work done first. I used a local electrician (the company has a shop in the local town's high street) and it ended up with:

* Replacement of 6-way Wylex fuseboard with 10-way consumer unit

* New earth rod, in pit with inspection chamber

* Replacement of 30m of outside armoured cabling to outbuilding (it came off the kitchen ring main, not allowed any more!)

* New socket and connection for power for gas cooker (apparently the way it was set up wasn't good enough)

* Connection of bonding to water and gas, cabling running externally due to asbestos in floors/ceiling indoors

* Replacement of bathroom and kitchen lights with new "class 2" LED lights

* Replacement of every pendant fitting in the house with "class 2" ones - due to lack of earthing and thermal damage/exposed cables (9 fittings)

* Blank off old immersion heater spur

* Install new meter tails and fire gland

* Blank off wall light circuit in living room

* Replace damaged socket in living room

That took two guys a whole week - longer than they expected.

The total cost? £2,023 inc VAT.

Not bad, I think, considering I'm in Kent.

For your £3,000, I would expect much more work than that!

Not sure why you had that miuch work done, most of that wouldnt of been needed to install a EV charger.