Surveyor negligence claim?

silvercar

lucas20042004 said:

"Although there were no areas of concern, a precautionary electrical inspection should be undertaken, to ensure that circuitry complies with current electrical regulations prior to a legal commitment to purchase. All recommendations should be implemented. The electrical installation is provided with an RCD which is designed to protect the users from electric shock. These installations are extremely sensitive and consequently occasional tripping of switches will occur, effectively shutting down the affected circuit(s). It can often result when a light bulb fails, or it may be the result of a defective appliance. When this happens, the ‘trip-switch’ must be reset. If this occurs with any frequency, an electrician should be instructed to investigate."

However there is no RCD and there is pictures showing the dated fuse box and VIR wiring. 

Whereas they did say a precautionary electrical inspection should be undertaken, they did make the statement in bold. If this is factually incorrect, it is worth a complaint. Either there is an RCD or there isn't and if they said there was one where there is none, there is some liability.

[Deleted User]

lucas20042004 said:

"Although there were no areas of concern, a precautionary electrical inspection should be undertaken, to ensure that circuitry complies with current electrical regulations prior to a legal commitment to purchase. All recommendations should be implemented. The electrical installation is provided with an RCD which is designed to protect the users from electric shock. These installations are extremely sensitive and consequently occasional tripping of switches will occur, effectively shutting down the affected circuit(s). It can often result when a light bulb fails, or it may be the result of a defective appliance. When this happens, the ‘trip-switch’ must be reset. If this occurs with any frequency, an electrician should be instructed to investigate."

However there is no RCD and there is pictures showing the dated fuse box and VIR wiring. 

If they didn't even notice that it had a fuse box instead of RCDs, that pretty clear cut negligence. There fact that they even provided a photo of it is pretty damning.

Noneforit999

I think people rely too much on surveys. 

Some electrics in virtually every house that exists is 'Non compliant' with current regs.

Plenty of houses have no RCD protection, ours included and there is absolutely no legal requirement to change them. Safety always advances and you could be chasing your tail keep getting remedial work done every time the electrical regs change 

That said, VIR cable is fairly unusual these days as I would bet most people have replaced it over the years so the wiring must be original. The consumer unit might be newer unless it uses the old cartridge type fuses, in which case thats like original.

Should the surveyor have picked up on this? Probably but you would be better placed spending your energy getting the wiring upgraded rather than writing letters to the survey company waiting for what is just going to be an apology or some rear end covering reply.

Old houses require money spending on them, be thankful he found nothing structural wrong. Plenty of people have surveys done to find damp, roofs that need replacing, supporting walls taken down without BR, chimney breasts taken down without adequate support etc etc.

I'm not an electrician (I work in finance) and could spot an old non RCD consumer unit just from a glance. 

TBagpuss

OK, they stated that there was a RCD when there wasn't - you can certainly complain on that basis, however, the issue would then be - what would have been different had they correctly stated that there wasn't one? They would probably have gone on to say exactly what they did, that you should get an electrical survey and follow the recommendations of the electrician. 

Given that they gave that advice anyway, and you chose not to follow it, they may argue that things would have been no different had they not made the error. You, of course, may argue that had they said there was no RCD you would have followed the other advice.  

It's worth making an initial complaint, and by all means take some advice about whether any formal negligence claim would have any hope of succeeding, but I suspect that the fact that you were , despite the error, advised to get an electrical survey and chose not to would significantly limit your chances of a successful claim. 

lucas20042004

I completely agree with what everybody is saying - I should have got the report when advised. But I did trust the surveyor that there was no area for concern. I don't believe that they should be giving an opinion or any statement whatsoever if they are not taking responsibility.