Why would seller not disclose electric safe certificate?

NameUnavailable

It is up to you as the buyer to carry out whatever checks you want to or your surveyor suggests (if the vendor is willing of course). It is also up to you to pay for those checks. This is standard stuff as a buyer.

It's best to direct questions via solicitors as responses then hold water legally i.e. if you were told something that later proved to be incorrect you could have some right of redress.

It's fair to assume that most private properties for sale won't have had electrical safety checks prior to sale unless as mentioned above it was a tenanted property and it was one of the landlords legal obligations.

You have already spotted that the fuse box looks like an older type but that doesn't mean it needs replacing, however I expect any electrical survey would suggest you do.

Mutton_Geoff

If the place is priced accordingly, a rewire is a perfect opportunity to bring it up to date since we appear to need 5x the amount of sockets these days.

If you asked the seller to provide a test, do you think they will act in your best interests or get the cheapest one they can biased to tell you what you want to hear.

markin

A rewire is £2-5K, Are you really going to walk for that? Unless you buy a new home its likely to have a plastic consumer unit what will have warning saying it not up to today's standards and needs replacing, And you don't actually have to replace it.

Bigphil1474

We had our consumer unit changed (well overdue) and electrics checked for a safety certificate last year, as we knew we'd be selling this year - for the cost (c.£400), it's not worth adding to the list of potential reasons a buyer might pull out. Same with the gas, had a gas safe check done 3 days before their surveyor turned up a couple of weeks ago.

If the electrics are old, as a buyer, I'd just assume it needs a rewire and is either priced accordingly or offer accordingly. If it turns out to not need a full rewire, then happy days. Our wiring is at least 30 years old but the electrician said it was all good, so just a new consumer unit required.

Grizebeck

Mountains and molehills

dander

Seems an odd situation. Round here if there's no solicitors instructed, there's no memorandum of sale, and without that the house is still being marketed. If I had agreed a price with a buyer who was avoiding taking that very first step, I'd definitely be pushing estate agent to keep viewings going and certainly would not be answering questions, let alone paying for extra work for a buyer that looked like a time waster.

Once a seller instructs a solicitor, they are advised to answer all these sort of questions through the solicitor - to avoid any legal complications, so really I think you are on a hiding to nothing trying to avoid the standard process.

MobileSaver

Bigphil1474 said:

We had our consumer unit changed (well overdue) and electrics checked for a safety certificate last year, as we knew we'd be selling this year

The other side of the coin of course is that most sellers know their electrics have been working fine for the last seven years or whatever so are loathe to spend money unnecessarily just to appease a jittery FTBer.

Albermarle

Bigphil1474 said:

We had our consumer unit changed (well overdue) and electrics checked for a safety certificate last year, as we knew we'd be selling this year - for the cost (c.£400), it's not worth adding to the list of potential reasons a buyer might pull out. Same with the gas, had a gas safe check done 3 days before their surveyor turned up a couple of weeks ago.

If the electrics are old, as a buyer, I'd just assume it needs a rewire and is either priced accordingly or offer accordingly. If it turns out to not need a full rewire, then happy days. Our wiring is at least 30 years old but the electrician said it was all good, so just a new consumer unit required.

I think some of our wiring dates back to 1964. When we had a loft conversion done, the electrician had to fit a new consumer unit but said the wiring was fine.
Quote ' As long as it is plastic ( PVC) covered cable and in good condition, then no issues'

ahfat41

dander said:

Seems an odd situation. Round here if there's no solicitors instructed, there's no memorandum of sale, and without that the house is still being marketed. If I had agreed a price with a buyer who was avoiding taking that very first step, I'd definitely be pushing estate agent to keep viewings going and certainly would not be answering questions, let alone paying for extra work for a buyer that looked like a time waster.

Once a seller instructs a solicitor, they are advised to answer all these sort of questions through the solicitor - to avoid any legal complications, so really I think you are on a hiding to nothing trying to avoid the standard process.

No time waster. The solicitor has been instructed not to start with the sale on advice from chartered surveyor. Was advised to sort some issues before proceedings. Only following the advice if the surveyor. The building survey was a level 3.  I think the dated fuse box needs upgrading urgently and happy to sort this out but will not be surprised if it needs a rewiring. Flat was built in 1900 or before. Am paying for the electric test myself for my peace of mind although the surveyor told me I should ask the seller for one.

markin

That sounds like the Scottish system.. "memorandum of sale"