Electrical safety report unsatisfactory

gemmy26wales · 18 June 2018 at 11:52PM

Hiya, I'm buying a flat and had an electrical safety report which came back unsatisfactory on the following points:

Bathroom light not protected by RCD
no visibility means of isolation for oven
No protection for socket on cooker circuit by RCD
discontinuous con???meter on down sockets??
Lighting cables on landing not intrunking.

I've put ?? Down on the places where I couldn't understand the writing. The sellers organised the report so I couldn't ask the electrian any questions so just wondering if anyone knows how easy these things are to get done and roughly how much it should cost pleaae?

Any info is greatly received.

Thank you:)

tonyh66 · 19 June 2018 at 3:10PM

get the sellers to knock £500 off the price that should cover it. Otherwise get them to get the electrician who did the report to do the remedial at their cost.

Risteard · 19 June 2018 at 5:15PM

gemmy26wales wrote: »

Hiya, I'm buying a flat and had an electrical safety report which came back unsatisfactory on the following points:

Bathroom light not protected by RCD
no visibility means of isolation for oven
No protection for socket on cooker circuit by RCD
discontinuous con???meter on down sockets??
Lighting cables on landing not intrunking.

I've put ?? Down on the places where I couldn't understand the writing. The sellers organised the report so I couldn't ask the electrian any questions so just wondering if anyone knows how easy these things are to get done and roughly how much it should cost pleaae?

Any info is greatly received.

Thank you:)

You haven't told us what recommendation (code) has been applied to each observation.

All circuits in a room containing a bath or a shower require 30mA RCD protection. However, if supplementary bonding is fitted between all exposed conductive parts and extraneous conductive parts within the bathroom then this greatly mitigates the risk. So without supplementary bonding this might have been attributed a C2 recommendation, but if all main and supplementary bonding is correct then it might only have been attributed a C3 recommendation (which would not render the installation Unsatisfactory).

As for the oven I am curious as to what Regulation the Electrician believes requires a visible isolator.

As for the cooker switch with integral socket outlet the socket outlet does indeed require RCD protection (as probably does the wiring - assuming it is concealed in a wall not in earthed metallic conduit etc.) - although the RCD protection for the socket outlet would be a more serious issue than the concealed wiring if run in prescribed zones in my opinion.

No clear as to what the next one is as you obviously are unable to read it.

Lighting cables on landing not in trunking - do they need to be? What does the Electrician believe the trunking is required for? Are these non-sheathed cables which therefore must be in containment? I suspect not - these are probably sheathed cables and therefore there is no requirement for trunking which presumably would just be used to improve the appearance of them.

Of course as I haven't seen the installation in question not everything I have suggested may be correct - I am working on assumptions here.

bris · 19 June 2018 at 7:34PM

RCD protection is current regs but anything before that is a recommendation only and is not a fail.

Same goes for everything else.

The electrician needs to point out what's not to current regs and recommend them for upgrade but it doesn't mean it needs to be done. I don't see anything there that would result in an unsatisfactory report. Perhaps you should ask to find out what they deemed to be dangerous that would result in this unsatisfactory rating apart from trying to create work.

40% of UK homes still have old fuse boards without RCD protection, many of them are still on the old wire fuses so don't let the report put you off, it, just standard practice to point out whats not to current regs.

Robin9 · 19 June 2018 at 7:36PM

You will never get a clean bill of health on an existing installation.

Risteard · 19 June 2018 at 7:38PM

bris wrote: »

RCD protection is current regs but anything before that is a recommendation only and is not a fail.

Not true. Whether something was installed to a previous Edition of the Regulations has nothing to do with how dangerous the non-compliance is now.

Fused neutrals were once permitted by the Wiring Regulations but can only be described as dangerous if they are encountered regardless of when they were installed. It is for the Inspector to determine the seriousness of the non-compliance. However it is written in black and white in the guidance on the forms that any lack of RCD protection where now required must be coded in all circumstances. (The code applied is, obviously, at the discretion of the Inspector having regard for the particular risks and circumstances.)

gemmy26wales · 20 June 2018 at 1:19PM

Hiya, thank you guys soo much. It's a massive help. The codes were all c2. I've spoken to the electrian who done the report and he aid it'll cost "couple of hundred" to do the work.

Is it wise just to get him to do it all because he's already done the report, or just get a few quotes from other electrian?

I'm a first time buyer (can't you tell already) so any help and advice is very much welcomed.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to respond xxx

Risteard · 20 June 2018 at 1:50PM

gemmy26wales wrote: »

Hiya, thank you guys soo much. It's a massive help. The codes were all c2. I've spoken to the electrian who done the report and he aid it'll cost "couple of hundred" to do the work.

Is it wise just to get him to do it all because he's already done the report, or just get a few quotes from other electrian?

I'm a first time buyer (can't you tell already) so any help and advice is very much welcomed.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to respond xxx

You are certainly free to get other quotes, although it is true that others may not know precisely what the issues are as they are simply interpreting someone else's Report. So they may allow extra for the unknown or wish to survey the job first.

But certainly get other quotes if you are not happy (although a couple of hundred does not sound excessive). Note this is not to suggest that I am agreeing with C2 codes being applied in some or all of these circumstances. (You will see my interpretation of the observations in a previous post.)

tacpot12 · 20 June 2018 at 2:40PM

Please ask your electrician to fix the wires on the landing onto the wall (or into some new trunking) using non-combustible fixings. Research has shown that plastic wall plugs and plastic cable clips will fail during a significant fire and you might find yourself trying to leave a smoke filled flat to find that live copper wires are dangling from the ceiling.

The EICR won't have picked up on the lack of smoke detectors or a CO detector, so ask your electrician for advice if the flat does have them. If you have any gas appliances in the flat, make sure you have a working CO detector when you move in - there is a risk that the vendor might not be aware of an existing problem with a gas appliance.

gemmy26wales · 20 June 2018 at 7:19PM

Thank you guys. All advice will definitely be acted on. Xx

Risteard · 20 June 2018 at 8:44PM

tacpot12 wrote: »

Please ask your electrician to fix the wires on the landing onto the wall (or into some new trunking) using non-combustible fixings.

That's a given, as it is a requirement of BS7671 for wiring within escape routes. If carrying out work on these cables this must be done regardless of whether it is asked for or not. (But as these cables could be passing through walls or anything we don't know that they are at risk of premature collapse.)

We have no reason to suspect that the wiring system is at risk of premature collapse in escape routes in the event of a fire, however, as this has not been mentioned in the observations. Or it may already contain appropriate fixings.

But as I mentioned earlier there is almost certainly no requirement for the wiring to be in containment (e.g. trunking) - unless we are talking about non-sheathed cables e.g. singles (which is extremely unlikely for this type of installation).

Electrical safety report unsatisfactory

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