New house, no electrics certificate and power keeps going out

Discussion in 'Electricians' Talk' started by SdS123, Jun 22, 2017.

  1. SdS123

    SdS123 New Member

    Hi all,

    I just bought my first home and moved from England to South Wales.

    The house is early 1900 and the previous owner told us that the house was completely re-wired since 1st January 2005 but we don't know the specific date nor do we have the required building regulation compliance certificate to evidence that the works carried out complied with the building regulations standards.

    Due to this we were given a building regulation indemnity policy to provide cover in respect of financial loss I may suffer as result of enforcement action taken by the Local Authority for a lack of building regulation approval.

    Issue I'm having right now is that I just moved in this week and the power keeps going off. I'm not exactly sure what's causing the problem but clearly this isn't good and I don't want to start touching on things that I'm clueless about.

    My questions are:

    1. Can I use that indemnity policy to call an electrician and ask them to check everything and give me a certificate to say all is good? I know it covers electrics for £125k but would I only be able to claim if I received a fine from the Council due to not being according to regulations?

    2. Do I need to let the Council know that we're having a problem with electrics as this can potentially be a risk of a hazard?

    3. Can a electrician find out what's wrong with the wires i.e. ground floor or upstairs and isolate the problem or will I need to re-wire the whole house? The house was in a right state when I moved in and already spent so much money sorting things out, putting down new carpets, fixing skirting boards and putting new ones where they were missing so I am getting very worried about this.

    4. If I can't claim on the indemnity policy how much more damage would this have on my bank account? As in, how much would an electrician usually charge me for this?

    Any help is massively appreciated!
    Thanks in advance.
    Sofia
     
  2. terrymac

    terrymac Screwfix Select

    lots of questions ,most are unanswerable until you establish what your problem is. so first things first . does all electricity fail in the house ? can you post pics of fuse board / consumer unit .and advise what exactly electrical stops working.and when stops ,what do you do to restore power ,if anything ?
     
  3. SdS123

    SdS123 New Member

    Hi Terrymac,

    Thanks for coming back to me.
    Yes, all electricity fails in the house and all the lights go off.

    Happened last night and boiler went off and so did all the lights cause I went upstairs to check it, but TV and washing machine were still on.

    There's a fuse board downstairs and we just turn back on the ones that go off/down. I can post a picture later on when I'm at home if you think that helps.

    I got this one out of Google but it looks like this one.
     

    Attached Files:

  4. terrymac

    terrymac Screwfix Select

    need pic of yours really.if it is same as this ,that'd good ,as it has two RCD.'s protecting all circuits ( they are the ones with yellow buttons ) the black switch's are mcb's and protect individual circuits . which trips on your board , probably the RCD ?
     
  5. SdS123

    SdS123 New Member

    I have no idea what you just said.. I don't understand those terms.. I will post a pic later on then, probably best lol
     
  6. terrymac

    terrymac Screwfix Select

    by the way , you are a bit misleading me when you answered " YES All electricity goes off " but TV stayed on !!! bit of a contradiction there o_Oo_O
     
  7. SdS123

    SdS123 New Member

    You're right. Sorry, I meant lights... :/
     
  8. If you just bought the house, were the electrics not checked for the sale/purchase?

    Did you negotiate the house price down because of it ? Or was the insurance provided instead of price reduction?

    The policy is just an insurance scheme ?

    Doesnt make sense yet.
     
  9. Bob Rathbone

    Bob Rathbone Screwfix Select

    Part P came into effect in England and Wales on 1 January 2005 according to the IET website, any domestic rewires such as yours must be supported by a completion certificate and a Part 'P' certificate, both may be the same.
    It appears that some basic pre purchase safety checks have not been carried out to establish who did the re wire and was it certificated.
    Step 1, Usually this falls into the conveyancing solicitors role, your solicitor who did the conveyancing should be able to point you to where the certificates are, unless you agreed with him that they were not required.
    Step 2, If you did agree with your solicitor to ignore the lack of certification, you must now go to your local building control office and ask if they hold a record of the re wire, the way I understand Part P is that the local building control have access to the records kept by the self certification agencies such as ELEXA and NAPIT.
    Step 3, If building control cannot find a record of the installation, the requirements of Part P have probably been breached and your insurance should be invoked, if a certificate is found with a name on it, you should contact the certifying agency and ask them to investigate.

    You are on very dodgy ground here trying to point a finger of blame as any electrician worth his salt will have done the job right and have the paperwork to prove it. If it is a 'cowboy' job then you won't find the cowboy but the vendor may be liable still.
    I have never heard of a prosecution under Part P.
     
  10. jonathanc

    jonathanc Guest

    so to answer your questions
    1. no. it is an indemnity against enforcement by the LBCO. Only if they enforce will it cover remedial work. Enforcement powers only exist for 12 months after the work was carried out ( from memory - different to planning). so basically, unlikely. Even then the insurer would expect you to defend enforcement action and only cough up if you lose - providing you can defend it

    2. No - not unless the work was carried out within the last 12 months

    3. Yep - they can and you can help them. what's turned on when things trip. No point in bringing an electrician in and saying my electricity trips when you can say " it trips when the boiler starts". The first means a big bill as they'll suspect everything, the latter means they look at the boiler first. So work methodically, focus on half of the board that trips. what's turned on when it trips.

    4. difficult to say, depends on what the issue is, a quick fix is cheaper than a full rewire.
     
  11. terrymac

    terrymac Screwfix Select

    I would be amazed if the re wire /upgrade that was done twelve years ago had anything whatsoever to do with the new owners current issues. a great deal of things can change in that time ,and its pretty doubtful that the previous owners have been suffering with electric tripping problems for 12 years. whether certified or not.
     
    longboat likes this.
  12. Sparkielev

    Sparkielev Screwfix Select

    I would slow down it may be an appliance tripping your electrics, I would get a registered spark to do a full test before you do anything which prob should have been done before you moved in
     
  13. Astramax

    Astramax Super Member

    Kettle or toaster?
     
  14. Bazza-spark

    Bazza-spark Screwfix Select

    Where abouts in South Wales? There are a number of members on here that live in the South Wales area.

    You could get a local electrician to carry out a full electrical inspection where he would inspect and test the installation for compliance with the Regulations and give you a full report.

    Kind regards
     
  15. retiredsparks

    retiredsparks Super Member

    Which area...as i may be able to help for free (apart from travel)
    RS
     
  16. 14th edition

    14th edition Well-Known Member

    The other thing is that the indemnity policy only covers you if BC come after you for not having a cert. It doesn't cover you for remedial work!
     

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