Hi all - I have recently had a sale agreed on my property and am going through the necessary solicitor's forms. One of the pages asks if any electrical work has been carried out on my property. If you tick yes, you have to supply one of these: - copy of signed BS7671 Electrical Safety Certificate - the installer's Building Regulations Compliance Certificate - the Building Control Completion Certificate I have had a kitchen gutted and replaced, which required rewiring (3 years ago), and have had the odd repositioning of sockets and a ceiling fan added upstairs when I moved in (5 years ago). I used two different electricians - one was a sole trader while the other was a bit of a bigger setup, who had 2 guys on the job, with sign written vans, ads in the paper, all legit. The thing is, neither of them gave me a certificate for any of the work, or even mentioned one. I had no idea you even needed one. Both electricians are now unable to reached - I believe one retired (he was getting on when he did the work) and I heard the other has moved and took his company with him. I'm now worried about what to do - is it normal not to give a certificate or have I been done? Does this mean I now need to get an electrician in to do an inspection of the whole house? Many thanks
You really need to find out what the buyer is willing to except. If the work is notifiable (you havn't given enough info to say one way or the other, but assuming it probably was/is) then you are missing the BC cert which is a bit of a pain in the arris. You could contact you local BC office and see if they can certifiy the work retrospectivly but only they can tell you that. Alternatively you might be able to get insurance agaisnt not having the work done through BC. Having said that, you could get a PIR done to show that the work is safe (or not). There are many different options but at the end of the day your buyer could ask for all of them to be done (at your expense) and can use all of this as a bargaining chip agaist you. Also any "pro" spark would have given you a cert and notified BC, so who ever did the work for you was a cowboy.
I think I'm right in saying it's only needed if the buyers want it (Mortgage people may want it), I've just bought a house where she didn't have one, so I got the price knock down as I was going to be doing work and pulling things apart, I've got a sparkie coming on Friday to do an ECIR and I'll take it from there B J
Thanks all. Shame that they were meant to give me one - one of them were a pretty established team as well. At the moment all I have is this form so I'll have to make some calls and see what people suggest. What is an ECIR?
Thanks @chippie244 - honesty definately best policy here. @Coloumb whats the difference between an EICR and a PIR (periodic inspection report)? Ive called an electrician near me who has offered to do a PIR but its for the whole house and Im worried this could bevome expensive if they uncover other things. Is the EICR just for the work the certificate was meant to certify (in my case my kitchen)?
Hi Dilby. You would answer no to the question. The buyer may wish to have an EICR carried out in which case they pay for it as it is in their interest not yours. At least you won't be out of pocket if the sale falls through. Or, you could get the inspection done yourself and add it to your documents. Few people know that all house electrics should be regularly inspected anyway, irrespective of whether its to satisfy a sale of the house. 10 yearly is the recommended frequency.
From memory, 'has any electrical work been carried out since 2005' if so provide any certificates for the works completed. Something like that. B J
Ah right, thanks mate. Do you know if this is a standard now for a house sale, or depends on who you use as a solicitor/buying/selling agent?
Yes Fats, it's in all sellers packs now, includes other things that cover pretty much any work that may have been done and they all ask for certificates/ guarantees where required. B J
Hi Fats It is one of the legacies of the HIPS packs that was introduced. Estate agents etc realised when the HIPS packs were dropped they could make even more money by retaining some items and if you dont have the paperwork sell you indemnity policies. We got caught with a couple of things as they wait until you have got so far through the sale they tell you the buyer may back out leaving you with massive costs. Kind regards BS
This is the problem with everything these days. Things are done to satisfy a paperwork tick box, not to satisfy a need to be done. People seem quite happy to take risks that something won't happen, or wait until something does and then put it right. Prevention is better than cure and inspection satisfies concerns about possible faults. However, when a house gets sold its "have you got an electrical certificate?" The point I am making is its paperwork for the sake of it, keeping someone in a job. The true concerns about why its needed are very very low down the list of priorities. Someone will queue for hours to,pay £500+ for a sodding mobile phone but ask them to spend £150 on an EICR.... Not targeting you, btw, Dilby, just making a point in general about how society behaves.
The biggest problem is that anyone can go into any DIY shop, even a wholesaler's and buy any piece of electrical equipment without any knowledge of how it works or what should be done to fit it. I've seen so many make shift joints, badly fitted sockets its scary. I've just bought a house where I found several open joints and twisted joints in the loft, all this on 1 circuit and the previous owner clearly thought this was okay, this is why I had an ECIR carried out. B J
You cannot blame anybody for selling stuff to the public. It is of no consequence to the retailer that he sells what he sells. Caveat Emptor. It is still a blame culture society. If something goes wrong the person who caused it is never to be found.
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