Hi My mother needs some work done on a rental property for the electrical safety check. We use an electrician from the estate agents and have no doubts their work is fine, just wanted to check opinion as to if the quote was OK. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I assume any fittings will be basic, no luxury fittings or anything. £340 for: "There is an open Ring on the Neutral conductor, this has a risk of causing over heating the circuit and we need to find the loose connection or down grade the circuit from a 32A to 20A. The bathroom light needs replacing to a suitable IP rated light. There are single core conductors on show from the Shower circuit that need to be contained or rewired in the cupboard ADJ consumer unit. The Meter tail enters the Henly block where is was extended and has a section of single insulated cable that needs addressing. Where all the cables were extended for the consumer unit replacement, all the cable joins are wrapped up in tape, not contained in a proper enclosure and needs changing." Thank you in advance.
Personally I think that's really steep. The most open ended item in the list is the open neutral. If he's smart about it he could find it within the first couple of sockets. If he's really unlucky he'll only find it on the last socket, so assuming he has to open 10 sockets, that's an hour tops. Replacing the bathroom light, another hour tops. Reterminating the two cables, another hour tops. Popping a Wago box over the taped connections, 30 minutes, tops. So, 3.5 hours of work plus half an hour travel time. Half a day comfortably. £260 per day ... £130 for half a day. Add a few Wago boxes and a bathroom light £50 is generous. Total £180 ... rounded out to £200.
Take off the hundred quid being skimmed off the top by the letting agents as commission and HMRC as VAT and it doesn’t look so profitable for the electrician, particularly when the expenses of running a business are taken into account as well. @rogerk101 says around £200, after the letting agents commission and VAT have been deducted it’s around £240, so not that far adrift.
I have a rental, and my letting agent doesn't take any cut at all from the tradespeoples' invoices. In fact he prefers them not to go through his books at all because he wants to stay under the VAT threshold. As such, I wasn't even thinking of letting agents' commissions. Even my spark prefers me to buy the materials so that they don't go through his books, as he too wants to stay under the VAT threshold.
I saw that, but just how long does it take to snap a Wago box over a cable joint? A minute or maybe two. Wago boxes have gripper slots that you literally slide the cable into from the top, so you don't even need to remake the joint. You don't even need to drill the box or push punchouts out. Left cable in slot, right cable in slot, pop lid on top, done. That's why I gave it half an hour ... three minutes per box for 10 boxes; and I'd be surprised if there are any more that 10 boxes needed.
Easy for @rogerk101 as he can take off a socket, check all connections and conductor continuity to next point in the ring, put it all back together in only six minutes! Why are we even engaging with this debate on a job none of us has seen. For all we know it could be a right rats nest. The OP asked if the quote OK and we answered.
We're all coming at this with too little knowledge of the actual situation, and then seeing things from the perspective of our own experiences. When I first moved to the UK I was blissfully unaware that, as a degree qualified Electrical Engineer, I was not permitted to move my own CU. I needed it in a different place, so moved it myself. Needless to say, several of the cables needed extending, so I simply extended them. In my case I had the kitchen ceilings down, as I was in the middle of a major remodelling of the kitchen, so all the junctions were installed nicely out of sight behind the ceiling plasterboard. I assumed that that was where the junctions would be for the OP's cable extensions. The OP did say that the joints are currently covered in insulation tape, so I assumed they would not be on display like that, and they would be hidden somewhere accessible enough for them to be inspected, but not visible enough for the inhabitants to have to look at every day. If in his case they are visible, then I too would choose a big junction box mounted on a wall and readily accessible, so the JB with DIN rail connectors would probably be my choice too. As for the 10mm2 cable, I was fortunate that mine was long enough not to need any extending, so no joints. Fortunately in my DIY experience I've never needed to join 10mm2 cables in anything other than isolation switches or in the appliances they are feeding. Do aesthetic jonction boxes for 10mm2 cables exist?
Is the £340 for a full EICR plus remedial works? Or has the EICR been paid for already and the £340 is only for ther remedial works? If it's the former then it's a great quote. If it's the latter then you could probably save £100 by arranging your own contractor - if you want the hassle of that.
post a pic of the tapped joints to give us a better appreciation of the problem, to be honest some of the replies seen a truffle amateurish, could need loads of spares so "pop a few Wagos' on " could turn out to be a longer and more material needed job.
Speaking as a DIYer... I think what's pertinent is that the works quoted for seem to be genuine issues, suggesting that a proper inspection has taken place. We don't know the actual condition, but there is no mention, as is often the case, of "New consumer unit required" Who knows how long this will take? As a potential customer, the quote doesn't seem a bargain, but nor outrageous... Given what I've mentioned above it seems they are decent and honest, and I'd not bother looking for anyone else to do the work. Regards, Cando