UK Extremely detailed EICR resulting in £7000 remedial works quote

[ldngbc]

Good evening,

This pertains to a four-bedroom property that is vacant due to minor redecorating. As part of this we employed a sizeable electrical company who completely went to town with the report and came back with 18 C2s for a non-period property that was redone in 2012. Furthermore the quote to remedy the 18 C2s exceeds £7,000. If that's the price, the property will not be able to recoup that cost even with many months of rent and we may as well give up and sell it.

Once an EICR report has been completed, is it allowed to ask another electrician to do another EICR report? If this second opinion flags up, say, 6 C2s, would I be done for the other 12 that the first electrician "spotted"?

Amidst the quote are:

• £900 to replace two fire alarms. Apparently battery alarms are not sufficient; they must be wired in.
• £1600 to replace 20 "class 1 construction" downlight fittings, as the extraneous parts aren't earthed. Apparently plastic replacements won't pass.
• Up to £1000 to investigate loss of continuity in ground floor ring circuit. Apparently it may take a whole day to find where the continuity is lost.

We're at a loss and any comments by anyone who knows anything would be incredibly helpful!

Thank you so much.

 

[UNG]

Can you redact the the names and addresses on the EICR and post it here for review

I assume you have only listed the big cost items from the quote what does the remaining £3.5k buy you

How big is this property and how many sockets are fitted on the ground floor ring with £1000 to investigate the fault have they indicated what the repair might cost once they find the fault

 

[Baddegg]

Can you post up the report, omitting and personal details, estimates will vary massively from firm to firm, the report belongs to you so if you wanted to get another one done there is nothing stopping you...

 

[littlespark]

Although I don’t know London prices, but to me that is extortionate.
Get a second quote from another electrician, but if it was all done in 2012, there can’t be much wrong.

As for the faults listed....

you can get lithium battery powered smoke alarms for £80~ with a radio interlink (when one goes off they all go off) diy installation. If you don’t want mains powered. (Check this before renting out that it would be acceptable)

£80 per downlight seems steep. Sometimes the type of downlight is ok, but the wiring itself is wrong. (Eg, the installer didn’t connect the earth wire through to every light position.

A couple of hours to trace the fault. It’s just taking sockets off and finding the break, but the fix could take a lot more.

 

[Dustydazzler]

At £7000 I would expect a near full rewire and new consumer unit for about that price

 

[James]

Short answer, GET ANOTHER OPPINION

you dont need to use the same company that tested and inspected to do the repairs.

 

[mattg4321]

I’d probably be looking at getting another eicr done. Preferably by someone that comes recommended.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Even London rates of £600 a day , I can’t get to £7000 for the work you have been quoted

I could do 2 x mains smokes hard wired dedicated circuit £550
Replace 20 x DL £1200
Rewire up to 20 x sockets on the ground floor £2000

so my bill would only be £4000 absolute max

 

[ldngbc]

Thank you all so much for all these thoughts. I have reviewed the information more and it's actually £6000 for remedial works, as the £7000 includes £1000 for the EICR report itself. The day labour rate is £800 + VAT.

The ground floor is about 450 sq ft. I'm not entirely sure how many sockets there are. The property is small for having four bedrooms.

I have uploaded the screenshots for the items here. Please let me know if it's unreadable - it looks clear in the text editor but I don't know how it will come out. Thank you!

 

[i=p/u]

No1 knows the guys business expenses, just cause I £50 doesn't mean he would even look at it.

 

[SparkyChick]

The listing of 'old' and 'discoloured' items tells me everything I need to know about the agenda of the people doing that report. Assuming the test results are OK, the lack of RCD protection could most likely be remedied in a day by changing the consumer unit.

The fact that the lack of RCD protection features multiple times, I think supports my view.

Get a recommendation for a spark you trust from someone and have them take a look at the report and give you a quote to fix what actually needs fixing.

 

[ruston]

I’d probably be looking at getting another eicr done. Preferably by someone that comes recommended.

Especially after seeing that report.
Is that all of it?
Any chance of seeing the full report?

 

[ldngbc]

And this is the total quote, which totals £7332:

 

[littlespark]

Some list there.... pity they hadn’t proof read it beforehand. (Item 15, “up” rating??? That’ll be IP)

If the whole place was redone in 2012, there should be nothing wrong with the switches and sockets unless they’re physically damaged, which he has picked up in a couple times. “Discoloured” isn’t really under the BS7671 remit.

 

[ldngbc]

Especially after seeing that report.
Is that all of it?

Yes, that is all the items. There are other pages but these are all the C2/C3 listings. There are no C1s of course.

 

[Robson689]

And this is the total quote, which totals £7332:

View attachment 65461

I wouldn't give them another penny.

That price is ridiculous.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Blooming heck

£2,5K for a new consumer unit is very steep

round my was I offer rcbo board upgrades for about a grand , grand and a half If need new bonding installed

i cant see how they got to £2,5k

 

[SparkyChick]

I know I'm not alone, but I've done quite a bit of fault finding and none of it has come anywhere close to taking one day to find what could be a single fault. With proper testing techniques they should be able to get close to the fault on that ring circuit within an hour, two tops. I would hope to have it down to a single accessory or cable segment within a couple of hours.

Those prices are ridiculous.

 

[MrPupsi]

£1000 for an EICR ?
I did a large 5 bedroom 3-storey house the other day for £300. Was this initial price agreed before hand?
I’m london based and could never get away with charging that much or have the conscience to do so.

As everyone else has mentioned, a couple hours labour to initially fault find and possibly fix the ring would be enough.

As far as I know, unless it’s a HMO, mains wired detection is optional, not mandatory.
Detection in general is optional. Ask the company to show you what reg number requires you to have hard wired detectors.

Then regarding the downlights, more than likely the CPCs have been cut back and could possibly be reconnected, otherwise class 2 fittings are more than adequate.
I think £40 per spot supplied and fitted is more reasonable.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Give Delroy a bell for a quote

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