Any help would be appreciated

[Nicholas Booth]

Hi

First post as someone feeling a little lost in how I go here..

Long story, hopefully made short. I sort out an electrician to perform a distribution board replacement, got a number of quotes and the one I chose, the middle price was the only one to mention the testing of all sockets etc afterwards. I got him (and the other quotes) from Checkatrade. Generally good feedback, just one person saying the job was too big for him. Checked them and all registered with Elecsa...was now happy and got him to do the work.
During the work he found a potential Neutral Earth fault that caused the new RCD to trip, and as this was potential a larger job to find than he quoted, agreed he would come back a few weeks later to find and cure the fault. He came back, found that there was one cable that went into the loft he couldn't find but expected was disconnected (numerous other cables have been found in my house like this so suspected nothing) he islolated the cable and showed me the ring main all connected and working. I am not a stupid person so understood the ring main would have two lives, neutrals and earths etc.
So all good....then i plugged my dish washer in and the RCD popped...this was a few days later and couldn't get the RCD to power up with the dish washer plugged in. Dishwasher checked, all ok and was plugged into a radial circuit in the garage on a garage consumer unit, no problems at all.
on having a different electrician check this out, the results were scary>
Firstly, the 'Loose' cable was in fact one of the ends of the ring main and in effect was still live
2. he had turned my ring main into a radial circuit running on 2.5mm T&E on a 30amp fuse so massively overloaded
3. the other live going out of the fuse was in fact a radial circuit that powered my Utility room plugs so should have been on a separate fuse I guess
4. Neutral earth fault was there and half a day later found a very badly wired plug socket with earth touching the neutral


Anyway, issues fixed, spoke to Checkatrade who advise me that the Electricians account was deactivated now a few weeks ago so nothing they could do...great advise
Spoke to Elecsa, who told me that the electrician was suspended and shouldn't have been on their web site and were now in the process of having them removed.
The electrician as suspected will not answer my calls or texts, am guessing building control will not have been advised and the 'promised' certification will never come as he isn't registered.
The Electrician that fixed the issues no longer does this sort of work and helped fix the issues or would have got him to get it signed off.

Other than getting another Electrician to come and check it out at more costs to me, what other options do I have? Do I have any form of case against Elecsa as the basic comments on every web site say speak with these people to make sure you are getting a registered and competent Electrician...right now that is a complete mockery of the truth.

All comments are welcome as I feel pretty stupid right now

Nick

 

[Pete999]

Fell for you mate, thats the trouble with these scam merchants, I can't really help, hope you get something sorted, maybe try one of the big companies, at least they would have a QS to check the work, although I do wonder sometimes, sorry to be nagative, I'm havin a bad day, maybe one of the other Guys/Gals can help you out

 

[wozz]

If you have it sorted move on its not worth trying to go after people who dont care. Although he may have introduced problems it doesnt sound like anything you dont see frequently when testing properties and it rarely causes a problem although its clearly not right.

You used a good method that didnt work this time dont be put off it sounds like you did things right on the face of it. out of interest you know what quals he had on his profile?

As for the QS system suggested above, its the worst possible thing for this trade to have.

 

[Kate]

only thing you can really do is keep on at Elecsa. the electrician was advertised on their website at the time, you hired him on this information.

Other than this...i am not sure. I believe Elecsa should have details on the electricians insurance. May need claiming on that. I have to give my insurance details to my scheme provider

I am so sorry this has happened to you

 

[Pete999]

If you have it sorted move on its not worth trying to go after people who dont care. Although he may have introduced problems it doesnt sound like anything you dont see frequently when testing properties and it rarely causes a problem although its clearly not right.

You used a good method that didnt work this time dont be put off it sounds like you did things right on the face of it. out of interest you know what quals he had on his profile?

As for the QS system suggested above, its the worst possible thing for this trade to have.

I do know it's a crap idea to have QSs but unfortunately thats what we have to live with, I do wholeheartedly agree with you on this, and I wasn't condoning it in any way so there

 

[Octopus]

Contact trading standards?

And tell all your friends and associates to avoid the "sparky" you used.

Out of interest is he still advertising and using the Checkatrade/Elecsa names?

 

[Kate]

If you have it sorted move on its not worth trying to go after people who dont care. Although he may have introduced problems it doesnt sound like anything you dont see frequently when testing properties and it rarely causes a problem although its clearly not right.

You used a good method that didnt work this time dont be put off it sounds like you did things right on the face of it. out of interest you know what quals he had on his profile?

As for the QS system suggested above, its the worst possible thing for this trade to have.

they need a test cert and it needs notifying still...

 

[Nicholas Booth]

We do need the certs, but have planned a kitchen rework in the next couple of years and planned to have the power for the Kitchen separated from the main ring. I guess this would require a full test of both the ring and the new kitchen ring so could it wait until then to save wasting money?

His certs were 17th Edition, Part P, and Elecsa registered. Am guessing some or most may not be true. I have done some googling and found a picture of them getting a certificate at SummitSkills in 2012, only wish I had searched earlier but thought I had checked enough.

As for why and if I should forget and move on, have no problem other than in my case I was lucky and the issue rectified, but if I had not then pulling 30amps on cable rated at max 26 amps could have caused a fire and that put my family at risk. That not only scares me but concerns me that he could be doing this to other people as well who may or may not be as lucky. The fact that they are suspended from Alecsa now also suggest something more is to hand which they are not admitting. I feel they should be supporting me as they have a householders statement of commitment that i quote below

ELECSA operates competent person schemes on behalf of government to ensure that the contractors you employ are technically competent to carry the work you want. We assess contractors across the building services sector including electrical (Part P), heating & hot water, solid fuel and oil.

It makes it a mockery when they don't keep their records up to date for you to use and search for valid electricians.

Nick

 

[wozz]

with regard to the over load yes its wrong but if you put 30a through a 2.5 it doesnt burst into flames. Its very common to see that sort of thing if you live in a road with other houses in it i bet there will be others in the road just the same. wrong to introduce it but not uncommon to see.

the part p course and 17th edition take a grand total of 6 days to complete, did u see a nvq which would indicate (hopefully) a period of training and supervision.

and yes Part P is crap.

 

[trev]

If this reptile has been suspended from Elecsa membership what was he doing still on their list of "competent" people?
Nicholas, are all the problems now rectified? If not, post up your rough location and one of us may be able to help you out.

 

[telectrix]

mighght be worth your while to wait till the kitchen job comes off, then get the electrician who does it to do an EICR ( condition report ) on the whole installation. come back on the forum then and see if any members ( suitably qualified) are in your area.

 

[Nicholas Booth]

If this reptile has been suspended from Elecsa membership what was he doing still on their list of "competent" people?
Nicholas, are all the problems now rectified? If not, post up your rough location and one of us may be able to help you out.

Many thanks for this help. The work has been sorted now, Elecsa say they have suspended the account but had failed to remove them from their list. It is something I am pursuing but they have made their intentions clear in that if they are not an active member they cannot regulate the person. To me as a householder though they have shown that the pursuit of a fully qualified Electrician becomes a fools errand if this can happen. This is no dis-respect to anyone qualified or not here by the way, just when you have to use the approved contractor route and it is followed in the way they suggest, and when it goes wrong they just reply with not their problem..
I will come on here before looking around in the future though, may save a lot of extra hassle in the long run

Am off to trading standards now, not sure they will do anything but feel I have to say something.

Nick

 

[Octopus]

Many thanks for this help. The work has been sorted now, Elecsa say they have suspended the account but had failed to remove them from their list. It is something I am pursuing but they have made their intentions clear in that if they are not an active member they cannot regulate the person. To me as a householder though they have shown that the pursuit of a fully qualified Electrician becomes a fools errand if this can happen. This is no dis-respect to anyone qualified or not here by the way, just when you have to use the approved contractor route and it is followed in the way they suggest, and when it goes wrong they just reply with not their problem..
I will come on here before looking around in the future though, may save a lot of extra hassle in the long run

Am off to trading standards now, not sure they will do anything but feel I have to say something.

Nick

It may be worth writing to the MP Clive Betts too as he is head of a committee looking at this stuff at the moment.

 

[telectrix]

cc emma clancy.