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Hettie

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Please can you give me some advice on my property (sorry for the long post and typo’s!), I had a large extension built this meant I had a new additional consumer box, new wiring, plugs, sockets etc. The builder did all the electrics himself, he was not qualified, he got a registered NAPTI engineer to give an electrical installation condition report at the end. There were problems with the electrics afterwards so I got another company to recheck all the electrics, they failed the original electrical installation condition report for numerous reasons. I cannot get hold of the NAPTI engineer, by phone or email or at all. NAPTI say they will not help me as I paid the builder and not the NAPTI engineer direct therefore they will not look into the engineer or the issue (this is in NAPTI’s terms and conditions) . The council accepted the condition report and passed building control on the house. They didn’t ask for an installation certificate. The builder will not come back and put anything right, he was paid in full when the council passed the property off. The NAPTI engineer has disappeared and I am now left with a quote for £7,000 to redo all the electrics in order to get an installation certificate. I have been told by several people that the council should have asked for an installation report but they didn’t and have said they don’t need to as they say - We accept electrical installation condition reports from NAPIT in lieu of a Part P installation certificate. Normally, we would arrange this with our designated partner company, but your contractors arranged it themselves -

The builder did not let them know before starting that he was doing the work himself and the council did not check his work at any point.

I have checked the government Building Regs 2010 / Electrical safety – dwellings and it does say – please see the attachment it says they can accept just an EICR no mention of a EIR.



I am not getting anywhere with the council, I cant tell if they should have asked for an installation certificate and I need to sell the house but cant without this certificate. It is all a mess and I just don’t know what to do I need someone to tell me whether the council have made an error. Even the council won’t let me know what they require at the end of a build, they just said an electrical certificate, which doesn’t help.

Building Control incorrect sign off Screenshot 2020-11-24 at 22.11.59 - EletriciansForums.net
 
You would be better off contacting these people: https://www.cicair.org.uk/ "As the body designated by the Secretary of State in England and Welsh Ministers in Wales, CICAIR Ltd maintains and operates the Construction Industry Council Approved Inspectors Register (CICAIR)."
 
The council it seems were provided with an EICR by a NAPIT (NAPTI?) registered CP and would have no reason to doubt its validity or check the quality of work. And that certificate met their requirements.
There is a requirement in law for electrical work in dwellings to be carried out in accordance with Bs7671 under part P. Presumably a further inspection has taken place in order for a quote of £7000 for remedials, this quote should list in detail all non compliances with the original work and you should use this to sue the builder.
I cannot see any other option open to you.
 
Can you post a copy of the report that has all the failure points?
Remove any personal details.
7k seems like a huge amount for remedial work but it could be a true cost if it is a large or complex installation
 
There’s no reason why the house can’t be sold with an eicr as long as your open with the buyers solicitor. The solicitor will go round in circles insisting an eic is required. In practice only an original installer can give this. If an original installer ‘died’ half way through an install and another electrician took over he could only give an eicr not an eic. An eicr can/should be accepted by a solicitor, but they don’t really know that until it’s proved to them.
7k sounds too much, unless the extension is sizable.
Get another electrician to do a full eicr to tell you how good/bad the work really is.
 
I have said this a thousand times to customers having work done, and not knowing of part p, I blame the previous goverment not publicly not telling the general peaple what is required like advertising it, but they keeped it quite
about it, just word and mouth. and has for the third party testing its working is it on this post. No wonder the other scams won't do it. Has for the Napit tester Shirley should not have done it kowing it had failed. but to him money in his back pocket.
 
You can purchase an indemnity insurance for the electrics, ask you conveyancer about it. As to 7K, is this a fifty roomed mansion you are selling? Can we see the report that says 7K of work needs doing, I don't beleive it. I think you are getting taken for a ride by some unscrupulous villains. I could rewire the whole house for that price. It can't be that bad...can it???? What sort of house is it? I think trading standards as a point of call here.
 
My guess is that the £7k probably includes redec costs and things like that. As hard as it sounds, I think your best bet might be to sue - which you can do online for not a lot of £'s - and, essentially, you need to list ALL three - council, builder, and this muppet NAPIT sparks - as co-defendants, joint and several liability. All of a sudden things will start to happen very quickly and a Judge will have to make sense of it and decide who is in the wrong.
 
I wouldn't bother trying to sue the Council, it's unlikely you'll win and it's certain that you won't get the full £7k remedial cost from them if you did win.

In fact I wouldn't bother sueing anyone at all for the reasons below;

Under normal circumstances it would take months or even years to pass through the courts.
At the moment there is a massive backlog and time delay for court time due to Covid.

If you won you may only get part payment for the remedial work and not costs, which could be more than the £7k.
If you loose you'll end up paying everyone elses costs and still have to pay for the remedials.

As you are intending selling, all of the above would delay the sale.
Whether you won or lost it may make potential buyers wonder what else could be wrong with the extension, so could put them off.

Although a lot of money £7k in relation to the value of a house is fairly small.
I'd get several more quotes and try and get the £7k down, as others have said it seems very high.

Indemnity insurance is to cover for future unknown claims by others, you can't use it to cover for a known issue.
And the Indemnity is in the name of the buyer to protect them, though paid for by the seller, it doesn't stop them coming back and sueing you the seller in the future if they found out you knew there was an issue with the wiring.

The best you could do is try a small claims court case against the builder after the remedial work has been done.
 
@Hettie You mention it will 'cost £7K to redo the electrics and get and Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC)'. Of course it would be best to have this EIC but seeing as though the building authority have already signed it off you do not need it as your work has been signed off.

In order to comment on the £7K cost for the remedial work to make your electrics safe we would need to see a copy of the report with the electricians details blanked out. £7k is about the amount it would cost to completely rewire a house in London, is this what is needed? I would also get another report done by a completely different electrician as our 'judgements' seem very different from electrician to electrician, but first of all post the report on here. In fact post both reports!

If indeed you do need £7K to make the work safe then this is a significant amount and I would be looking to take the builder through the small claims court if he continues to ignore you. First of all though get lots of ammunition, i.e 2 further EICR's showing the work is dangerous.

Really try to talk to him first though! Perhaps some sort of compromise.
 
dont think £7k comes within small claims. last i heard small claims were up to £1k.
 
This is indeed a problem.

The council have signed it off as complete and safe.
The electrics have now been deemed unsafe.

Therefor something has been done since the works were completed to make a safe installation unsafe :( which is untrue

as mentioned earlier, the sale price on a safe, compliant house could well outweigh the cost of getting it fixed, but it is depressing to know cowboys and bodgers can get away with this.

have you tried BBC Rogue Traders? ;)
 
I wouldn't bother trying to sue the Council, it's unlikely you'll win and it's certain that you won't get the full £7k remedial cost from them if you did win.

In fact I wouldn't bother sueing anyone at all for the reasons below;

Under normal circumstances it would take months or even years to pass through the courts.
At the moment there is a massive backlog and time delay for court time due to Covid.

If you won you may only get part payment for the remedial work and not costs, which could be more than the £7k.
If you loose you'll end up paying everyone elses costs and still have to pay for the remedials.

As you are intending selling, all of the above would delay the sale.
Whether you won or lost it may make potential buyers wonder what else could be wrong with the extension, so could put them off.

Although a lot of money £7k in relation to the value of a house is fairly small.
I'd get several more quotes and try and get the £7k down, as others have said it seems very high.

Indemnity insurance is to cover for future unknown claims by others, you can't use it to cover for a known issue.
And the Indemnity is in the name of the buyer to protect them, though paid for by the seller, it doesn't stop them coming back and sueing you the seller in the future if they found out you knew there was an issue with the wiring.

The best you could do is try a small claims court case against the builder after the remedial work has been done.
And the builder says "Paid that inspector in good faith...."

There's a reason I said to list all three parties as joint and several:
1) Council solicitors will do most of the legwork and expense in investigation in order to establish liability (hoping it isn't theirs);
2) You can't get into a situation where all three blame the other, because;
3) If a Judge can't make up their mind, but, cannot deny that the applicant has a valid claim, they can make all three liable to cough up for damages and costs. This means that.....
4) If builder and sparky suddenly decide to become conveniently bankrupt then the Council (who can't) has to stump up the lot.

And don't forget that when proven the builder's and spark's insurance will have to cough up, irrespective of if they wind up.
 
Indemnity insurance only covers a property owner against legal action by a LBC etc, to correct any non compliant works, not the cost works to make things compliant.

As the LBC seem to be aware of the issue, I doubt very much any insurance company would take on the risk.

As regards certification, I think it varies from council to council. I‘m carrying out some notifiable electrical works on my own property. I’m no longer in a Scheme, but have the necessary qualifications. I asked my LBC, and they said an EICR carried out by a Scheme registered company would suffice.
 

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