Certification Advice Please

[BeauJoel]

Hi everybody, am hoping some of you reading this could provide a bit of guidance on my situation below:

I employed a reputable registered local electrical installation company to install a complete rewire, incl CU in a house I was renovating. This was back in March 2009.
Now I should have been more up to speed with things but I never received an electrical installation certificate and never chased the company for one.

I am now selling the property and solicitors have requested certification. I called the electrical company to explain, they checked their records and for one reason or another, stated that they didnt have any certification they can send me but would send a guy round to carry out a periodic inspection. This they did, for which I was expecting them to do for free as I wouldve expected that a certificate would be part and parcel of the original installation & fee.

A couple of days later i received an invoice from the company for the periodic inspection. I phoned them feeling a bit disgruntled.
My first question was that surely when they installed the electrics they would've tested etc and produced a certificate?

They said they did but because I was late on paying the original final invoice they withheld the certificate. I will hold my hand up and admit that i am at fault for the delay in payment. (6 weeks) it wasnt intentional and I really cant remember why it took me so long. For this i apologised but regardless, surely the certificate shouldve been issued/provided once payment received?

I have contacted the ECA who looked at records and confirmed that the works were notified, they said they can print off and provide me with a buidling regs cert, free of charge, which should acceptable by the solicitor for conveyancing purposes.

This aside, can someone please advise on what my legal position would be in expecting the elctrician to provide a cert as part of the original fee/works?

Hope you all havent lost the will to live, reading this!

many thanks in advance

 

[telectrix]

once you had paid them, they have no reason to withold the installation certificate.

 

[BeauJoel]

Thanks telectrix..... that was my original thought which is why i am refusing to pay the £60 they are asking for the periodic but they say unless i pay they wont provide the periodic inspection cert.
Is it worth contacting any of the 'bodies' i.e ECA, NICEIC to inform them?, if so, which one?
I dont want to get embroiled in a slanging, he did this/that the other match but i just want what i rightfully originally paid for

 

[telectrix]

for the sake of £60, i would pay them as long as they give you a copy of the original cert. as well.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

In order for the original work to comply with BS7671, appropriate certification must be provided.
If the orinal company withold that certification, then one the work is not completed, and two it does not comply with the Regulations.
Different schemes and different insurance companies have different rules.
However they all require copies of certification to be kept for however many years.
I doubt very much that any would require the information to be kept for less than 5 years, I would imagine that most stipulate 10 years.
I would contact the scheme this company is registered with and make a complaint.
No I wouldn't pay the £60, you've already payed for the original EIC, why should you pay for something else that you don't require?

 

[Octopus]

The copy that the ECA are sending you should be sufficient for the solicitors.

 

[bigbaddave]

Depends on what you have said to them, If you have said you need a certificate in order to sell your property and they came round to retest then they have provided a service in which you have to pay for

If you have been clear from the outset then there would be no need to gain entry to the property it would just be a case of issueing a copy of the cert that they should have a copy of

Are they with a Scheme, Eg NICEIC etc?