Electrician refusing to sign off own work because of tripping RCD

[shockin]

Hi, an NICEIC registered electrician is refusing to sign off his own work because I told him about an RCD intermittently tripping. He says he's willing to come out and test the wiring but if the tripping wasn't caused by him (e.g. builder trapped a wire somewhere, faulty oven or moisture ingress) then he will charge me for inconveniencing him. Is he right to demand this?

 

[Pete999]

yes

 

[Darkwood]

To be honest (and we only have your version here) he sounds like his approach with you isn't very professional.

What did his work entail, is the tripping rcd effecting multiple or a single circuit and is this due to a board change? If this was a board change do you have existing electrics in that board and if so did he test the circuits prior to changing the board?

 

[Lister1987]

What there anyone in after him? It may be that he did the work, tested out fine (1st fix) and upon going to undertake 2nd fix notices an issue that wasn't there when he left, possibily caused by any tradesman after him, before 2nd fix.

 

[HappyHippyDad]

I would sign off all the work I did, as I would have tested it and all tests would be fine.
If you then have a tripping RCD I would offer to return to investigate and fix this. If it was tripping due to something I had done, I would not charge you. If it was not related to my work you would be charged. I would make this clear to you before doing the work

 

[Intoelectrics]

As Darkwood says, to make a fair judgement we need the whole story. An objective one, not just your own perspective. It could be that the electrician is being unreasonable, on the other hand it could be that the fault was created by other influences that do not come under his responsibility.

Have you given him the opportunity to find out the cause and accepted that if it is proved to be caused by something out of his control, he is well within in his rights to charge for the extra time/rectification?

 

[Rockingit]

My take is that a) the electrician should already have tested all the work done regardless of whether or not the actual certs have yet to be generated so therefore b) if there's now some new fault after additional work by third parties then that electrician would be aware of it. So, two choices - either electrician back-dates to when the original work was OK (not recommended) and then has to d) come back out to do a fault find / EICR / whatever, or e) does as the OP suggests he has and doesn't issue paperwork until the fault is fixed. Either way there's a chance someone's going to be getting an additional bill.

 

[MJPD29]

He is well within his rights to charge from the information we know of. If however it is something caused by him he should be repairing for free.

 

[stevethesparks]

How long ago did he install the CU. I follow up with a cert on the same day.

 

[Soi disant]

The possible charging to investigate and fix a problem created by someone else seems perfectly reasonable.

Refusing to confirm that the previous work you'd done complied with the Wiring Regulations less so.