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beesley121

Hi guys,

Just after some advice please

A family member has recently rented out a house. Now I'm gas safe registered and do completed a landlord cert for her.

Now I've been reading to see if she requires a landlord cert for the electrics in the house, but it doesn't seem you guys do one and it isn't legally required, however, I have read that should the electrics cause harm to a Tennant, she can be prosecuted!! To overcome this, it seems she can have a periodic inspection.

Can you tell me if what I have read is correct? And how much a periodic inspection would cost say on a 3 bedroom terraced house on average?
 
You are correct in that there is no specific rule that says "a landlord must have an inspection done".
A landlord is however under a duty of care to keep the electrical system in safe working order, a way of proving this is by a periodic inspection. And yes, if there was an electrical accident involving injury, questions would be asked about what she had done to ensure her tennants' safety.

Expect to pay around £175. Could be a bit less, could be a bit more.
 
Thank for the replys,

My next question is if I arrange for someone to come a do a periodic inspection for say £175, what's to say they don't say She needs say a new consumer unit and them whack a hefty price on to fit it!! If She says I don't want to pay their price for the new unit, and would like to price it elsewhere, would she still be expected to pay the £175 for a certificate with fail on??

I hope I'm making sense but I kinda saying would it be similar to say a car MOT. Should it fail, I would be able to get the errors fixed by another garage and the MOT garage would then retest and issue a pass cert say 7 days later
 
Thank for the replys,

My next question is if I arrange for someone to come a do a periodic inspection for say £175, what's to say they don't say She needs say a new consumer unit and them whack a hefty price on to fit it!! If She says I don't want to pay their price for the new unit, and would like to price it elsewhere, would she still be expected to pay the £175 for a certificate with fail on??

I hope I'm making sense but I kinda saying would it be similar to say a car MOT. Should it fail, I would be able to get the errors fixed by another garage and the MOT would then restarts and issue a pass cert say 7 days later
theres such a thing as `duty of care` to a customer....this includes not generating unneccesary works...
or faking non-conformances....
just as in the same way recommendations can be made...
1s n 2s though would again be recommendations for remedial...but strongly advised
the bottom line here is you cant make someone have works carried out unless they authorise it....
you can only give an account of the install as you find it....
 
The price for an EICR is usually just that. If it's small stuff, it will usually get done there and then...and especially if it's issues that might present a danger. If there are a lot of issues that constitute a fail, then any remedial work will be extra.

Some sparks will do nothing but test and report. Myself I wouldn't quibble about the odd bit of sleeving or relpacing a few cracked accessories.

About fuse board changes....the test is to see that the installation conformed to the regs AT THE TIME IT WAS INSTALLED and is safe for continued use. Don't let anyone tell you that the board has to be swapped to bring it up to current regs.
 
Well.... before I do a EICR I meet the client and have a look around - this may identify some obvious "issues" but when you take your car to the garage for its MOT you never know what to expect or pay!
 
Thank for the replys,

My next question is if I arrange for someone to come a do a periodic inspection for say £175, what's to say they don't say She needs say a new consumer unit and them whack a hefty price on to fit it!! If She says I don't want to pay their price for the new unit, and would like to price it elsewhere, would she still be expected to pay the £175 for a certificate with fail on??

I hope I'm making sense but I kinda saying would it be similar to say a car MOT. Should it fail, I would be able to get the errors fixed by another garage and the MOT garage would then retest and issue a pass cert say 7 days later
How would you deal with it, say you issued a fail cert on a boiler because flue was to close to an opening window or door or boiler was not up to spec, would you come back 7 days later after work had been carried out and issue a pass cert FOC, bearing in mind you had travelled say 10 miles to job (and 10 back) that's 40 miles in all, spent an hour or so with client on 1st visit and another hour or so on 2nd visit checking someone else's work, getting out your expensive test equipment sniffer etc. just interested that's all.
 
beesley. post your location. probably a forum member close to you will do you an EICR without ripping off trying to make up work that's not necessary
 
Electrician has been out today. He said everything fine apart from fuse box. He's not sure if its allowed or not and is going away to find out the answer

Do any of you guys know wether this type if consumer unit is allowed it not
 
Have you been told that the premises is satisfactory ? I take it that a periodic inspection was carried out ? As that quote does not ring true IMO !
 
Electrician has been out today. He said everything fine apart from fuse box. He's not sure if its allowed or not and is going away to find out the answer

Do any of you guys know wether this type if consumer unit is allowed it not
eh?...if whats allowed or not..
when was it installed?
are barriers/enclosures intact & IP ratings good?
do the finals meet disconnection times?
has the right choice & setting of OPDs been selected?
functional....does it work OK?
if yes to all the above then tell this little scroat where to go

going to check of its allowed or not indeed....
 
eh?...if whats allowed or not..
when was it installed?
are barriers/enclosures intact & IP ratings good?
do the finals meet disconnection times?
has the right choice & setting of OPDs been selected?
functional....does it work OK?
if yes to all the above then tell this little scroat where to go

going to check of its allowed or not indeed....

Thankyou for your advice, it's good to see that there are genuine people still about.

I'm not trying to cut corners here, just trying to save a family member the expense of un-nesscersary work.

He said the breakers are RCCB's with no overload protection. I stated that if it was installed to the regs at the time of installation, there should be no need to change the cu unless it was faulty.

He said he was just unsure of the overload side of things and said he might be able to put something before the cu to make it better but would have to look into it. He said worst case is a new CU and would charge me £100 for materials and labour as he had already done the testing side of things

What do you think?
 
Thankyou for your advice, it's good to see that there are genuine people still about.

I'm not trying to cut corners here, just trying to save a family member the expense of un-nesscersary work.

He said the breakers are RCCB's with no overload protection. I stated that if it was installed to the regs at the time of installation, there should be no need to change the cu unless it was faulty.

He said he was just unsure of the overload side of things and said he might be able to put something before the cu to make it better but would have to look into it. He said worst case is a new CU and would charge me £100 for materials and labour as he had already done the testing side of things

What do you think?
lets have another pic of that please....with the cover off....
then we can see whats what....
 
just had a close look at the screen....and what you have there appears to be some RCBOs....
then some breakers...
this suggests 16th ed...
as long as it passes all tests....then it looks good for continued service...
but another pic with the lid off it would be useful....
and if they are RCBOs...and he`s been going on about no overload protection...then i`m afraid he`s been talking out of his botty hole at you mate....
 
Last edited:
Thankyou for your advice, it's good to see that there are genuine people still about.

I'm not trying to cut corners here, just trying to save a family member the expense of un-nesscersary work.

He said the breakers are RCCB's with no overload protection. I stated that if it was installed to the regs at the time of installation, there should be no need to change the cu unless it was faulty.

He said he was just unsure of the overload side of things and said he might be able to put something before the cu to make it better but would have to look into it. He said worst case is a new CU and would charge me £100 for materials and labour as he had already done the testing side of things

What do you think?

Looking at the picture the devices are BS4293. I understand these devices offer both residual current protection and overcurrent protection (I stand to be corrected if anyone knows better). As Glennspark said they are RCBOs, a combined device. As long as they test ok on an RCD test and are in good functional order, they can stay.

A board change for £100 ?? He will be throwing it at the wall for that price, and it will be a low quality board as well. I wouldn't trust a board change priced as low as that. People price themselves on what they are worth. He clearly doesn't value himself or his time.

If you are still unsure about anything, you can post test sheets and results on here for people to give you opinions.
 
Electrician has been out today. He said everything fine apart from fuse box. He's not sure if its allowed or not and is going away to find out the answer

Do any of you guys know wether this type if consumer unit is allowed it not

If the electrician doesn't know if a certain type of consumer unit complies or not he's not much of an electrician. Get yourself a spark that knows what he's doing.
 

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