UK Trouble free EICRs on <20 year old properties - do they exist?

[Dartlec]

Slightly tongue in cheek title, but with all of the recent EICRs I've done, the new build flats built between 10-20 years old seem to cause the most issue for me.

Most of them have ended up satisfactory (with numerous C3s), but rarely without some adjustment or remedial work (I'm doing them for the landlords directly so I can charge all in one).

Is that general experience and proof of how fast and loose flat builders were with the regulations at that time (possibly still are), or am I just in a bad area.... (NW Kent/SE London)

The consumer units are usually either 1 RCD for everything, or RCD on socket only, they are rarely fully labelled, or labelled incorrectly. The cables are often in a mess behind the cavity so that it's hard to identify earths to lives - or they have sleeved earths together so it's a pain to ring test.

I have NEVER seen an EIC for any of the properties, though they may exist somewhere in the system I guess. Certainly none of the boards have an inspection date/retest sticker on them and the landlords have never been provided with one, even when they bought the property new.

My most recent one uncovered a heated towel rail that had been reverse wired at the FCU outside the bathroom - It was at least RCD protected since it was on the socket circuit, but that had been that way since the flat was built 15 years ago. If I'd not done R1R2 testing at every point, it wouldn't have been picked up and might not have been until it was replaced.

Being new properties they often have metal studwork too (without RCD protection on the lighting) - and they often have whatever board/mcb combination they could get a sweet deal on at the time, which sometimes means they are no longer available for replacements.

I've found that older properties are often simpler and quicker to do - if only because there are fewer circuits, and were generally done by someone competent (ignoring DIY home owners). It's been a long while since I've seen any VIR or had to fail cabling for being too old to pass IR testing.

Anyone had to do an EICR on a 5 year old property yet? would be interesting to see if they've improved...

 

[Pete999]

Slightly tongue in cheek title, but with all of the recent EICRs I've done, the new build flats built between 10-20 years old seem to cause the most issue for me.

Most of them have ended up satisfactory (with numerous C3s), but rarely without some adjustment or remedial work (I'm doing them for the landlords directly so I can charge all in one).

Is that general experience and proof of how fast and loose flat builders were with the regulations at that time (possibly still are), or am I just in a bad area.... (NW Kent/SE London)

The consumer units are usually either 1 RCD for everything, or RCD on socket only, they are rarely fully labelled, or labelled incorrectly. The cables are often in a mess behind the cavity so that it's hard to identify earths to lives - or they have sleeved earths together so it's a pain to ring test.

I have NEVER seen an EIC for any of the properties, though they may exist somewhere in the system I guess. Certainly none of the boards have an inspection date/retest sticker on them and the landlords have never been provided with one, even when they bought the property new.

My most recent one uncovered a heated towel rail that had been reverse wired at the FCU outside the bathroom - It was at least RCD protected since it was on the socket circuit, but that had been that way since the flat was built 15 years ago. If I'd not done R1R2 testing at every point, it wouldn't have been picked up and might not have been until it was replaced.

Being new properties they often have metal studwork too (without RCD protection on the lighting) - and they often have whatever board/mcb combination they could get a sweet deal on at the time, which sometimes means they are no longer available for replacements.

I've found that older properties are often simpler and quicker to do - if only because there are fewer circuits, and were generally done by someone competent (ignoring DIY home owners). It's been a long while since I've seen any VIR or had to fail cabling for being too old to pass IR testing.

Anyone had to do an EICR on a 5 year old property yet? would be interesting to see if they've improved...

Depends on what the customer will pay, too many drive byes, or what sort of result do you require merchants about these days, some will sign their life away for a few quid, and don't tell me it doesn't happen please, you can't be that naïve.

 

[SJD]

I've got a 5 year old one to do next week, smart 5 bed.

I've already been to this property and the one next door (same build date) with various misc. issues. The last visit was a group of lights stopped working because overtightened connections at the switches were breaking the conductors. The prior visit to that was due to water leak damage, the plumbing apparently is not that great either.

 

[Strima]

Anyone had to do an EICR on a 5 year old property yet?

Not an EICR but a property just over five years old, fitting and additional socket spur onto an RFC and found a discontinuous line conductor and loose connections one one socket-outlet. Original Schneider kit so not cheap stuff.

 

[davesparks]

It's been a long while since I've seen any VIR or had to fail cabling for being too old to pass IR testing.

What do you mean by a cable being too old to pass IR testing?
A cable can be well over 50 years old and pass an IR test just fine.

 

[Dartlec]

I've got a 5 year old one to do next week, smart 5 bed.

I've already been to this property and the one next door (same build date) with various misc. issues. The last visit was a group of lights stopped working because overtightened connections at the switches were breaking the conductors. The prior visit to that was due to water leak damage, the plumbing apparently is not that great either.

Sounds like a real gem! I was called to a new build years ago where the MCB had obviously never been tightened, so the lights flashed if you pressed on the front of the CU.

Bet the NHBC didn't cover any of the costs either
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What do you mean by a cable being too old to pass IR testing?
A cable can be well over 50 years old and pass an IR test just fine.

When I rewired my father's house in 2006ish it still had some fabric covered lighting cables from 1938, run in steel conduit. The insulation was fine inside the conduit but had rotted away at the switches and lights.

Fortunately not seen that since, but that was my point really - just that cabling doesn't (often) degrade to the point of failing, so an older installation that hasn't been fiddled with can be easier to EICR than a more recent flat...
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Not an EICR but a property just over five years old, fitting and additional socket spur onto an RFC and found a discontinuous line conductor and loose connections one one socket-outlet. Original Schneider kit so not cheap stuff.

The few expensive houses I've been into have shocking installations really when you look behind the scenes - none of the money seems to go into quality workmanship

 

[Dustydazzler]

New builds are rarely tested in my experience, so the Eicr carried out 9 or 10 years later will be the Very first tests ever carried out.
So only at this stage faults get picked up like broken rings and missing earths etc

 

[magnoliafan89]

We had a new development built and all the flats and houses were wired by Clarkson Evans back in 2016. Last year a tensnt moved out so I went in when it was empty to test before we moved a new tenant in. A few days later I had to test another property and same again.
Installation cert said it had 25mm tails and 16mm earth. More like 16mm T+E ran with a 10mm.
Back in the meter cupboard at the kmf for both properties the 10 and 6 couldn't fit in the terminal together so the 10mm was literally just resting against the block.
Inside the consumer unit all the cables came in 2 big square holes cut into the back, no protection against mechanical damage or abrasions and a big chunk of the plasterboard missing behind so not even fire rated.
That was just two flats. There was 2 big blocks and over a hundred houses they've done.

These quick new builds in my opinion are absolute gash