URGENT: Help needed please

[noesis]

Hi

I am buying a house and asked an electrician to do a visual inspection. He said the following:

• Carry out alterations to electrical installation after electrical safety inspection. £830After inspection to the above property it was noted that dangerous practice had been carried out to the electrical supply comprising of the old consumer unit located at the kitchen entrance being supplied from the new consumer unit within the cupboard with no means of isolation at the old consumer which is extremely dangerous and does not comply to current regulations and should be rectified as soon as possible . The lighting fuse supplied from the old consumer supplies both upstairs and downstairs and should be separated as per 17th edition recommendations.The earthing conductor supplying the old board is undersized and inadequate.The kitchen electrics have been altered with many sockets within cupboards. . Carry out rectification to defects and issue NICEIC installation certificate upon completion.

However, the owners of the house have provided this certificate: http://www.filedropper.com/electricalinstallationcertificate-redact

I am not an electrician so I have no clue. Does the attached certificate indicate that the above work is not required? What is your recommended course of action?

Many Thanks

James

 

[amlu]

get a second quote from one or two reliable electricians, one you mentioned earlier looks a bit steep anyway...

 

[noesis]

Hi

I had this second quote for £500. He said he didnt know what the first electrician was talking about. His intention is connect the kitchen board to his new board. Is this safe and correct?

Thanks

Second electrician:


After visiting the above address and carrying out a visual inspection on the property regarding the electrical certificate needed I found several issues that need rectifying before I can issue a certificate?
1. The old existing distribution has no RCD protection and to comply with 17[SUP]th[/SUP] edition regulations would need to be upgraded to a split load board with a 100a main switch with two 80amp RCD main switches protecting the individual MCBs. I would also disconnect the kitchen fuse board and connect it to the new board and have one board controlling the whole house.
2. The bathroom has a standard light fitting which needs to be replaced with an IP 44 rated fitting as it is within two meters of the portable shower head and is at risk from moisture in the air possibly becoming live and conducting electricity as there is no fan to extract the moisture for one and no RCD protection to protect that individual circuit.
3. On checking the light switches I saw that there is no identification sleeving on the conductors, to rectify this I need to loosen all switches of the walls and add brown tape to identify that it’s a conductor.

To rectify and certificate all of the above my materials and labour cost is will be £500
If you have any problems or any questions regarding my quote please do not hesitate to call or email, I would be happy to give a breakdown of my quote.

 

[onions1066]

Loosen switches and add brown tape mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm nice

 

[Badged01]

Too late at night to have a good read thro' and think but something just doesnt seem right amongst the electrical certificate for the previous work completed and the "electricians" visual reports/recommendations now. For me a visual inspection/report at best only tells you half of what the electrics are like and personally I think them a waste of time! If you are buying a house and have concerns about the electrical condition go have a full electrical inspection done which will cover everything against a set format recommended by the electrical industry -- Electrical Installation Conditioning Report (EICR).

You are presumably going to be spending £1,000's on buying the house so for the cost of probably less than £200 an EICR will give you a written document advising of any issues against the current electrical regulations. Consider it money wisely invested as it will categorically tell you if its 'satisfactory' for continued use or if not 'satisfactory' what needs to be done.

Against that you can then get some quotes for all the work needed rather than haphazard costings against quick visual inspections that will only cover what the "electrician" has seen on his walk around. You've no guarantee of its thoroughness in picking up all the problems/issues and any certification issued afterwards will only be for the work he has had done to correct his visual findings!

To mis-quote a legal saying ....... "let the buyer beware"