EICRs From Hell?

Reply to the comment left by The Property Man at 21/05/2021 - 10:50
avoid corporate electricians--too many snouts in the trough

Some electricians are useless. We had one who recommended a complete rewire. Luckily had a friend who knew what was what and he looked at it, it didn't need a rewire at all. Have you tried Nextdoor.com as they do have recommendations of local people. You have to take them with a pinch of salt but may be better than just picking someone out of a list.

Hi Mike, I am also Mike, it may get confusing who is the real one!

where about are your properties

Mike,
Get a better electrician.
Maybe I have been lucky with mine, but he explains the issues. Recently another landlord in the block (of 4 flats - one owned by the council) asked all landlords to pay their share of fixing the communal electrics. He attached his electricians comments. I asked my electrician to comment. He said if the guy has inspected the electric's where is his report on the problems? I can't comment until I see the fault report. What he is trying to do is get you to pay to fix a problem and then he will issue a new clean EICR. He shouldn't do that. He has been asked to check so he should state what he has found and what needs to be done in writing. Once the report was seen it was obvious the first electrician did not know what he was doing. My electrician had a look on site and provided a much cheaper quote stating exactly what he thought was wrong and what had to be fixed. The council's electrician said, after the matter was sorted, that it was clear that the first electrician did not know what he was looking at whereas mine did.

So like in life there are those who know how to do a job properly and those who don't. The problem is identifying the good uns.

M

Last year I recorded this interview with an electrician which Property118 shared for everyones benefit https://youtu.be/DFgK3uwkLwM

From how you describe this - it sounds like the electrician may have used this for fishing for work

Given that to undertake the tests and capture recordings they have to connect into wiring at different points I would suggest he hasnt put something back correctly

What you report as fault would have shown up on his diaganostics report you get a copy of and would not have passed

I would ask to review this before you ask his trader body to review the report and a complaint you will be filing

Id suggest this chap may need avoiding in future

If replacing an old consumer unit of "dumb" fuses with a new consumer unit populated with cutouts you might like to consider RCBO's instead of many MCB's protected by a single RCD.
(An RCD is designed solely to protect against earth leakage and an MCB protects only against over-current, whereas an RCBO protects against both types of fault.)
As others have said, RCDs can be quite sensitive to old issues on a circuit and when they trip they can cut out the whole property. When an single RCBO trips out only that circuit is cut out. Less inconvenience for the tenant and narrows down the circuit that the problem is on.

and don't forget to get confirmation from your electrician that they agree to state on the certificate that the next inspection date is 5 years and NOT on "change of tenant".

Purely to qualify the statements I make I state that I have been a portfolio landlord for 30 years with upwards of 40 properties and also a registered sparks for many years- part of the seemingly hated 'boys club' referred to- its a bit like the 'all landlords are fat cat, rip off, crappy property rogues club' that we are all part of. You see how im going with that one?

Im afraid im unable to answer your questions properly without far greater 'proper' technical information and inspection but I would advise you to avoid a lot of the rubbish spouted here from a lot of the 'know all know nowt armchair experts'.

Training as a sparks to DIY- yeah right!! Made my ass laugh though!!

Asking an electrical supplier or letting agent? Ha!!! Clueless speak by a clueless person for sure!!!

As for electricians and Inspectors increasing charges because of demand?- that could be the case at times but what I have seen this last year is 'a race to the bottom'. People don't want to pay the going rate and the cowboys then do less than 1/4 of a job to meet peoples price expectations. You can see how problems develop there. I dont get involved in these games- people pay the fair and proper price or they can 'go away' I don't argue or negotiate.

Someone commented that new boards are more sensitive. In essence they are correct but with a but.

I think they really mean that RCD units are now monitoring the circuits as well as your MCBs. This means you are now checking for issues between earth and neutral which you never have done before. Document Part P requires testing of all circuits for compliance before changes including board swaps are done. If the electrician carried out the time consuming testing on your fixed wiring before board changing and after as they should have done and its the RCDs tripping then you either have earth-neutral faults on appliances you have connected into your outlets (very common). A PAT test YOU CAN train in two days to do yourself will identify such a faulty item (a few hundred quid for a decent pat tester tho). Its not the electricians fault if you have one or two dodgy appliances you have connected.

Or you could have a problem with a lazy sparks who didn't follow the Part P and BS7671 required testing to your circuits beforehand and then end up in the doo doo after board changing due to earth-neutral faults that have been in your fixed wiring for years without your knowledge- no devices ever checked for these faults before and they dont stop your installation working and MCBs only check live-neutral and live-earth issues just the same as old wireable fuses. Then they try to blame you or your installation and you're no electrical inspector- you're clueless effectively at their mercy. So this is where problems start. Open loops on rings should also have been picked up pre change by way.

By the way if any of these faults exist in your fixed wiring after changes then the alterations (board changes) were done without regard to the regulations stated above and this is serious.

If you have suspicions you are being taken for a mug you should first of all tell your electrician and give him the right of reply- its only fair and is the first step of recourse.

If you are still not satisfied you need to contact his regulatory body- e.g NAPIT, NIC, Stroma, Elecsa etc- Im assuming you checked these guys credentials in the first place- by the way out of interest since 2005 only one person has requested to see my identity card! How many customers check the credentials of both gas men and sparks?

You should report your concerns to the registration body concerned and these should pick up your cause.

They can investigate and force bad workmanship to be put right and hammer any installer not following regs. This is your first steps to recourse.

But no- what you originally posted doesnt sound right but as say dont be seduced by the unhelpful 'help' regularly posted.

I have had exactly the same issues to which you can add some agents who are also taking a commission!! When I have questioned some of the comments on the reports the estimate has suddenly reduced substantially. I also have had the same thing with holiday lets the RCD's are too sensitive - the individual circuits on one occasion were not tripping but the mains switch was. I never have had any time for either Gas Safe or now the electrical contractors - it is largely a money generating exercise and nothing to do with tenant/client safety. As usual landlords are seen as a soft touch. You have poacher turned game keeper which is always open to abuse. The whole thing is badly thought out and arranged - I would never put any of my tenants at risk but do not need an electrician who is on the make to turn me over.

to pre-empt the current exorbitant charges being demanded for remedial works and then paying twice for a re-inspection. From my recent experience I've now cottoned on to asking for an initial quote for the necessary remedial works required for a final satisfactory EICR

I have a lot of properties & a regular spark that I'd rather pay to travel than have a local do it. Get a recommendation & pay him well. You'll be glad of the honesty in the long term