EICR has thrown a complete spanner in the works?

EICR has thrown a complete spanner in the works?

11:34 AM, 14th April 2021, About 3 years ago 71

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Can anyone help? We have 10 properties all currently let and very few issues – life good right?

Along comes the EICR legislation and throws a complete spanner in the works. We have used the same Electrician for a number of years and trusted him completely, he’s never let us down before but its almost like he thinks we have an open cheque book when it comes to these reports.

We have been charged £150 per report and the quotes to correct just the C1 and C2’s are in the thousands. I discussed correcting the C1 and C2’s only for now and putting the C3’s on a rolling programme throughout the year and suddenly what he told me verbally was a C3 is now a C2 on the report and needs fixing now.

It didn’t feel right, so I consulted a new Electrician (at a cost of £120 per report) and the quotes are HALF the cost of the original Electrician. He confirms that a lot of the C2’s on the reports are actually C3’s and some of the C2’s don’t even exist. One of these is a core showing on a light pendant which turned out to be DIRT, and would have cost me £40 to replace had the original Electrician been tasked with the work.

Is there any recourse for landlords who are being taken for a ride by Electricians – surely this is fraudulent? Do I just have to suck it up and chalk it up to experience?

Julie


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Comments

Rosanne Turvey

10:57 AM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by JohnCaversham at 15/04/2021 - 09:42
My son is an electrician and does a lot of work for a letting agency. He does not charge per item and if he has a list of things to repair then he just charges his hourly rate that he is there for i.e. 2 hours if that's what he was there for, plus the materials. It does seem to be rather nit picking to price for each item (I would have thought it took him longer to quote for the job than actually do it),

Silver Flier

11:24 AM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

You can check whether an electrician is registered with NICEIC through this link:
https://www.niceic.com/householder/find-a-contractor-results
If he is then you can lodge a complaint:
https://www.niceic.com/find-a-contractor/complaints

Private Housing Provider

12:22 PM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Julie, a blank cheque book through manipulation by electricians is exactly my experience in some cases. Eicr puts the landlord in 100% vulnerable position to be milked in multiple ways. I have had examples different electricians says completely different things about a same property eg one gives lists of work costing thousands and another saying it is all clear. Almost like a lottery to them...

Theres a lot of issues with the whole Eicr situation including how accurate are the testing kits the electrician use, how much they follow protocol eg their ring or necklace they wear during test alone can alter inaccurate test results. The tenant inside a big house with their kids can also affect inaccurate result eg if one child decides to plug in something during testing of the consumer unit etc, and the big one how honest the electrician is. As s/he can literally manipulate a lot of things to make things. And most of us are not technically clued up to intercept lies....

Able Services

12:27 PM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

One of my properties got through, after him consulting the inter-net as he has never encountered an earth rod in a property. The other property failed. I have got back to the company that did the work as they gave me a quote, which was quite good. Now I find I am chasing him, they have said they will get back to me? They also said the property should not be let, I have a family living in there so I want the job done quickly. I do not think it is that back as the electrician who did the work is very good, just that he is unobtainable.

Sanjeev Markanday

12:32 PM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by BP Surrey at 15/04/2021 - 10:53
Can you share their name and location. Thanks

MasterG

12:54 PM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

I must have got lucky by the sounds of it. The letting agent arranged the inspection. £125, passed with just a couple of C3s.

Reluctant Landlord

13:27 PM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

it's a minefield and yes open to abuse.
I plan on asking for photos to accompany any big billed findings - and have the EICR's just after I do a LL check. That way I have evidence myself if there is a dispute...
Might be worth going round for the first time and shaddowing a newly employed sparkie. The genuine ones probably wont mind but the cowboys may object. Filtering at the initial stages!

Reluctant Landlord

13:28 PM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

it's a minefield and yes open to abuse.
I plan on asking for photos to accompany any big billed findings - and have the EICR's just after I do a LL check. That way I have evidence myself if there is a dispute...
Might be worth going round for the first time and shaddowing a newly employed sparkie. The genuine ones probably wont mind but the cowboys may object. Filtering at the initial stages!

Private Housing Provider

13:33 PM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 15/04/2021 - 13:28
Photos are like asking a rogue roofer to provide photos. When he wants to milk it, he can easily crack roof ticks, break lead work that costs thousands to replace while he is up there at free will to do whatever damage needed and take handsome pictures to show you to get the business. I have had so many cases when leaks gone several times worse 'after' roofer's been up inspecting & providing their quotes with 'sympathy'. In electric terms, just as easy to loosen up a cable to cause a earth, live or neutral break, then it is 3 hours of investigation work to find out where is the break or 'rewire' the whole house as one example...

DGM

13:53 PM, 15th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Just like all this regulation, some people see it as a licence to print money and as people say it is game keeper and poacher that run this show. This is the same for EICR, Gas safe and EPC.
If you got 5 of each to do an inspection, you would undoubtedly get 5 differing reports, so the quality is not consistent.
I had the same with an EICR, got a different electrician to do the work as the first one too busy, the second one said not as much to do, rectified and provided an EICR, so hopefully better than the first one. I see this getting worse over the coming years.

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