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

Paul landlord

10:30 AM, 17th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by desertfox at 17/04/2021 - 08:12
Thank you. A reasonable petson with a bit of respect and perspective at last.

Just a couple of points to be picky- an EICR is to judge against the latest standard but providing the installation met the regs at the time of installation and its integrity has not been affected since then yes for the most part non compliances attract C3s- recommended improvement but satisfactory.

Some non compliances will have to be done retrospectively. E.g. an old standard of 6mm for an earhing conductor will not be acceptable now. 16mm has been required since 2008 and failure to meet this will result in a C2. Fortunately not many things are retrospective.

I couldn't comment on the ratio exactly but there are many good honest electricians out there and some real 'bummers'. A bit like the all landlords are rogues charging tip off prices with substandard properties business we all fall foul of

Paul landlord

10:55 AM, 17th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Bob S at 17/04/2021 - 08:42
You are quite correct- it is the client (you the landlord) that is reponsible for checking the person you use is suitably qualified etc and will face the penalty for using 'a bad un'.

But do you know how many times ive been asked for my photo registration membership scheme badge since 2005?- give you a clue it starts with a 0!

Question- how many people check the gas mans genuine too? Or do they just accept the logos on our gas/ electric sign written vans respectively as evidence??!!
Landlords wake up to your responsibilities and get serious about our (landlord) businesses.

Im a portfolio landlord of over 30 years by the way

Paul landlord

11:14 AM, 17th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by rita chawla at 15/04/2021 - 18:24
That was a good shout.

I used to spend hours on the phone explaining to potential customers why my EICR was £175 (because I would be there 5-6 hours) as opposed to the guy who quotes 80 quid and has gone in an hour not doing his job.

Customers just see low valued £ signs and a lot of tge time thats all they interested in. So I wasted many hours of my time on explanations with the person on the end of the phone with therir fingers in their ears saying 'la la la...'.

After all these years i cant be bothered anymore. People just get a price and a brief explanation and 'take it or leave it'- 'its their funeral' as they say if they go cheap and get a pile of worthless paperwork back after an hour or a huge quote for unneccessary remedials.

Some landlords seem to have a problem with the concept of 'getting what you pay for'

Michael Bond

11:56 AM, 17th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Could Property 118 maintain a list of "electricians a reader has recommended" and another of "electricians a reader has warned us to beware of"?

if so could you do the same for plumbers?

city boy

18:51 PM, 17th April 2021, About 3 years ago

I had an EICR done and the electrician the letting agent used, got the number of circuits wrong....I refused to pay for it.
The big issue is there is so much interpretation of what's a C2 vs a C3 and etc.... and I got my usual electrician round to one property after the EICR and lots that needed doing didn't, and lots that did was totally missed...

Neil Patterson

18:59 PM, 17th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Michael Bond at 17/04/2021 - 11:56
We tried that with a services directory years ago at great expense but no one was interested, unfortunately.

Brian Hughes

20:43 PM, 17th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Paul landlord at 17/04/2021 - 10:30
Regarding your comments re earth wire (or as we are now to call it "main
protective bonding conductor") diameter -

I have to refer you to Electrical safety first Publication 4 which states "Items worthy of note that do not
warrant a classification code (These
comments should be recorded on the
EICR in the observations section)

• Inadequate cross-sectional area of a main
protective bonding conductor provided that the
conductor is at least 6 mm2
and that there is no
evidence of thermal damage.

I would be pleased to see any reference to any law or legislation to the contrary.

12:05 PM, 18th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Brian Hughes, “Earthing Conductor and Main Bonding Conductor is the same thing” = wrong Brian.

Regards, NAPIT time served electrician.

12:17 PM, 18th April 2021, About 3 years ago

If you spend £80 on an EICR you will get an £80 EICR. Good luck if the electrician filled a form in when sitting down in his van. Your tenants deserve better safety.

Dylan Morris

10:16 AM, 19th April 2021, About 3 years ago

Reply to the comment left by JGM at 17/04/2021 - 08:21
“Just to confirm Smoke alarms installed since 3 September 2007 must be mains powered, with all battery-powered fire alarms required to be hardwired when they are replaced.”

Wrong battery powered smoke alarms are perfectly acceptable. No required to have hard wired ones.

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