Electrical advice - Landlord certificate EICR

[thebraketester]

Mr Pointy said:

thebraketester said:

How have they got to £480 for a consumer unit and meter tails? Presumably gold plated?

Every landlord in England is desperately trying to get EICRs done due to new incoming legislation. It's a goldmine.

Screwfix prices have not changed.

[Teddy Lop]

Mr Pointy said:

Only just. It looks like the board has been messed about with the original Circuit 2 MCB replaced by an RCBO (it's difficult to tell with such a fuzzy picture) but no RCD protection for the sockets on Circuits 3 & 4. You need to talk to him & get him to explain the faults in words - if he's failed just the two socket circuits can he not replace the MCBs with RCBOs like circuit 2?

+1. Listed items are not necesarily fault descriptors. Ask exactly what's wrong and why, in laymens terms. I do it for everyone out of courtesy.

Regs are not retro-active, so long as the installation complies with the regs in force when it was done that's fine. That said landlords are "advised" to RCD everything to cover ass, but that's liabilities rather than electrical regs compliance.

What did he have to say about some clodhopper shoehorning a wylex breaker into a hagar board, or the sodding great gaps where blanking panels are missing?

[Alucidnation]

Austin_Metro said:

Alucidnation said:

You could always do it yourself op?

Even cheaper!


Seriously, that does seem steep, so i am going with the fact he doesn't want to do it, and is probably making a killing on EICRs now.

(I am).

I thought about 'having a go' but as the whole scheme is about electrical safety it seemed likely that an unskilled amateur would not be the answer!



ps ETA - I think they do want to do it, they are targeting this sector and can charge a decent whack in this market

Edited by Austin_Metro on Monday 14th September 20:55

In all fairness, ideally it needs doing, and then you won’t have to worry about it,

An eicr will need doing every five years or change of tenancy however I recommend you get other quotes ASAP.


Good luck!

[Austin_Metro]

Teddy Lop said:

+1. Listed items are not necesarily fault descriptors. Ask exactly what's wrong and why, in laymens terms. I do it for everyone out of courtesy.

Regs are not retro-active, so long as the installation complies with the regs in force when it was done that's fine. That said landlords are "advised" to RCD everything to cover ass, but that's liabilities rather than electrical regs compliance.

What did he have to say about some clodhopper shoehorning a wylex breaker into a hagar board, or the sodding great gaps where blanking panels are missing?

I may ask for the layman's version tomorrow.

As for the gaps, and the shoe-horning ... not directly mentioned unless covered by these C3s:

4.3 Condition of enclosure(s) in terms of IP rating etc (416.2) N/A C3
4.4 Condition of enclosure(s) in terms of fire rating etc (421.1.201; 526.5) N/A C3

Thanks all, Austin.

[Teddy Lop]

Austin_Metro said:

I may ask for the layman's version tomorrow.

As for the gaps, and the shoe-horning ... not directly mentioned unless covered by these C3s:

4.3 Condition of enclosure(s) in terms of IP rating etc (416.2) N/A C3
4.4 Condition of enclosure(s) in terms of fire rating etc (421.1.201; 526.5) N/A C3

Thanks all, Austin.

IP ratings (ingress protection) covers the gaps but a layman's would be nice.

Different brands are not type approved/tested to work safely together and may not even fit together properly, its very sloppy practice and should be a C3.

[Slackline]

This whole thing is being abused by EA's and electrical firms. Ours reported a failure to the council before us, then gave us 2 days to accept a ridiculous quote to repair the 'faults' or they couldn't do it within the 28 days we now had. Which would mean fines etc etc.

Safe to say that the polarity of the light pendant (Yes, he really had that on the report) isn't exactly going to kill anyone, but it would get the EA and the sparky he's in cohorts with the sack.

£1500 + £360 for other bits they thought would be good to do. If there was ever a reason to dislike EA's even more....

Hopefully Trading Standards will get plenty of reports about all of this and clamp down.

[Teddy Lop]

Slackline said:

This whole thing is being abused by EA's and electrical firms. Ours reported a failure to the council before us, then gave us 2 days to accept a ridiculous quote to repair the 'faults' or they couldn't do it within the 28 days we now had. Which would mean fines etc etc.

Safe to say that the polarity of the light pendant (Yes, he really had that on the report) isn't exactly going to kill anyone, but it would get the EA and the sparky he's in cohorts with the sack.

£1500 + £360 for other bits they thought would be good to do. If there was ever a reason to dislike EA's even more....

Hopefully Trading Standards will get plenty of reports about all of this and clamp down.

EAs don't give a shlt. (That's kind of their battle cry). If anything its aggro for them. But yah I've seen such egregious certificates/quotes foisted on landlords by them in recent times that I'm not surprised people think they're "in" on something.

[Superleg48]

I paid around £2200 incl VAT for an EICR with remedial work to be done to pass. This included:

1. 4 x CU Replacements. Yes, I have a house with 4 CUs!
2. About 50m of replacement armoured cable between 2 x CU across the garden
3. Earth sleeving to just about every socket in the house
4. Installation of an earth pole into the ground.
5. Earth bonding for main water connections
6. Investigation of a fault that caused a socket circuit to keep tripping. Turned out to be a faulty socket somewhere upstairs.

The house was not a death trap, honestly. Just never had a safety inspection for at least around 15 years.

Now all certificated and ready to rock!

Your quote, OP, sounds on the pricey side for what it is.

[505diff]

O.P. Looks like you need another quote, someone else can do the work and just certify the C2’s have been rectified, this can be appended to your EICR. For all those who price stuff from Screwfix, chances are the spark would not want to install crap and collect all the breakers this side of Christmas, hence why Screwfix are the benchmark of pricing.

[Bumblebee7]

I oversee refurbishments for landlords in London for a living. A typical consumer unit replacement including an EICR is £650 + VAT. Meter tails will add a bit on top of that. I'm not saying this is the cheapest price available (by any stretch) but this as a company is a fair price we've devised for our landlords that is applicable 90% of the time.

Looking at the consumer unit that is definitely older than 5 years old, I would personally upgrade to the new one. I probably wouldn't in my own home but when it comes to your responsibilities as a landlord I always personally prefer to be over cautious. All of my BTL's have had a full rewire when I've bought them so I have complete peace of mind for the future and I know no dodgy cable joining etc. has been done behind walls/ceilings.

Get a second quote for the work, and do it would be my advice.

[Austin_Metro]

Bumblebee7 said:

I oversee refurbishments for landlords in London for a living. A typical consumer unit replacement including an EICR is £650 + VAT. Meter tails will add a bit on top of that. I'm not saying this is the cheapest price available (by any stretch) but this as a company is a fair price we've devised for our landlords that is applicable 90% of the time.

Looking at the consumer unit that is definitely older than 5 years old, I would personally upgrade to the new one. I probably wouldn't in my own home but when it comes to your responsibilities as a landlord I always personally prefer to be over cautious. All of my BTL's have had a full rewire when I've bought them so I have complete peace of mind for the future and I know no dodgy cable joining etc. has been done behind walls/ceilings.

Get a second quote for the work, and do it would be my advice.

Thanks BB. I am getting a second quote to replace with an 18th edn metal case one. That’s definitely the advice of the PM collective, too, for which I am grateful.

Out of interest, what scale of refurbs do you look after?

[SpeedBash]

quinny100 said:

There aren't enough sparks in the country to undertake this work by January 2021.

I thought the deadlines were:

- New tenancies granted from 1 June 2020: 1 July 2020
- Existing tenancies: 1 April 2021

Alucidnation said:

An eicr will need doing every five years or change of tenancy...

I thought it was every 5yrs, period.

[dhutch]

As said, looks like the wylex is an RCBO (MCB circuit breaker and RCD leakage breaker in one) presumably when that circuit was worked in. But that the main switch and hence rest of the board, and hence sockets, is not RCD protected.

It's not a new CU, so while you could fit some more (Hager if you wanted) RCBOs you could also swap the board.

Board swaps shouldn't be much bit the issue comes when there is and existing fault somewhere which is currently unknown about, but which trips the new RCD and then to have to play hunt the fault for two days!


Daniel
Daniel

[Teddy Lop]

SpeedBash said:

Alucidnation said:

An eicr will need doing every five years or change of tenancy...

I thought it was every 5yrs, period.

Between tenants has always been advised, if largely ignored. While rare, tenants have been known to screw around with electrics and the landlord can be held liable for any risks created.