Advice on Job i went to today

[Darren Cox]

Good evening.

Any advice what to do in this situaltion would be very much appreciated.

I was called by a landloard who lives in Denver . She rents out a property in east London. She asked me to issue a cert for the flat. I asked id it was an EICR that she needed and she said ' yes please, as im renting the property out '.
So as agreed i went there today.
As soon as i see the fuseboard it looked new , as if it had been replaced recently.

I asked the tenant if he knew when it had been replaced he said yes last Friday.
I was abit confused why i was being asked to carry out the test and issue a cert .
As i was under the impression that if you replaced a fuse board that you should issue a electrical installation certificate and building compliance cert. Not the case as the company director tells me when i call him ( i will come back to that in abit).

I couldn't get hold of the landlord due to time differnece, middle of the night over there.

The tenant informed me that the electrician was in and out very quickly and job done in no time with no testing carried out at all.

ALARM BELLS WERE NOW RINGING .

the tenant asked me to look at 2 LED downlights that the electrician also installed that kept flickering while turned off.
Please see pic of connections to the LED driver..... absolute disgrace.

Also below is a picture of the fuse board.
Code 1 straight away. It would have failed an EICR without even carrying out any testing.

I spoke to the landlord this evening and asked who carried out the works. The ompany in question ive heard of and havent got a great rep considering they have only been trading since the middle of last year.

The landlord agreed a price with the company. Then once the works were done they charged VAT . Which they didnt say the price was plus VAT.
See then asked if the cert could be sent to the estate agents .... they said you didnt say you wanted a cert that will be at an additional cost.

She said they were so pushy too. He said that if I wanted an electric certificate on the spot then it would be extra £100 as they had to use their own insurance or something.

Hearing all this really gave me the hump so i decided to contact the company.
The 1st person i spoke to clearly wasnt a qualified electrician. He was stattering and i had him tried in knots with my knowlegde of the regs....considering i didnt mention once im an electricaian my self.

He said he would get the owner to call me.
The 2nd person called me and again it was clear his electrical knowlegde was limited.

I said i was the brother of the landlord and said this to him
The installation hasnt been carried out to the current regulations. You can provide a full refund for what she has already paid to you. She will then get another electrician to go and rectify your work and bring it upto current 18th edition regulations. And she will bill you for what they charge to do so. You have until 8am tomorrow morning to issue the full refund otherwise i will be taking this matter further. Could you also send me details of your NIC REGISTRATION NUMBER. Thanks

He replied saying he couldnt offer a refund as he wasnt i a position to authorised this. So told him to get someone who was autherised to call me ASAP.

10 minutes later the 3rd person phones me.
Again and absolute chancer trying to give me all the waffle.
He stated that you dont have to issue a electrical installation certificate and a building compliance cert when carrying out fuseboard change in a domestic properties. You just have to be competent to carry out such work. I Told him to send me where he was getting this infomation from as clearly i must have missed something.
I ended the conversation with him as he was really getting to me at this stage.

Still havent had any email from him.

I just wondered if any one could advise me what to do next?

I very much doubt they will issue a refund to the landlord. What are her rights? Does she have any chance of getting her money back?

I just cant believe there are still idiots like this out there conning people and putting tenants and property owners at risk in there own home.
It makes my blood boil!!

Any advice or guidance to what myself and the landlord do please?

Many thanks
Darren

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Wonder why the lid’s on upside down?

 

[buzzlightyear]

Reading the op post me thought is miss marple is getting involved.
maybeshe could find why the lid is up side down and the blanks are missing ,the job must be shocking.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Those missing blanks might not be a problem.
Maybe they took the busbar when they took the other MCBs?

 

[electric al]

"Could you also send me the details of your NIC registration number "

??? Since when has it been an offence not to be a member of the NIC ???
Its that kind of assumption from someone that should know better that creates a load of confusion with the public and even within the industry and only serves to give the NIC more cred than they deserve .

 

[Deleted member 26818]

"Could you also send me the details of your NIC registration number "

??? Since when has it been an offence not to be a member of the NIC ???
Its that kind of assumption from someone that should know better that creates a load of confusion with the public and even within the industry and only serves to give the NIC more cred than they deserve .

It’s not an assumption.
Whoever did the work is supposedly registered with the NICEIC, so the OP asked them for their registration number.

 

[dmxtothemax]

I would not get too involved, do what you have to to bring it up to code. Charge the landlord, then let her chase up the other electrician, advise her, nothing more, keep it at arms length, or it will just case head ache after head ache from which you gain nothing.

 

[Midwest]

I can see one person whose guilty of deception, its the OP pretending to be somebody that he's not. Really Darren, leave people to fight their own battles.

If you feel like supporting the community, do as others have suggested & ring trading standards. Don't bother ringing the police, 'cos they will advise to do just that.

 

[bigspark17]

Why dont you just do the EICR youve been asked to do? Im guessing if you didnt do it then youve had a wasted day and you wont get paid? Note down all your finding and inform the customer your thoughts.

 

[Bob Geldoff1234]

Pictures of the inside of the consumer unit would have been fun to see?

 

[Leesparkykent]

The BG board says it all to me.

 

[electric al]

It’s not an assumption.
Whoever did the work is supposedly registered with the NICEIC, so the OP asked them for their registration number.

Must have missed that - I'll re read it later

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Must have missed that - I'll re read it later

Well they were supposed to have notified under Part P, so it’s an assumption.

 

[buzzlightyear]

Maybe the op could get the united nation's involved has well to sort the the mess out ,donald trump is hitching for a fight.boja and scapear
the op on to you .

 

[leo79]

I know what I'd be doing.
Please find enclosed a copy of the EICR and my invoice. Kind regards.......

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

I just want to see a picture inside the board