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

 

[MFS Electrical]

And people wonder why good sparks cost more.....

 

[Darren Cox]

Seriously i just cant get my head round it all. Im fuming with the whole situaltion.
Just dont know what to do about it??

 

[45140]

Trading standards is the first call. Second is to call the local Police and report them for obtaining money by deception (not having completed the work correctly), and for fraud for demanding the £100 for a certificate which is free.

Also speak to the local HSE Inspector with regards to potential breaches of the HASAWA and EAWR.

You could of course call the owner and tell him this is what is going to happen unless he coughs up ............… and then report the bar steward anyway.

 

[Darren Cox]

Thank you for the advice 45140
Much appreciated

 

[Strima]

TBH chasing the sparks up for the non-existent cert is not your problem, this is for the landlord to sort out.

 

[rolyberkin]

My advice is don't get involved, I appreciate your sentiments but just do your job, advise the client that they have been ripped off and give them a quote to sort it out. It is a civil dispute between the landlord and the company involved. If you feel that incensed report the occurrence and works to your local building control.

 

[Darren Cox]

Yes i see your point of view and i get what your saying. Just that the landlord lives in Denver may cause an issue with trying sort things.
Think i will call trading standards i the morning.
All well and given a quote to sort it and she is happy for me to do so. I just feel bad that she has been ripped off big time and has to start and pay all over again

 

[Bellendian]

This is the 2nd time in the last week that I've seen comments about involving the Police in electrical matters! I'd love to hear the phonecall...they don't even routinely attend burglaries these days, the chances of any Police interest over a missing EIC is laughable!

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Could report them to building control maybe even local press.
They havent notified job but have is it 28 or 30 days. Before then they are in the clear if and its a big if they are in a scheme.
Otherwise landlord should have gone doen bc route but she can claim she was duped.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

This is the 2nd time in the last week that I've seen comments about involving the Police in electrical matters! I'd love to hear the phonecall...they don't even routinely attend burglaries these days, the chances of any Police interest over a missing EIC is laughable!

Only time you will see the plod attend over a EIC is if you misgender the customer and call them Mr rather than Mrs etc... they will then bring a van and several cars.

 

[45140]

This is the 2nd time in the last week that I've seen comments about involving the Police in electrical matters! I'd love to hear the phonecall...they don't even routinely attend burglaries these days, the chances of any Police interest over a missing EIC is laughable!

Suggest you re-read the post properly ?

 

[Bellendian]

Suggest you re-read the post properly ?

I read it just fine! Your intepretation is that it is obtaining money by deception. Fact is, it's a missing EIC. Whether you are right or wrong, attempting to get the Police involved to determine that will undoubtedly be fruitless!

 

[buzzlightyear]

I would agree with me fellow sparks,i would not get involve it is down to the land lord ,she should got a estate agent to work on her behalf .if she has been taken for a ride then shes half way round the world ,then she should sort the mess out and not you .

 

[123]

A dual RCD Board is a bit excessive for 3 circuits. RCBO's in a smaller board would have probably been cheaper.