Electrician Charging Me To Rewire Junction

[phillan]

Hi All.

I found an electrician on check a trade. He had all 5-star reviews, I was green - renovating my first home so he seemed great, and he was the first trade I employed.
I have had the worst experience of my life with him - I feel like he has ripped me off everywhere he can - Firstly, he quoted £1500 with all the ceilings and walls down so he had full view and access to the wires throughout the property, then invoiced me £2300 halfway done and refused to finish until I paid - when I paid he did a half-arsed job and not everything I asked him to do upstairs - i.e. downlights in the master bedroom. I paid £180 for this quote, I hired him to do an EICR which I have not received "because it failed". He installed extra sockets I didn't ask him for and charged £90 a socket (my 3.5 x 4m kitchen now has 9 double sockets and a cooker switch). He second fixed everything despite walls and ceilings being down - then told me he had to charge the wire or test the wiring if they were taken off which they obviously were to get the walls up - he didn't leave me with any power too so second fixing was absolutely pointless. These are just a couple of issues, I have a lot more but I won't list them all here.

The issue now is, on his last visit to sign off (which I already paid for in the £2300), he couldn't finish because there was a fault on the master bedroom lighting circuit, but he didn't have time to fault find during that session because he had been there for 3 hours already (testing his installation) and would have to come back. The fault was pretty clear, there are 2 bedrooms upstairs and a pendulum light in the stairwell. He hadn't wired up the second bedroom or the stairwell (an example of his half-arsed finish) so the fault could only be on the downlights I had installed in frustration, in the master bedroom which he acknowledged without looking.
I had my handyman take a look for me and he rewired it the day after the the electrician had gone. We flipped the power on, and the circuit worked fine where it was tripping before.
The electrician finally came back on Tuesday to "fault find", after cancelling on me 3 times and holding up my renovations. He knew I had my handyman having a look for me. He was there for 90 minutes in which time he wired the second bedroom and the stairwell lights, changed a 6 amp fuse for the lighting circuit which he "installed to test", to a 32 amp, labelled up the fuse box, and rewired the junction. Everything bar the rewired junction should have been done before this visit, and I have already paid for - yet he is charging me again in his newest invoice)
He issued me with his invoice within an hour of leaving, with 1 day to pay. I was not at the property (my handyman was), and he did not call or text me to inform me what he had done and confirm it was complete.
Yesterday, I decided to make the first move since he wasn't, so I text him to ask if it was finished and what the fault was. He responded but didn't answer the question. I asked what the fault was again, and he said an open circuit (his incomplete work) and the master bedroom light junction wired wrong.

He has told me he will not issue sign-off certification until I have paid his invoice for 2 hours.

These are just a few issues Ive had, there are soo many more.
So here I am. For my own peace of mind really, I want to know if the junction was wired wrong or is he ripping me off. Attached are pictures of the junction how my handyman wired it (round, it was fully enclosed, and fully working when we flipped the switch on the fusebox), vs how the electrician rewired and left it (in the white square box, now a trip hazard)

Thanks for reading, and for your opinion.

 

[littlespark]

Sorry, it sounds like you’ve been fleeced… but without us knowing the job, or the other side of the story, we can’t comment further.


Saying that, your final issue with the joint box there…. Those old round joint boxes are not compliant now. There has to be some form of cable restraint, which the white square box will have. (Although, by the looks of the empty holes, he has not used them)
Also the grey cable in the first picture seems to have red/black cores, which is old colours, and a sign that it hasn’t been rewired at all.
If the second picture shows the same grey cables (with red/black) then it hasn’t been rewired. If that was what the job was.
(There’s a big difference between a FULL rewire, and PART rewire…)

You can’t have a “trip hazard” in an attic….

 

[Simon47]

Firstly, he quoted £1500 with all the ceilings and walls down so he had full view and access to the wires throughout the property, then invoiced me £2300 halfway done and refused to finish until I paid

Pay up now or I won't finish is a bit of a red flag.
Also, was it a quote or an estimate ? If it really was a quote then he shouldn't be charging more without discussing it with you first. An estimate is just that, but a 50% increase with the job not finished is taking the urine and if the job really did expand that much then he should have been discussing it early on.

I paid £180 for this quote

He charged that much just to quote ?

I hired him to do an EICR which I have not received "because it failed"

An EICR doesn't "fail" - it just has "Satisfactory" or "Not satisfactory" and a list if any observations or defects.
And as you've paid him to do it then you are entitled to have it. Get in touch and insist he provides it - and if he won't, yell him he's got (say) 3 days or you take him to the small claims court. It will be interesting to see what the EICR looks like - will it be the work of fiction I have a feeling it might be.

He second fixed everything despite walls and ceilings being down - then told me he had to charge the wire or test the wiring if they were taken off which they obviously were to get the walls up

Proof he's been in it to fleece you. The only explanation (other than total incompeyence) is he's deliberately making extra work to charge you for.

... changed a 6 amp fuse for the lighting circuit which he "installed to test", to a 32 amp

Just to be sure you've not got it the wrong way round, you now have a 32A breaker supplying your lights ? If so, then that's unsafe.
Even fitting a 32A for testing is bad and shows a distinct lake of preparedness in not getting at least one 6A breaker with the rest of the consumer unit (CU).

Sounds like a right charlatan.
Is he a member of one of the schemes (NAPIT, NICEIC) ?

Be interested to see some photos and get an idea of his workmanship. CU would be a start.