UK Extremely detailed EICR resulting in £7000 remedial works quote

[ldngbc]

Good evening,

This pertains to a four-bedroom property that is vacant due to minor redecorating. As part of this we employed a sizeable electrical company who completely went to town with the report and came back with 18 C2s for a non-period property that was redone in 2012. Furthermore the quote to remedy the 18 C2s exceeds £7,000. If that's the price, the property will not be able to recoup that cost even with many months of rent and we may as well give up and sell it.

Once an EICR report has been completed, is it allowed to ask another electrician to do another EICR report? If this second opinion flags up, say, 6 C2s, would I be done for the other 12 that the first electrician "spotted"?

Amidst the quote are:

• £900 to replace two fire alarms. Apparently battery alarms are not sufficient; they must be wired in.
• £1600 to replace 20 "class 1 construction" downlight fittings, as the extraneous parts aren't earthed. Apparently plastic replacements won't pass.
• Up to £1000 to investigate loss of continuity in ground floor ring circuit. Apparently it may take a whole day to find where the continuity is lost.

We're at a loss and any comments by anyone who knows anything would be incredibly helpful!

Thank you so much.

 

[Robson689]

And this is the total quote, which totals £7332:

View attachment 65461

I wouldn't give them another penny.

That price is ridiculous.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Blooming heck

£2,5K for a new consumer unit is very steep

round my was I offer rcbo board upgrades for about a grand , grand and a half If need new bonding installed

i cant see how they got to £2,5k

 

[SparkyChick]

I know I'm not alone, but I've done quite a bit of fault finding and none of it has come anywhere close to taking one day to find what could be a single fault. With proper testing techniques they should be able to get close to the fault on that ring circuit within an hour, two tops. I would hope to have it down to a single accessory or cable segment within a couple of hours.

Those prices are ridiculous.

 

[MrPupsi]

£1000 for an EICR ?
I did a large 5 bedroom 3-storey house the other day for £300. Was this initial price agreed before hand?
I’m london based and could never get away with charging that much or have the conscience to do so.

As everyone else has mentioned, a couple hours labour to initially fault find and possibly fix the ring would be enough.

As far as I know, unless it’s a HMO, mains wired detection is optional, not mandatory.
Detection in general is optional. Ask the company to show you what reg number requires you to have hard wired detectors.

Then regarding the downlights, more than likely the CPCs have been cut back and could possibly be reconnected, otherwise class 2 fittings are more than adequate.
I think £40 per spot supplied and fitted is more reasonable.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Give Delroy a bell for a quote

Home - Eastway Electrical

www.eastwayelectrical.com

London based sparky

 

[mattg4321]

Those prices are well above what I would expect even for London. What’s worse is they don’t appear to know what they are talking about.

I was sent a very similar report, along with a silly remedials price list recently. I’m doing a new eicr on the same place next week. Sometimes you’re better off cutting your losses.

 

[ldngbc]

Blooming heck

£2,5K for a new consumer unit is very steep

round my was I offer rcbo board upgrades for about a grand , grand and a half If need new bonding installed

i cant see how they got to £2,5k

Yes, they quoted for 1.5 days' labour for this part, at £800 per day plus VAT (plus materials).

 

[Dustydazzler]

Yes, they quoted for 1.5 days' labour for this part, at £800 per day plus VAT (plus materials).

ridiculous price for a board upgrade, should be no more than £1500 tops all in finished job , assuming they don’t find any nasties which they shouldn’t as they already did an eicr

 

[littlespark]

There should be nothing wrong with the consumer unit. Plastic does not mean it needs replaced.
I understand fully that as a landlord, you would want your property to be safe for any tenants. Sounds like they do too, and are taking full advantage.

I’ll repeat what I said earlier, and as others have said... get a second quote.

 

[SparkyChick]

For the OP.... regarding the consumer unit being plastic... page 15....

https://www.----------------------------/media/2149/bpg4-1.pdf

Ultimately it's the spark carrying out the inspection who decides how to classify each particular issue but the Best Practice Guides are supported by some big names and they only recommend a C3 for the plastic consumer unit and even that has caveats, like being in the only escape route or under a wooden staircase.

In the past I've gone and worked through the list of issues on an EICR for a client, checking they were actually issues. I fixed the real problems about 25% of the items on the EICR and simply wrote a report supported with pictures and test results to clarify the other things were not in fact problems. Was for a house sale and everyone seemed happy, especially the client as it saved her £100s.

 

[mattg4321]

I just changed a consumer unit today, back in the morning to finish testing.

Hager, SPD, all rcbo’s - 14 of them. Around a grand all in. That’s pretty much top end for me, unless other work like bonding needs doing. Should be under 1.5k even if London and all rcbos imo.

As above, I’d wager it likely doesn’t need changing at all. Some people want to change every non fire rated downlight and every plastic consumer unit they find. All at inflated prices of course.

Outside of London around the south east then £3-400 a day is about right for a quality tradesman. Often a bit less. I would’ve thought £500 even in central London, but maybe I’m wrong.

 

[Dustydazzler]

I just changed a consumer unit today, back in the morning to finish testing.

Hager, SPD, all rcbo’s - 14 of them. Around a grand all in. That’s pretty much top end for me, unless other work like bonding needs doing. Should be under 1.5k even if London and all rcbos imo.

As above, I’d wager it likely doesn’t need changing at all. Some people want to change every non fire rated downlight and every plastic consumer unit they find. All at inflated prices of course.

Outside of London around the south east then £3-400 a day is about right for a quality tradesman. Often a bit less. I would’ve thought £500 even in central London, but maybe I’m wrong.

you are looking around £90-95 per hour central London, so £600-700 per day wont be uncommon.
labour rates in the capital are currently sky high during the panademic , as contractors are trying to cash in on jobs while the goings good

 

[ldngbc]

you are looking around £90-95 per hour central London, so £600-700 per day wont be uncommon.
labour rates in the capital are currently sky high during the panademic , as contractors are trying to cash in on jobs while the goings good

Ah, is that including or excluding VAT? Here it's £800 ex. VAT.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Ah, is that including or excluding VAT? Here it's £800 ex. VAT.

ex vat

as I say , get a second quote from a reputable electrical contracted (eastway electrical) for 2 reasons

1 - half the work might not need doing

2 - should only cost £4-5k max if it does all need doing

 

[ldngbc]

£1000 for an EICR ?
I did a large 5 bedroom 3-storey house the other day for £300. Was this initial price agreed before hand?
I’m london based and could never get away with charging that much or have the conscience to do so.

As everyone else has mentioned, a couple hours labour to initially fault find and possibly fix the ring would be enough.

As far as I know, unless it’s a HMO, mains wired detection is optional, not mandatory.
Detection in general is optional. Ask the company to show you what reg number requires you to have hard wired detectors.

Then regarding the downlights, more than likely the CPCs have been cut back and could possibly be reconnected, otherwise class 2 fittings are more than adequate.
I think £40 per spot supplied and fitted is more reasonable.

Thank you this is very helpful.

Just to get clear on the CPCs, if they've been cut back. The best option presumably is that the CPC wires are in the vicinity of the lights and have enough length to reach each light fitting? And then the next best is to replace the light fittings to Class II non-conducting ones?

If this is the case, I don't understand why my electrician is trying to replace all of them with Class I fittings, which obviously needs earth. That doesn't make any sense at all.