UK Opinion on these pics please

[Apple1973]

Hi,
I am the wife of an electrician feeling absolutely gutted. We have had a complaint from a customer who is seeking a £500 refund for a consumer unit change that my husband undertook for her. I joined here in the hope other electrician's could shed some light on what's happened as I have no clue what consumer unit wiring should look like. I can't confront my husband over this at the moment as his mum is dying and I don't want to add to his stress so I am trying to figure it out myself. My husband has been an electrician 30 years. He is a part P domestic installer, Niceic registered and 18th edition updated last year. We have hundreds of happy customers since he went self employed 2 years ago. I do all his books and customer communication etc and he has never had a complaint up until now.
So basically he started on a job where there were other tradesmen present , including another electrician who was retired .My husband did lots of various electrical jobs for this lady who paid us promptly after each installation and was very happy with his work ,even leaving a good review on Google ads for him ..but then something happened, roughly 4 days after he replaced her consumer unit she called us to say it keeps tripping. He went back over there to try to figure out what was happening and spent half the day there. He came back very frustrated saying he couldn't figure it out. There were 5 other tradesmen there,( the place is being renovated) including this other electrician who apparently couldn't understand why it was tripping either. My husband said he ended up ripping all the wires out in order to get to the bottom of it. ..It ended with my husband telling the customer he was completely stumped and that she should get a second opinion.... I then get sent these pictures a week later from the customer of what she says is my husband's work. I am baffled! To me it looks a mess but I realise she probably took this photo AFTER he dissected it for the tripping fault??
Please can anyone of you guys offer me some opinions here as I'm really distressed by this.

 

[telectrix]

i always take photos of how i left an install, esp. consumer units. that job as per your photo is a mess. without a photo of how your husband left it, we can't tell who's to blame.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Notwithstanding the messy wires, what is tripping, an individual MCB or one of the RCB's, why is one of the MCB's taped over and another off, or are these things tripping?

The far left neutral bar has black wires into it, this would tend to indicate an old circuit, I would start there.

 

[stevethesparks]

It is untidy. Leaving the customer to get a second opinion was probably his biggest mistake. I'd say he'd best ask permission to return and sort the problem out himself. I realise his delicate position at the moment, so would a colleague be able to do this on his behalf?
There are a couple of other small issues, but not worth mentioning as you are not electrically trained.

 

[westward10]

Who disconnected it all then reconnected it, your husband or the other electrician.

 

[littlespark]

Being messy doesn’t explain the tripping.

It’s a case of going through each circuit, disconnecting the live and neutral from the board and testing.

your husband maybe is just overthinking things when he has other things to deal with.
a couple days away, and return to the job with fresh eyes, it might just pop up at him.

 

[snowhead]

The Consumer unit looking messy isn't justification for seeking a £500 refund.
Having other trades onsite isn't helpfull when fault finding if they're possibly plugging in faulty extension leads or equipment.

Who removed the cover, was the power isolated eslewhere first?

 

[telectrix]

either way it needs stripping down. all circuits dead testing, then rewiring.

 

[Apple1973]

i always take photos of how i left an install, esp. consumer units. that job as per your photo is a mess. without a photo of how your husband left it, we can't tell who's to blame.

Thank you for replying. Yes that is definitely a very good idea. It's the messy wiring I think she is judging the most. Can you tell me please does this wiring look standard for a consumer unit replacement where the wires are existing? I have seen pics online of new installation's where the wires are all neat and straight but is this unfair to compare against? Or am I clutching at straws??

 

[westward10]

This is one I fitted onto existing wiring. To be honest your husbands isn't great and we wouldn't tolerate work to that standard.

 

[brianmoooore]

This is one I fitted onto existing wiring. To be honest your husbands isn't great and we wouldn't tolerate work to that standard.

,Yes, it isn't great, but to be fair to the OP, his CU appears to have a LOT more wires than yours, and on a CU change, the existing wiring doesn't always come from the ideal direction, or have sufficient length to make the job as neat as you'd like.
The OP's pic. looks like it may have been neater, but the cpcs, which most would connect in place first, look like they may have been disconnected from the bar for testing purposes, and unthreaded through the lives and neutrals.

 

[Deleted account]

It would make it 10 times easier to fault find if the boards cabling was sorted and easy access was created.
agree with @westward10 i wouldn’t accept the board finish as it is shown in photo.

if the tripping has started 4 days after the installation something must have happened to make this occur. But your husband needs to return to job to prove this.

if it was me I would return and find fault and rectify it. If the fault was not caused by my work I would charge for the return visit, however in this situation I don’t think I would charging extra due to quality of work.

sorry if I’m a bit brutally honest, but best you get the truth.

 

[pc1966]

I started to feel very uneasy when reading there is other work taking place. It is possible your husband is stressed and has assumed that his testing on the CU installation is still valid, but in fact stuff has been changed after that either deliberately as accessories are replaced, or accidentally if a cable is damaged by other work.

The board looks untidy, as others have already said that might have been made far worse by some fault-finding already. I expect the customer's real issue is not believing it can be fixed properly. That is something your husband will have to address or give up and refund.

Really he needs to go back with plenty of time and systematically check all circuits, assuming nothing, and checking for the usual suspects for mysterious trips:

• N-E faults (should be apparent on insulation testing)
• A "borrowed" neutral on up/down light circuits
• Faulty RCD (trip time & ramp testing should eliminate that)
• Faulty appliances being used (washing machines with water leaks, etc, but checking leakage in-use after all of the above should show this)

It needs a methodical approach, and not to have others monkeying with the electrics in the background as they do their work though. Also an opportunity to leave the board looking much neater!

 

[Apple1973]

Who disconnected it all then reconnected it, your husband or the other electrician.

He did I think

 

[westward10]

He did I think

Your husband?