Queries regarding Inspection Report I've just had completed

[telectrix]

i'd be interested to see what he had charged for the report. that could shed ( don't mention shed supplkies on TT) some light on how intensive the report was.

 

[SparkyChick]

Thank you very very much for taking time for a very informative response.

I've spoken to the electrician in question and tried to clarify what we needed to do to get a 'satisfactory'. I asked him if it would be cheaper for him to carry out the remedial works (c1 and c2) and therefore (if I'm understanding correctly, no requirement to perform another full EICR or if I carried out the remedial work and he then perform a full EICR again.

There is no requirement to carry out another EICR. Remedial works carried out by a person who is competent to issue the required certificates for works (minor works, electrical installation as appropriate) and/or a report outlining why no changes were required or what was done (some works may not require a minor works certificate - fixing accessories for example) are sufficient to address an unsatisfactory report.

His response is never clear, he first advised that he wouldn't be able to do the work until after Xmas, he then started going on about downlights in the loft, I then said I'm talking about the C1 and C2 work not the C3's as I thought they were just recommendations and have no effect on whether a report gains a satisfactory or unsatisfactory. He responded that as far as he was aware all issues on the report had to be remedied but he advised me to check with building regs (uh?!).

Building regs have nothing to do with BS 7671 (the wiring regulations - which govern how an electrical installation condition report [EICR] is carried out). Basically he is full of it. Only items classed as C1 (danger present), C2 (possible danger - something else has to happen for it to be dangerous) and FI (further investigation) items warrant an unsatisfactory result and as such are the only items that must be addressed.

I don't know whether I am dealing with somebody who is just trying to make my life as difficult as possible because I decided to do the electrics myself or whether he just isn't very good, even though out of 60 reviews he has 9.9/10, that's why I hired him.

As has been said, depending on the site, the reviews may mean absolutely nothing.

 

[Butch]

Pete/Rpa07 - agreed, I'm going to pay him the full amount just for closure. It's very frustrating dealing with him because his responses never seem to make sense...probably won't be a lot of money to you guys, the invoice is for £192 (incl vat) for inspection report, as I say, it's not so much the money, it's the fact he's still charging the full amount when he only carried out 2/3rds of the work.

 

[Butch]

i'd be interested to see what he had charged for the report. that could shed ( don't mention shed supplkies on TT) some light on how intensive the report was.

Hi Telectrix...the original quote for an Inspection Report was £160 + vat, this was about £20 cheaper than other quotes I had to carry out an Inspection report on a medium sized house.

 

[SparkyChick]

If you said he was there for 2-3 hours, that's an outrageous amount of money. I'm doing one this week, I plan on being there around 5-6 hours and I'll be charging less than what you're being charged.

 

[Butch]

If you said he was there for 2-3 hours, that's an outrageous amount of money. I'm doing one this week, I plan on being there around 5-6 hours and I'll be charging less than what you're being charged.

LOL...well I've been well and truly ripped off, he originally advised the work would take aprox 3hrs to complete the Inspection report, as it transpired, he shot off an hour early as he couldn't complete the DEAD testing due to the order of the conductors in the CU, he arrived at 12:40 and was gone by 14:40...£192 for two hours work, not a bad hourly rate if you can get it. I think my GP is on less than that!!

 

[buzzlightyear]

No not selling or anything like that, I had an extension several years ago and it needs to be signed off (building Regs). Part of the sign off is getting the electrics signed off (which I did myself).

LOL...well I've been well and truly ripped off, he originally advised the work would take aprox 3hrs to complete the Inspection report, as it transpired, he shot off an hour early as he couldn't complete the DEAD testing due to the order of the conductors in the CU, he arrived at 12:40 and was gone by 14:40...£192 for two hours work, not a bad hourly rate if you can get it. I think my GP is on less than that

Pete/Rpa07 - agreed, I'm going to pay him the full amount just for closure. It's very frustrating dealing with him because his responses never seem to make sense...probably won't be a lot of money to you guys, the invoice is for £192 (incl vat) for inspection report, as I say, it's not so much the money, it's the fact he's still charging the full amount when he only carried out 2/3rds of the work.

my my, and you complain that .god give me strength .have butchers. maybe you over stepped your mark .

 

[Strima]

So he couldn't do dead testing as the conductors were in the wrong order in the board?

 

[Butch]

my my, and you complain that .god give me strength .have butchers. maybe you over stepped your mark .

Ah I see, the customer should pay up because it isn't a great deal of money even though the guy hasn't actually completed the work...yeah, I've got bags of money to give away, feel free to come and rip me off!

So if a mechanic carried out a full service on your car, quoted you £192, but couldn't change the spark plugs because he couldn't get them off you would still pay the full amount would you?

If you read the forum, as I said before, it's not the amount of money it's the principle, I wouldn't charge somebody 3hrs work when I only did 2hrs.

 

[Butch]

So he couldn't do dead testing as the conductors were in the wrong order in the board?

Hi Strima - yes, correct, summary report states "live test only due to the poor state of connections in the consumer unit and incorrect terminations of neutral and earth conductors into their corresponding bars. No dead tests were carried out"...I have no idea what he means by poor state, he has not explained and there is nothing on the 'observations and recommendations for action' report regarding the 'poor state'.

 

[Strima]

Hi Strima - yes, correct, summary report states "live test only due to the poor state of connections in the consumer unit and incorrect terminations of neutral and earth conductors into their corresponding bars. No dead tests were carried out"...I have no idea what he means by poor state, he has not explained and there is nothing on the 'observations and recommendations for action' report regarding the 'poor state'.

A very poor excuse. If anything doing the dead tests would have been a good opportunity to rectify the 'poor state' for minimal effort.

 

[buzzlightyear]

he arrived at 12:40 and was gone by 14:40...£192 for two hours work, not a bad hourly rate

looking at the report in which is done on a pc or similar so the amount of the above does not come to the consideration then. and to do the cert & testing ,it the way you are defending your self considering you want the test cert for the building control .

 

[rolyberkin]

Can you post a picture of your consumer unit without the front on?

 

[Rpa07]

I agree Butch - if it is possible for you to negotiate a lower price due to less work undertaken then do it and walk away. We didn’t know the price, that is expensive definitely £50 over the top. Have a go with a well worded email.

 

[Butch]

looking at the report in which is done on a pc or similar so the amount of the above does not come to the consideration then. and to do the cert & testing ,it the way you are defending your self considering you want the test cert for the building control .

Buzz, apologies, but I have no idea what you are talking about, what do you mean I am defending myself? In what way, defending myself about what? The inspection failed due to issues with the installation, that's absolutely fine, if it's dangerous I want to know, my family live in this house, that's the whole point of an inspection report isn't it?

I don't understand what this means "looking at the report in which is done on a pc or similar so the amount of the above does not come to the consideration then. "?

...or this "and to do the cert & testing ,it the way you are defending your self considering you want the test cert for the building control ."

I think you might be misunderstanding, my query wasn't that it failed, my query is that the guy quoted me for an Inspection Report which includes Dead testing the system, he didn't perform the Dead testing, so why am I still paying for it. The other query I had was why did the whole system have to be re-tested after the remedial work, why wasn't the items that failed just re-tested...I can't see any where where I am defending myself, I'm just trying to understand the whole process by asking the experts as I am getting very vague answers from the guy that did the work.