House survey and electrics

[John Rumm]

No.

"Essential" is an opinion - its not the same as "is legally required" or "must" etc.

Yup, I concur.

[John Rumm]

Floor standing does not necessarily mean its not room sealed - you would need to check the model number.

If its not room sealed, then it would be *very* strongly advised to get it checked sooner rather than later (or at least inspect the flame pattern as a minimum).

[Brian Reay]

I'd only expect to see something like that if the surveyor had some concerns- perhaps the electrical installation hadn't been undated in an old house or he'd seen things which looked, to use an non-technical term, bodged.

Certainly nothing like that was included on a two reports I saw quite recently (within the last two years). One an older house, one quite modern. Both sales progressed without a hitch and are now occupied.

[Andrew]

If the previous owner has removed the original outer door and/or wall so that theconservatory is part of the house then this would not be allowed under existing Part L(2006).

If it was done after October 2006 then in theory you could get the remedial work done and then go back and sue the people who owned the building at that time.

Attempting to heat a conservatory is futile. You could spend more money heating that one room than the rest of the house.

[Andrew]

There are some free-standing fan flued boilers that pressurise the casing. Great care must be taken with these (if any still exist). A couple of BG engineers weere jailed for manslaughter when they serviced one of these and didn't refit the casing correctly, killing the occupants.

[Brian Reay]

The fly in the ointment may be the lender (assuming there is one). If the lender decided the condition of the 'electrics' increased their exposure should the borrower default, they may insist on an inspection and remedial work as a condition of the mortgage.

[Andrew]

Why would they do that, if the reason for the payout was a chip pan fire, or hubby dropped a hammer through the wash basin ?

[Andrew]

That is not a survey. It merely informs the mortgage company and would be buyer that the property actually exists.

Even if the 'surveyor' can see serious issues he won't mention them specifically, but just add an ambiguous phrase that the buyer might want to consider.

If you want to be told the full facts, you need a full structural survey.

[ARW]

Some years ago a friend of mine needed a satisfactory EICR to obtain a mortgage. I went and did the test. Not one socket in the house was earthed plus a few other problems. This was a 1972 build.

[Chris J Dixon]

My solicitor was suggesting, a very long time ago, that I should have a full survey done for a place I was buying. I responded that the report would be so full of caveats that there would be great difficulty in taking action in the event of trouble, and selecting a surveyor based on the adequacy of their insurance seemed to be rather missing the point. "Not necessarily" he replied "We have a number of such cases on our hands at the moment." At which juncture I felt that he had made my point for me.

Chris

[charles]

When I rewired our house in 9164, the electricity board tester even checked that the screws on the sockets weer earthed!

[ARW]

Would that have been all 6 of them?

Seriously how many sockets did you fit?

[charles]

yes, serious typo (1964)

around two dozen sockets - all doubles as I recall. But we left that house in 1977, so I can't be accurate

[Chris Green]

I'm not surprised if they were living in a boiler.

[Chris Green]

That's several thousand years in the future!

[ARW]

Much better than the house I referred to. A new build (1972) which was a

3 bed detached had 2 x 1 g sockets in each bedroom, the lounge, the dining room and a 1g socket on the landing and in the hallway. No idea what the kitchen had as that was the only room with some alterations.

[charles]

when we moved in, there were 4 x 15A sockets - one in each bedroom and 1 in the kitchen (a 1946 install)

[tabbypurr]

and check the heat exchanger isn't fouling up, the flue is clear & the air intake is also clear. And that the flame is blue not yellow. Or pay for a professional test.

NT

[tabbypurr]

because they can often refuse a payout. It's business.

NT

[tabbypurr]

now there's optimism.

NT