RCD repeatedly tripping

[Tabby]

It was. The landlord _is_ aware that the installation is now in a dangerous state, and has a legal responsibility to provide a safe house. Thus any failure to act and act without delay renders the landlord liable. Given what appears to be a lack of electrical skills, an emergency callout is really the only way I can see to remove the risk to the landlord.

NT

[John Rumm]

Well some of this is guesswork. The earth may have already been missing. Having said that, you would expect him to have found that.

I would expect its the electrician with his nuts on the block here. If the landlord acted in good faith - got a pro in promptly, then he is beyond reproach. He can't be realistically expected to have the skills or knowledge to go and double check the work of the electrician. Its only luck in this case that he does, coupled with the electrician admitting to not having done the job asked.

[pepper]

Mark of 'Current Solutions' (07837 039045) was sub-contracted by our builders to do the electrical work on our extension build in Harpenden a couple of years ago, and we were certainly satisfied with their work. (friendly bunch too).- you could try giving them a call if you're still looking. Mike

[dennis]

The landlord needs to act though, he knows of the danger and will be responsible if something happens.

The electrician also needs seeing to, but the problem needs to be made safe ASAP.

[ARWadsworth]

The landlord has acted. He asked a question on this newsgroup and he got some good answers. The fact that part of the question was about about the competence of the electrician he employed are relevant. I cannot see the landlord leaving his house in this situation for long.

Indeed it needs to be made safe, but not by the cowboy electrician who has already looked at the installation.

Just removing the MCB would be enough to make it safe in most cases.

[Charlie]

Electrician is coming asap - will post back when it's sorted.

[Charlie]

Sorry for the late post back. I got a second electrician who around and have a got a clearer idea of what went wrong.

1. There was a faulty face plate which was causing a problem.
2. There is still an intermittent fault on the downstairs ring which he has now put on it's own separate RCD (not sure if I have explained this correctly but it now trips only this circuit and not the whole house)
3. He has had problems, despite a number of visits to diagnose exactly what is causing the intermittent fault. It seems to be a neutral/ earth connection somewhere. This has been made worse by the fact that the "ring is not a ring". It's seems to be some sort of snowman/ figure of eight (probably caused when the rear extension was added by the previous owner).
4. I have since had some floorboards up and found a number of junction boxes/spurs which might help in simplifying the circuit and turning it into a radial which will aid the fault diagnosis.
5. With regards to the previous electrician. The new sockets test I used was fault. It said all the sockets in my own flat were not earthed either. The house is in fact correctly earthed.
6. However the previous electrician did move the downstairs "ring" on to a 32amp fuse - which obviously is a cause for concern.

Will post back when I have more info.

[ARWadsworth]

Couldbe an RCBO but yes it makes sense.

I would have expected a megger to show this fault. However he seems to know what he is doing.

Whoops.

An allowable bypass if the sockets are correctly earthed and it was just a tempjob.

Ta