Electrical install certificate

[gra1974]

Hi all

Had an extension carried out recent and to cut a long storey sort the builder left site on bad terms due to quaility issues am i am unable to contact him at all.

The build is finished but to get it signed off i need to supply an electrical instalation cert which has been signed by the installing electrician.

Now as the electrician was aranged by the builder i have no idea who it is or how to contact him or even a name.

I have ask Hounslow council if there is anything else i can supply and they are being very unhelpful, they did however say that a pirodic inspection report would not be good enough and thet it had to be a cert signed by the installing person. They obviousley do not understand that as explain i can not get this document (not through lack of trying)

Now i can not be the first person this has happened to and there has to be a way around this.

Does anyone have any advise, or help they could offer, as i am unable to close the build until i have this

Thanks all

Graham

 

[Djjeff99]

Yea thats a bit of a tricky situation .

The reason they are asking you to provide a certificate from the original installer is because they would have been assessing / testing the electrical installation as it was installed . They are also responsible for the original design .

The problem with asking another electrician to carry out the test is that they wont be able to inspect cables in walls / floor etc to see if they have been installed correctly .

If a sparky did come to test it they would have to sign for something that they couldn't 100% say was up to standards and if anything did go wrong they could be liable .

Not sure what to sagest , sorry .

 

[ban-all-sheds]

the builder left site on bad terms due to quaility issues am i am unable to contact him at all.

He may not be keen on talking to you, but you must be able to contact him - surely you have an address and a land-line phone number for him?

The build is finished but to get it signed off i need to supply an electrical instalation cert which has been signed by the installing electrician.

Did the electrician get as far as doing the testing before the builder packed up and left?

Did you pay the builder for the work that had been done to date?

They obviousley do not understand that as explain i can not get this document (not through lack of trying)

They do understand, they just feel that there is nothing they can do. If you told them that the electrical work would be done by someone able to self-certify then they were expecting him to issue the certificate.

Now i can not be the first person this has happened to

No you're not, although in the past it's been more common for the electrician to have disappeared because he's retired, emigrated, fallen ill or gone on an extended holiday.

and there has to be a way around this.

I'm afraid there isn't, not if the council won't accept a PIR.

Does anyone have any advise, or help they could offer, as i am unable to close the build until i have this

You could try asking the builder who the electrician was.

Did you do all the right things regarding your dispute with the builder? Would you have any chance in court if you had to go that far to get him to finish the work and put right his mistakes?

Or are you now without a legal leg to stand on?

You may end up having to find a new electrician to come and remove, or at least partially remove and/or expose all of the wiring (i.e. lift floors, drop ceilings, remove plaster etc as appropriate) and re-do it.

Hopefully it won't come to that, but you should bear that in mind as an outcome when you're trying to resolve your dispute with the builder.

 

[1john]

This wont please the OP, but what BAS just wrote is correct, the installation should be 100% exposed for any electrician to sign it off, luckily for you there appears to be many sharky people around who will sign this off as their own, for a princly sum. That is the solution to your problem, although, they are signing a document that would be used against them if something wasnt installed properly and things weent wrong, either these people are stupid, dont understand the implications of when they are doing or down right just dont care, here is where the dilema is. Do you want someone like that 'ensuring' that your new electrical installation is installed correctly, and tested so that is it SAFE from causing death, injury or damage to you, your family, pets and your property.

The builder must be contactable one way or another, maybe you have a third party that you can both use if you dont see eye to eye. After all you dont want anything from him, just a phone number.

Personally i have never worked on these type pf jobs when contacted for it, alot of the time it turns out that the householder has had a go at doing the wiring and connected it all up and then realised that building control want a cert. Or that someone has been in there 'on the cheap' with no means of certification. I am not going to help someone to devalue the industry in this way and i am also never going to say that something is installed in a certain way, when i cannot prove it.

One alternative solution is to use an NIC approoved contractor and see if they are willing to complete an EIC and just sign off for the inspection and testing.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

either these people are stupid, dont understand the implications of when they are doing or down right just dont care.

Or plan to do a vanishing act.

I always think people like that should be viewed with the same attitude that Groucho Marx had to clubs...

 

[gra1974]

Thanks for the replies.

That was my fear

I have done everything to contact the builder called, writen, email etc and he is just not responding at all. All money for build was paid so its not due to lack of payment.

I think i will just live with it as can not afford to get it all ripped out at this stage and then i will get this done before i sell in the future.

To be honest to get this signed off i would probably take a dodgie cert as i know the electrician was legit i just do not have his details or even name and i am unable to get them as builder not responding.

Citezens advise have told me i could take it to cort but im unlikely to get anything back as builder will do a runner.

Such a shame. as just want to put the whole eposode behind me now.

Thanks guys

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Report the builder to Trading Standards - he has committed a criminal offence.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I think i will just live with it as can not afford to get it all ripped out at this stage and then i will get this done before i sell in the future.

Before you sell you'll have it all removed & replaced?

i know the electrician was legit

No you don't.

You don't know who he was, you don't know if he was qualified, you don't know if he was registered, you don't know if his work complied with the Wiring Regulations and you don't know if it complied with the Building Regulations.

just want to put the whole eposode behind me now.

With an entire extension lacking Building Regulations approval that may not be so easy when you come to sell.

 

[mikhailfaradayski]

........Citezens advise have told me i could take it to cort but im unlikely to get anything back as builder will do a runner...........

Would that depend on what you hoped to get from the builder?

If you were after cash, that may well be true.
If you were just after the EIC, then it may be more productive.

If the spark was contracted by the builder, then spark should issue the paperwork to him. If that had been done, then the breakdown in the relationship happened, he might possibly have the EIC and would be as simple as sticking it in the post.

Having said that, i really don't know if the courts could issue just a 'hand over the paperwork' as a penalty?

What were the issues that caused the builder to do-one? just curious.

 

[Johnmelad502]

You might get lucky...

Start phoning round local electrical companies and electricians asking if they did the work on your property. Like I said you might get lucky.

Yes I know, the spark could have come from anywhere in Middlesex or surrounding. You might also ask these people if they know which electrician your builder uses, one of his rivals might just know.

 

[17thman]

this seems to be one of the problems with electricians reporting and certifying to the person ordering the work, surley it would be better to be responsible to the house holder also. If the sparky finished the job and did not notify his governing body and thus building control then he too has comiitted an offence. you surley must be able to contact your builder, dial from another number??

If was in your boots, i would get a mate to phone him, organise a quote and be there when he turns up and just get the electricians number of him

 

[1john]

it could be that the builder never paid the sparky and therefore he isnt going to notify and isnt going to issue a cert ?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Could be.

Actually, there's all sorts of things it could be, but we'll never know. The guy's plumber did a runner too....