Why I hate domestics

[SUNRAY]

At which point, one has to wonder ... so who did property inspections, and how did they miss this (and the other faults noted) ? Do you happen to know if the landlord uses a letting agent - my guess is yes

That is my guess too, but I don't know.

The shed cable was easy to miss as it is basically hanging along the back of the house and shed out of view, we removed every switch/socket and found it, along with some others which will need further investigation. There is no excuse for the 1mm radial as is was blatant in the CU, the earth on the gas pipe took some searching.

 

[SUNRAY]

A little update.
We are dealing with the agents about going back to sort this property and it transpires the previous tenant is still on their books, so they arranged an inspection with the company who upgraded the CU prior to them moving into the property. We have no idea what was needed but the cost of repairing his handiwork is close to £1k which will come off his deposit.

 

[JohnD]

which will come off his deposit.

Provided the Deposit holding company agrees this is correct.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Have they still got a 'previous tenant's' deposit and is it more than a thousand pounds?

 

[JohnW2]

Have they still got a 'previous tenant's' deposit and is it more than a thousand pounds?

I obviously can't answer the first part, at all, and I can only speculate about the second. However, deposits are usually at least one month's rent and, given that we're apparently talking about a 'house' (and, I presume, in 'SE England'), that could well be appreciably more than a thousand.

Kind Regards, John

 

[SUNRAY]

Just to confirm the property in OP is done and dusted as far as the 'offending tenant' is concerned as he left here in 2005 and compensation will not be sought.
It is a 4 bed detached in a reasonable area so I'd imagine the rent is well into 4 figures. For the properties I rent out my agents insist on 1.5 months deposit and if that is the same then I'd expect the deposit to be circa £2K .

Where he is currently living has been inspected and repaired by the company who upgraded the CU 'a few years ago' (but not as far back as 2005). I know not where or what the property is but even the grottiest house in this region is circa £800 minimum, so I'd imagine the deposit is a decent bit over £1K.

 

[SimonH2]

Am I reading this correctly ...
The tenant responsible for the mess you found is renting elsewhere through the same agency, they've inspected where he is living now, and found that he's been BIYing the electrics there as well - and he'll be held liable for the cost of putting those right.
So he's a serial BIYer

 

[SUNRAY]

Am I reading this correctly ...
The tenant responsible for the mess you found is renting elsewhere through the same agency, they've inspected where he is living now, and found that he's been BIYing the electrics there as well - and he'll be held liable for the cost of putting those right.
So he's a serial BIYer

That sums it up nicely.

 

[Adam_151]

One does have to be careful that the tennant ia actually responsible for the mess though (hopefully the previous EICR can be relied on to prove this)

A work colleage did an EICR for a tennent who was under instruction to get a satsifactory EICR by the landlord of the property (industrial unit rather than domestic dwelling) my colleague, had for reference an old EICR that I'd carried out many years previous (and when it was let to someone one), and the vast majority of the faults found were listed as having been there previously. I think the tennent went and explained the situiation and someone else (rightly) paid for the repairs.

It was only chance that we were doing the second EICR, I'd done the first one years ago for the property owner and the current tennat had got the compnay name off the sticker on the board with the previous test date on it, if he'd picked another firm out of the yellow pages, then without the previous EICR being brought to site (of course he could have requested it from property owner, but even if he had, would they have provided it, or even been able to) , he may have just paid for remedials for something he wasn't responsible for

Of course there would have been an EICR when he took over the unit, but it seems the property owner didn't bother and he wasn't informed enough to ask that they do. Its also one thing to let a property without an EICR, but a different situation to let one where there is an EICR, its unsatsifactory and no repairs have been done

 

[SUNRAY]

One does have to be careful that the tennant ia actually responsible for the mess though (hopefully the previous EICR can be relied on to prove this)

A work colleage did an EICR for a tennent who was under instruction to get a satsifactory EICR by the landlord of the property (industrial unit rather than domestic dwelling) my colleague, had for reference an old EICR that I'd carried out many years previous (and when it was let to someone one), and the vast majority of the faults found were listed as having been there previously. I think the tennent went and explained the situiation and someone else (rightly) paid for the repairs.

It was only chance that we were doing the second EICR, I'd done the first one years ago for the property owner and the current tennat had got the compnay name off the sticker on the board with the previous test date on it, if he'd picked another firm out of the yellow pages, then without the previous EICR being brought to site (of course he could have requested it from property owner, but even if he had, would they have provided it, or even been able to) , he may have just paid for remedials for something he wasn't responsible for

Of course there would have been an EICR when he took over the unit, but it seems the property owner didn't bother and he wasn't informed enough to ask that they do. Its also one thing to let a property without an EICR, but a different situation to let one where there is an EICR, its unsatsifactory and no repairs have been done

The crazy thing is that until very recently we have not actually had to have an EICR for our domestic rentals. We have done them every 5 years and possibly at a tenant change (depending on how close it is to 5 years). I understand it now has to be done for every new tenant along with Gas.

The great benefit AFAIC of having it checked at every tenant change is there is an instant notification that the tenant has tampered. We found a replacement 10.5KW shower fitted to the 30A fuse/4mm² circuit when the 8KW unit had failed and the fortuitous EICR, dated the day before tenancy started, with it's photos proved invaluable to recover costs of replacing the damaged cable and pull switch.

For a commercial property I have always advocated an inspection at change of tenancy due the amount of changes that take place, regardless of what the rules say. I worked in a rented farm unit and from the word go had problems with tripping, the 3ph supply and the 1ph supply boards were both a mess and a morning spent inspecting/repairing was well spent. It turns out there was no evidence of any inspections/certs ever, but at least it was easy to inspect and work on with it's 4x4 trunking and tube.

 

[EFLImpudence]

The crazy thing is that until very recently we have not actually had to have an EICR for our domestic rentals. We have done them every 5 years and possibly at a tenant change (depending on how close it is to 5 years). I understand it now has to be done for every new tenant along with Gas.

Nope. Only in Scotland.

No requirement in England other than landlord's duty of care.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

No requirement in England other than landlord's duty of care.

And self-protection/self-interest

 

[SUNRAY]

The agent phoned this morning and asked if I could have a look at another property, downstairs ring tripped on Sunday. One of their regular sparks attended yesterday and declared the RCD faulty and replaced it. When it tripped again last night and still fails this morning he was not available.
Sure enough the B32 RCBO has been changed and the removed item laying on the floor of the cupboard.

Tenant sat on my shoulder as I worked, megger showed 11KΩ L-E, N-E and 30KΩ L-N. Removed all plugged in devices from dead sockets and confirmed there are no more sockets or switches.

"Other guy didn't do all this or use a tester."

I started breaking the ring down and quite quickly found it faulty between 2 sockets and where I believed no other devices existed. Asked again if there are any more sockets, especially between those 2.

At that point I terminated all cables except the faulty bit so the washing machine and kettle could be used (Identified as on each half of the ring).

At their insistence we sat outside for tea and biscuit, then it was mentioned what gardening was being done the previous week and I was taken outside to see.

To see this:

"Oh yes that old light was removed years ago."

A gentle tug found the end of the cable:

BTW it rained hard on Sunday when the circuit tripped.

I retested the link between the sockets to find the fault resistance had gone way up, Iwas able to trace the cable to a FCU upstairs and switching it off removed the fault. Isolating the FP200, pulling it into a 'loft space' and labelling it was easy.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I hope you charged a lot.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And I hope you reported the other "electrician" to his scheme organiser, if he's registered, and to Trading Standards.