On 25/09/19 00:01, Fredxx wrote:
On 24/09/2019 22:43, David wrote:
On Tue, 24 Sep 2019 22:26:28 +0100, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 24/09/19 21:49, David wrote:
I'm just reading a survey report which includes the wording

"As this is a change of ownership, it is essential that the electrical
wiring is checked by an electrician, preferably NICEIC registered, in
order to outline any remedial works necessary to achieve compliance
with the up to date regulations."

Is there any regulation which says that on change of ownership the
wiring should be brought up to current regulations?

This seems to be what the wording implies.

As far as I know the surveyor can recommend updating, but there is no
absolute requirement.

The new owner may find that their buildings insurance for the new
property depends on them complying with any recommendations in the
surveyors support. Even if the wiring itself complies, the insurance
company may ask for the CU to be brought up-to-date if it is old, or
anything else which they consider could be a risk.

Assuming, of course, that the insurance company gains access to the report.
This isn't a usual thing as far as I know.

It is something they can ask for in advance of a payout.

And that is the point. The "raison d'etre" of an insurance company is to
pay out as little as possible using whatever means possible.

We were caught out by a surveyor report's throwaway comment about the
wiring being old and so would benefit from a check by a qualified
electrician. And that's what led to us needing a new CU as the old one
was obsolete and the RCD couldn't be updated. The annoying thing is that
all this was not what we expected; we had bought a property which had
been underpinned due to subsidence (over 15 years earlier), and that's
what the insurance company said they were interested in - basically had
the underpinning been designed and carried out properly by specialists
in such activities? It had - they had no questions at all concerning the
underpinning, but did read the rest of the report, including the comment
about the wiring.

We could probably have argued the point about this, but companies who
insure underpinned properties are few and far between, and because of a
cock-up by Lloyds (who had previously insured the property) we found
ourselves without any property insurance for a week after we moved in!

--

Jeff