"Tony Bryer" wrote in message
...
In article , Andy Hall
wrote:
In case d) what would happen? The purchaser has a survey and the
surveyor picks up that wiring was done and no certificate because
it was DIY and the person didn't bother. So he gets an
electrician in and the installation is tested. If it passes then
fine, if not then it gets fixed. I don't imagine that anybody is
going to call up Building Control and ask them to come round with
handcuffs.

You're right: for a standard rewire no one will notice and no one
will care. But when you sell you have to complete a seller's
questionnaire which currently has a question as to whether you have
replaced any windows since the magic date and if so where is the
paperwork. No doubt there will be a similar question about electrics:
it's just that 90% of people will know whether they've replaced a
window or not, whilst 90% will have no clue as to whether they have
done work to which Part P applies. But if unsatisfactory or
non-committal answers lead to more installations being tested (at a
guess only a tiny percentage are at present) then it could be argued
that safety will be improved.

How much more sensible though to have
just required anyone selling to produce a Gas Safety Certificate and
Electric report.



In a sense thats true, but the difference between gas and electric is what
to do if it fails to meet current standards?

AIUI gas regs are strictly enforceable and if your installation fails a test
such that it is at risk or immediate danger, then you have an obligation to
fix it (in the spirit of uk.d-i-y I expect someone will be along forthwith
to correct me with the exact letter of the law if this is at all
incorrect!) - and didn't I read in a thread previously that one of the few
things you cannot do with a house sale is to sell a property with gas
installation in a dangerous situation?

Lectrics don't tend to have the same effect - I reckon that a sizeable
proportion of existing housing stock would fail to meet 16 edition
standards, and many houses sold would have very out of date installations
(esp if it's come onto the market as part of sale of a deceased's estate).
What do you do? Force the current owner to update the supply (they could be
selling due to a dire financial position), probably pushing up the sale
price? If the house was to be renovated then this new work could simply be
ripped out anyway.

Lets face it - if buyers actually cared about the state of the electrics in
a place over and above what they could see from cursory examination (and
other things like structure, area, what colour the seller's sofa is, school
catchment, etc) then there would surely be an active push from estate agents
and surveyors to offer a full electrical report (for a charge) on the house
rather than things like the homebuyer's survey's "we recommend that an
electrical inspection is carried out".

Hmm - a potential market for one of our enterprising resident sparks...?

--
Richard Sampson

mail me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk