Couldn’t you do it yourself then pay an electrician to certify it ? If he says who fitted it dunno mate was in when we moved in.

dorsetfreelander wrote:

One thing I would recommend is getting a socket tester like the one below. I bought one a few years ago and have tested her new house (1970's) and lent it to a few relatives and it has flagged up a few mains sockets have been shown to have no earth connected or neutral/live reversed.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-ms6860d-socket-tester/91596

I have a slightly different take on electrics, I install and wire industrial stuff, so up to600V (for Canada) and 500A is fairly common. But I cannot wire a 230V 13A socket in my own kitchen as I am not Part P registered, and have come across horrors with Part P certification, such as my sisters brand new house 2 years ago with the neutral and live reversed at the consumer unit, faulty earths that gave a reading through a meter, but wouldn't take the fault load on a socket, are two that come instantly to mind.

Realistically the house was built many years ago, and wired probably in the last centaury, so lets say 16th edition wiring regulations. Any report will be to current 18th edition regulations, and as such the original installation will fail to come up to todays standard, it does not mean that it isn't "safe" it just could be safer.

The electricians body who want to keep their members raking the money in will say, inspect every 10 years and rip out all the old cable after 20 years. Now when cable was lead covered, with rubber insulation, this was a reasonable estimate of cable life, I have seen PVC cable that is 38 years old and good enough for at least another 10 years. Inspecting every 10 years is a nice idea, and to be honest the screw terminals at the back of heavily used sockets could do with a re-tension now and again, but here is the rub, If you have an inspection and it says work needs doing, you don't have it done - you are liable (and probably un-insured) if something goes wrong. Now you have the report, you then have sleepless nights worrying that the house might catch fire because of faulty electrics.
Certain (many?) unscrupulous "Electricians" play on this, they have to as their bosses expect a certain turnover per number of visits.

Not a very helpful post I know, but my house was rewired 35 years ago, had a newer (but RCD free) consumer unit 20 years ago and I sleep well at night knowing that it was done well. The outside sockets are RCD protected now, but lights on RCDs !!! what a great idea, one light bulb pops and takes them all out. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Surely it is better to have lights and sockets separated, you are not in the dark when the only RCD trips, OK, just put the sockets on RCD and leave the lights on the breakers but separate from the power, most houses will only have two lighting circuits.
I worked on 3000v volts but still needed a certified electrician when I revamped the house needing new circuitry under a building warrant. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

Andy131 wrote:

Not a very helpful post I know

Spot on I’d say, and reflects my own views pretty closely. Although light bulbs tripping rcds isn’t such a problem with these new-fangled low energy bulbs.

My last house had an ancient fuse board (wire fuses, not even cartridge) when we bought it and I decided that had to go. But having checked all the wiring carefully (including a high-voltage insulation test) I decided that it was only the fuse board which needed replaced and so just fitted a modern consumer unit. With, yes, rcds protecting all circuits including lighting.

Personally in a dual-rcd setup I wouldn’t do one for lighting and one for power, I’d split the load across the rcds. E.g. upstairs lighting and downstairs power on one rcd, downstairs lighting and upstairs power on the other. You can still ensure that all areas have one form of power or the other if a single rcd trips, but with a more even split of the load.

Some years ago we had a similar situation but as sellers. Very late in the process the buyer called to suggest they had a rethink and needed to reduce the price or withdraw their offer.

Immediately I told them I considered they just had withdrawn their offer and refused to continue any discussion with them despite their protestations that they really wanted the house and would after all pay the originally agreed price.

They lost the house they had set their hearts on and we lost that sale, but actually it very quickly worked out far better for us.

Moral of the story? Only attempt to renegotiate at this late stage if you are prepared to risk the purchase falling through…

My $0.02CDN, get the opinion of your electrician and then put in an upgraded, more modern setup if it's not too costly. Make sure to let the insurance company know. I will not mess with a fire potential.

If it’s the house for you, it’s the house for you. Just buy it Dave, if the worse comes to the worse and it’s a big job, you’ll just have to reduce your watch collection!  Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

^ Or SWMBO can sell half of her fancy shoes. She would still have enough left to fill a warehouse

Thanks all for the input. It will be interesting to see what the report says  LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey

good luck getting her to sell her shoes

and good luck with the house move, mines due on the 27th all being well.

How long do you plan on staying in the property ? If your there for the long haul then rewire it & forget it. Nothing worse than redecorating & getting it how you want it to look & then electrics keep coming up as a problem & then having to trash what you have done.

First thing I did when I bought my current house was to rewire it (It was built in 1965 so considerably younger). No earth on the lighting/rewirable fuses/no smoke alarms/no RCD devices for protection. As I rewired I came across several bodges that would not have shown up in an electrical test, if your outhouse is bodged then its probably got bodges in other places too.

Lots of things to consider with house electrics, changing the mains unit will help but its not just a matter of changing it, each circuit need testing to make sure there is earth contiuity & the ring mains on sockets are still ring mains & if there is no bonding to gas & water no earthing on the lights rewire.

I would never live with myself if I had skimped on this & somewhere down the line a member of my family was either injured or even worse killed.

My place was built around 1974 and has a single RCD trip switch before the consumer unit which had Wylex wired fuses. Power to the small group of houses comes off a nearby pole and then underground to my house so I it's not obvious where the earthing is done. The RCD meant that I can easily turn off the power to the whole house so sometime in the 90's I had the Wylex unit replaced with a new consumer unit with it's own RCD as well.
Like most people with older houses I have no idea where a lot of the wiring goes but what I can see in the loft looks in good condition. Rewiring would be a big job for anyone as it would probably involve lots of chasing through solid walls etc 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

Best answer it to fit a board with RCBOs for all circuits only the faulty circuit trips

Just found out that the house im buying is a cottage on an old farm complex but I couldn't find any information on an approximate build date.

after playing around on this site

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&a...68&b=1

the farm complex doesn't appear on the mapping data until around the 1930's

do you think it needs a rewire ?

The electrician has been to the house today and has not charged for the inspection, so fair play for that. He messaged me as follows:

Just been to the property. The consumer unit conformed to regulations at time of installation. There doesn't seem to be an earth bonded to neutral at fuse cut out yet getting at ze reading of 0.35 ohms which you would expect from a PME system as opposed to TT system (Earth spike). A New Consumer unit and gas and water bonding would be a good idea to conform with 18th edition regulations. Some of the cable in the consumer unit is most likely dating it to 1970's. The supply to out building would also need upgrading. RCD installation may also highlight faults not currently detected. I hope this gives you some insight into installation condition.

A New Consumer unit with duel RCD's and Meter tails upgraded would be around £500. There is an earth cable to gas that may be able to be reused and potentially water. If not wall would need cutting out and floor boards lifted to get to opposite side of the house. Again installing RCD's may highlight other faults that would need remedying. The consumer unit currently was fitted to wall then plaster boarded around it. That would need removing and a joiner fitting boxing or cupboard. The consumer unit had not had cover removed most likely for the whole time the current owner has lived there and needed caulking cutting away to gain entry. A full periodic inspection would determine every issue but while lived in (moving furniture and fittings) this is very invasive and time consuming.

Can certainly replace the consumer unit first, then that would show whatever else if anything needed doing. LL.B (Hons) - University of Derby
LOT (Lord of Time) - University of Gallifrey