Building Survey - Conditional 3, electrical circuits

[Pinklemon]

Hi, I've just received my building survey and has a conditional 3 for electrical circuits. It says that the consumer unit is of an early pattern with fuse and not circuit breakers. I'm worried that old electrical circuits may contain asbestos. How likely is that? The surveyor didn't mention asbestos, just said the electrical circuits needed to be tested.

No reason to suppose that.

I expect it has a Wylex Standard consumer unit in dark brown or ivory. In which case it probably has four or six removable fuses, and most likely the house is overdue for a comprehensive rewire, but is probably safe but outdated and has insufficient sockets or circuits and probably can't support an electric shower or cooker.

Rewiring a house costs the same as buying a used car.

Thanks, Pigletjohn. Yes, it does looks like a wylex unit but it's black. And yes, only limited sockets in the house. So I take it this type of old consumer unit does not contain asbestos then? So it's safe to remove it without getting an abestos surveyor in to have a look?

yes.

some of the older china fuseholders might have asbestos pads in the spark arresters, but I have only seen Wylex Standard with plastic fuseholders. Anyway, you don't have to take them out and scratch them, even if they were 1920's porcelain.

Older Wylex Standard are not black, but a very dark brown like old Bakelite. They are still sold for some reason but have been slightly updated and I have only seen Ivory ones on sale for many years.
I can't imagine anyone buying such a thing for £60 today unless they already had 99 and needed 100 to match. They were very popular between about 1960 and 1990 and there are still millions in use.