Electrical certificate or not?

[shortbreadandbuffy]

Hi, we are having an electrician around to check the electrics. He has said it's £70 to have them checked, or £140 to have them checked with a certificate. We are hoping to sell next year (probably putting the house up around September 2021).

Is it worth spending the extra £70 for a certificate now, or would sellers want a new certificate next year probably?

Many thanks in advance for any advice!

I have no idea if the price is good or bad, but I'd be tempted to get the certificate, particularly if you aren't doing any electrical work between now and selling.

I'm not sure that asking for an overall electrical certificate is a standard part of moving house, or only if you have concerns, but I'd assume having one ready is peace of mind for the buyer. When we sold we only provided certificates for individual works done, not for the property as a whole - the buyer didn't ask for anything else.

Electrics only really need to be checked every 5 years or so so you wouldn't need another one next year. Technically unless you are putting in new electrics they don't need to have a certificate to sell (as of this week you would if you wanted to rent).

Personally I'd get it as would be useful to have all the evidence etc but unless it's a very old house or recent electrical installations is not 100% neccessary

I'd be asking why the cost is double for a certificate. What is he not doing for £70 that he would be doing for £140?

It's not necessary so I wouldn't pay the extra, when you buy a house you can request that it be done, but in my (limited admittedly) experience it is usually the buyer that will pay for this on top of a survey if they wish to.

When you sell, solicitor will want to see evidence that all electrics installed since last sale are certificated. Or you will have to pay to get them done at that point

The solicitor when we sold requested it, we said no as quite new and don't feel necessary, which was fine. Our solicitor said that all solicitors will request to see it/for it to be done, but it's not obligatory. It depends what you are comfortable with saying to your potential buyers I guess.

We had this survey done a couple of weeks ago (just a check of the house, we've not done any electrical work to the house). The electrician said that the report was mandatory for landlords renting the house out but not for home owners. Buyers would be quite likely to ask if there was a report available, but you're not obligated to provide one, and in his experience of doing the surveys when a house is being bought/sold, it's almost always the buyer who arranges and pays for the survey.

Thank you so much for your advice. I have a feeling we will probably need some work doing, so will get a certificate when we get the work done. If we don't then we will just get them checked without certificate (counting the pennies) and let the buyer get a certificate when we sell

Many thanks

When we sold, we didn't have a certificate but we had to pay about £60 for an indemnity policy instead when we sold.

A £70 electrical inspection would be absolutely pointless filled with so many limitations you may as well not bother. Why hes offering it without a cert if absolutely bizarre. Do not use this contractor, get a EICR done by another contractor who isn't a so shady for a 3 bed house expect to pay £150-£300 depending on where you are in the country for something worth the paper its printed on.