Seller just installed new consumer unit. Why?

[Primotomb]

Had email from our solicitor today to say the our seller has replaced the consumer unit, copy of certificate attached, seller will leave the original in the house. All very low key. But why would he do that so close to exchange? Should I be worried there's a problem? The invoice attached to the certificate also includes 5 light fittings being uninstalled and replaced with ceiling rose and cord (we were expecting this from fixtures list). Might the electrician have found a fault of some kind when doing that?

Seems possible: how old is house?

If someone is removing light fittings, they won’t spend on this without reason - was age of electrics picked up in your survey?

Built in 1975. Only comment in survey re electrics was that consumer unit appeared modern

If there was a fault it will have been resolved by new consumer unit. Win, win.

We had to do this recently as the lights kept blowing and the fuses in the fuse box blew as it was an old box. The fuses were £10 each

So we got a new fuse box and took out all the old down lights as they were old and could've caused a fire 🔥 as they kept blowing. So I'd say they got fed up with it and changed it

Thats what I'm hoping chicchic

Putting a brand new one in should on be a good thing in my book , why would this worry you ?

Well maybe there was but now it's fixed. I wouldn't worry - all houses have issues from time to time.

I've had an electrician say they would need to check the unit before starting work and if it doesn't comply then will need to replaced it. Maybe it wasn't as modern as it appeared and needed updating to current standards.

Just for reassurance when we replaced the consumer unit the electrician identified and sorted out other faults. They won't issue a certificate saying it's safe if it isn't.

Does the invoice have electricians contacts? Can it call them?

Replacing a consumer unit is not a big job, nor is it terribly expensive. So it may have just needed that changed in order to pass to EPC test.
Ask your solicitor to ask the vendor if your really concerned.

What @CeeceeBloomingdale said - we once had an electrician come round for a "simple" job of fixing a light that kept fusing but he refused to touch it until the consumer unit was replaced... we got a second opinion and he was absolutely right, it needed to be replaced.

I had to get mine replaced when selling as didn’t meet current regs

They now need to be metal. Any good electrician would replace it if it was the old style. It’s not a bad thing.

It's not necessarily bad. We sold our house early this year and the buyers decided to have an electrical survey (it was an old Grade II listed cottage; the wiring was fairly modern but they didn't know that, so completely reasonable they wanted reassurance). We were so confident it was ok, as we had our own survey and replaced the consumer unit less than 10 years prior (it is correct that they now have to be metal but it's only if you're fitting a new one, there's no need to replace an existing new-ish/compliant plastic one). However, we had spent 3 years abroad because of DH's job and the house was rented during that time. As a result of the buyers' survey we discovered that tenants had some electrical works done and put in a poorly fitting RCD. All because probably our consumer unit model had been discontinued and it was difficult to find spares (grrr!) but it was perfectly safe otherwise. That meant the electrician couldn't sign it off and in the end we agreed to replace the whole thing just to get the sale moving.