Rewiring/electrical help please ☹️

[Retrievemysanity]

Hi all, grateful to anyone’s thoughts/suggestions/experience on this.

Bought a house earlier this year which needed a lot of renovations including a full rewiring. Electrician did the first fix weeks ago but hasn’t come back to finish the job. Supposed to come last week, didn’t, supposed to come today, not coming etc. He’s booked via the builder so don’t know why the no shows and we don’t have his details to message directly. Builder is having his own MH difficulties and is now on holiday.

Issue is we are supposed to be completing on our current house and moving into the new one on 1 September and I am so stressed about the electric situation. Don’t know anything about electrics, DH thinks it’s a relatively easy/quick 2 day job so could still be sorted in time but I don’t know enough about it. DH thinks builder himself might do it next week but because of the MH issues and general chaos of the project, I’m not sure if it will happen.

Do we try and source our own electrician or is everyone likely to be booked up? Keep fingers crossed for next week? Pull out of the sale and stay put? Can we survive with a generator thing? Something else?

We’ve got 2 children, one of whom is disabled, DH wfh, working electrics are pretty crucial 😣

Well the builder is on holiday and doesn’t want us to call or text him . I don’t think he can see how stressful it is for us.

I would contact the builder. Don’t let the builder do their work himself electrical work and make sure you get the electrical cert for building control

@hannahcolobus oh, that’s useful re the BC, thank you. At this stage I don’t mind paying extra as quite desperate to get it sorted but it’s finding someone to do it. Have asked everyone I can think of and everyone’s booked up. So I think we are stuffed and will have to wait for builder to sort it (he’s back at the weekend) and maybe the original electrician will do it. However I think we will have to pull out of our sale as the communication is so bad, I don’t even know why the electrician hasn’t come the past couple of times he was supposed to.

(Ha ha re the length of time- we didn’t just make that up ourselves as we have no clue- that’s what the electrician and builder told us and when we spoke to another electrician we know, he agreed so I’m guessing it’s about right.)

@mayblossominapril builder doesn’t want us to contact him unfortunately.

Just contact him. If the electrician was supposed to turn up and hasn’t and you have no way of contacting the electrician the only person you can contact is the builder. I wouldn’t pull out of the sale but I would be putting significant pressure on the builder

@mayblossominapril sorry, I meant, we contacted builder earlier in the week via text. He texted to say electrician was supposed to be coming today but wasn’t going to now. He then made a snarky comment about being contacted while he was away etc Said he’d ring us when he had better signal but didn’t (tbh this is just par for the course with him) So builder is aware of the situation but hasn’t communicated why electrician keeps cancelling and whether or not he’s booked in for another time or what. It’s dreadful, it’s really upsetting.

Is it possible the builder hasn't paid him?

Have you seen what is left to do? We are mid re wiring now (whole house rewiring) and it does look chaotic till the last fix.

How long is the builder away? If he's due back say a week before 1 sept he can sort it out. I would be more concerned if he's not back till when you're meant to be moving in!

I think you’ll have to keep contacting him. I wouldn’t pay the builder any more money but I would keep asking why it hasn’t been done and can I have the electricians contact details. If you can get hold of the electrician you might find out what’s going on and if the builder hasn’t paid him you may be able to pay him to finish.

@StrongArm well, builder told us he had paid electrician half once the first fix was done so I truly hope that’s been done. Never crossed my mind that it might not be.

In terms of what’s left, the wires are hanging out the holes in the wall in each room so I think it’s putting the sockets in now, does that sound right? Builder is back at the weekend so yes, still time but I think it’s the lack of communication and ‘cutting it fine’ that’s stressing me out. I don’t know if I’m panicking about nothing though.

Sorry if this is a stupid thing to ask, but with your house rewiring, is it all done at once and if so, how are you coping without the sockets? Or do you do a bit at a time?

I wouldn't pull out of the sale, instead find somewhere you can rent short term.
As others said get the electrician's details from the builder. It could be a case he hasnt been paid for first fix. Would kind of tie in why builder took time out (if he's not paying people that will cause his MH issues)

@HalzTangz we did think about renting but it will be really tricky. Most places are minimum 6 months so would be paying rent and mortgage for at least 6 months, we have a pet, have to stay relatively local for SEN transport, need to put in a secondary school application soon etc.

We’ve paid some people directly and were supposed to be doing that with electrician but then that changed so builder did it. Possible he’s not paid but don’t think that’s the case.

It’s a family holiday that’s been booked for ages that he’s on now (he talked about it months ago) it’s just super bad timing in terms of the project-it was supposed to be finished by now but it’s dragging. Don’t want to be too outing but part of the MH issues are to do with hassle he gets about work interfering with family life so by contacting him when he’s away, it’s making that worse if you see what I mean. I just don’t think we can

I dont know why you are making the builder's issues your issues.
You are paying him to provide a service.
Call him. Until he sends you the electrician you have paid for.

@Muma1992 because if he has a full breakdown, we’ll be in a worse position won’t we, nothing will get done (other renovations still going on). DH did call at the start of the week and he didn’t pick up just texted saying he’d call later and he didn’t.

Okay, let the builder enjoy his holiday while you dont get the service you paid for.

MH issues are awful. Unfortunately, he shouldn't be taking business if he can't fulfill the work. He isn't concerned about your MH, clearly.

@Muma1992 I totally agree with you. It’s been awful for me stress wise and he’s been really unprofessional bringing personal issues to work. He took on too many jobs at the same time and that’s caused an issue. But...the fact is, we are where we are. Practically, it’s easy to say keep ringing him etc but if that does tip him over the edge, that doesn’t help me or him does it? And no, he doesn’t care about my MH because he’s too far in his own issues.

@Retrievemysanity we've got v v old electrics not updated for ages. So we have the old plug sockets still in the skirting boards. Because we are living in it while he's doing it, he's turning off sections as he goes along. But when he goes, he leaves the old sockets working before he's wired in the new ones.

So it looks like this at the moment for example (photo attached). It only took a day for it to look like this to having sockets in so I imagine your electrician has done the majority of the work if it's only the sockets left to go (though he is also plastering where he needs to mend big spaces!).

It sounds like you're using the builder we just used. A lot claim they have family problems/"a lot going on"/"personal problems". He didn't show up very often and a one month job took 6 months. He rushed it at the end (due to our deadline, we were moving house too) and the finish was awful. It was all lies, he didnt realise his Facebook page wasn't on private! I can see all the other jobs he was completing inbetween finishing ours!
I paid for a service. It's sometimes hard to see that when you have a physical person stood in front of you in your home, telling you how hard done by they are. But they took your money and you're not getting what you paid for. The same as if you'd ordered something online from B&Q and it never showed up. Unfortunately, that's how it is when you run a business. You don't just accept you didn't get your ASDA food delivery until a week late, because the driver had personal problems.

@StrongArm ah, that’s good that you still have working sockets while the work is being done. I did wonder how you’d get on otherwise! Yes, ours has a hole like that, wires sticking out. Plasterer has plastered everything so I think then, it is just putting the sockets on but I don’t have a clue really! And not sure if that bit needs a ‘proper’ electrician or if anyone that knows what they’re doing can do it. That’s why it’s so frustrating because it’s such an important thing to us and it seems so close but not close enough!

@Muma1992 gosh, sorry to hear you had a similar stressful time with your works. The difficulty here is that we have used this guy before on our current house so we’ve known him a good 5 years or so and we do know that lots of stuff has gone on that is genuine and he does do the majority of childcare which I think plays a big part in the stress levels and ability to commit to work. He has said he’ll finish this job and then wind up his business as he can’t cope.

I guess your example of the delivery driver is a bit different isn’t it because I’d complain to Asda and they’d get a replacement. I can’t do that with the builder because there’s no one to complain to other than him and if he stands there shrugging saying ‘I can only do what I can do’ (which he’s done in the past) then where do we go? It may be that he does have a plan for next week and it all gets sorted, but from our point of view we just don’t know and so unsettling!!

[quote Retrievemysanity]@StrongArm ah, that’s good that you still have working sockets while the work is being done. I did wonder how you’d get on otherwise! Yes, ours has a hole like that, wires sticking out. Plasterer has plastered everything so I think then, it is just putting the sockets on but I don’t have a clue really! And not sure if that bit needs a ‘proper’ electrician or if anyone that knows what they’re doing can do it. That’s why it’s so frustrating because it’s such an important thing to us and it seems so close but not close enough![/quote]
PigletJohn would know, but I suspect you really do need a qualified electrician for that.
At the end of the job, you'll absolutley need a certificate signed by a qualified electrician to say it has all been done according to the rules. Your insurer will get arsey if you have an electrical fire if you've had uncertificated work done. And you/ll need the paperwork if you ever want to sell the house.

I found this page which explains it a bit: www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/find-an-electrician/part-p/

and this:

www.niceic.com/find-a-contractor/electrics-explained/what-are-the-different-types-of-electrical-certifi

Thanks to everyone who responded. Quick update, electrician has been and done a bit this weekend and said he’ll finish up tomorrow so please, positive vibes everyone that that side of things will all be sorted!

Builder meanwhile is still being a constant let down. Neighbours scurried out to tell us yesterday how no one ever turns up and when they do, it’s late starts, early finishes. Plasterer is ill for the second time in a month and a labourer didn’t turn up as they got drunk the night before aaaagh!

So sorry you're having such a hard time. With our long-term-doer-upper, I just try to grit my teeth and remind myself of how great it will be when it's all done. Fingers crossed for you.

@BlueMongoose thank you, appreciate your kind words. I just feel so tired and drained with it all, it’s like a nightmare that just keeps on going. On top of everything else that’s gone on the last 18 months I’m really at breaking point. However, DH is there today and says electrician is there so that’s a positive. Good luck with your doer upper and I hope it is amazing when finished.