EICR - costs and recommendations for SE London electricians?

[aguhiyori]

The house we're buying hasn't had an electrical safety inspection while the current owners have been there and from what they've told us so far it looks like the previous owners might have cut corners on maintenance. So we'd like to get a full electrical installation condition report done - we're FTBs and don't want to find ourselves unexpectedly facing a huge bill for rewiring if it turns out the electrics are ancient/unsafe.

Can anyone recommend an electrician in SE London? And any ideas how much this would cost?

I had one done by Empire Mechanical and Electrical Ltd; based in Kent but I'm in SE London. I think we paid about £150 for the report. They were reliable and nice to deal with and did some remedial work to a good standard.

Oh and also, you might want to ask your vendor to get it done as part of the sale. We did it for our buyers - they aren't legally obliged, but worth asking.

@dotdotdotdash

Oh and also, you might want to ask your vendor to get it done as part of the sale. We did it for our buyers - they aren't legally obliged, but worth asking.

@dotdotdotdash We've thought about asking for that, depending on cost. How did you go about it - did you choose the electrician or did they? No reason to distrust the sellers at all (at least none that I'm aware of!) but would probably prefer to appoint electrician myself to make sure of getting the full report first-hand.

You send a request for the EICR via your solicitor to their solicitor and see what they say. Then it's down to them to get it done and find an electrician to do it. If you want the control, pay for it yourself and find your own electrician.

Our buyer has asked for one, as we’ve had no electrical work done but have been here for six weeks. Our solicitor has advised us to say no, as they’re often used to negotiate price without real reason. Our house is old, 1890s, and won’t meet the EICR requirements.

We were told to expect it to cost around £200, and we’d either pay for it and choose the electrician or allow access - but we’ve politely declined, as our solicitor advised.

@TakeYourFinalPosition

Our buyer has asked for one, as we’ve had no electrical work done but have been here for six weeks. Our solicitor has advised us to say no, as they’re often used to negotiate price without real reason. Our house is old, 1890s, and won’t meet the EICR requirements.

We were told to expect it to cost around £200, and we’d either pay for it and choose the electrician or allow access - but we’ve politely declined, as our solicitor advised.

In our case we don't plan to use an EICR to "negotiate price without real reason" - it's more a matter of forewarned is forearmed! I would think that it's preferable to know of any such issues before committing to the purchase, particularly if there's no evidence of an inspection having been carried out for 10+ years.

I think we would only use it to negotiate if it turned up really severe issues such as a need for immediate remedial works or extensive rewiring. Do you think it would be helpful to offer an undertaking in advance not to use the EICR as the basis for spurious renegotiation attempts?

No, it would not be helpful. Who is to say what is spurious or not? And what if the report shows you need a complete rewire and you do want to renegotiate? Just get a report done if you want one and go from there. It's advisable if the electrics look old.

The vendor has no legal obligation to provide a EICR but I would always ask.

@aguhiyori You could, but to be honest, we just took the advice of our solicitor - which was that the house is fine, we've had no issues with the electrics and nothing installed, but it was built in 1890 and it won't meet the EICR requirements, so the report will be full of advise to upgrade everything.

We wanted to compromise and offer an electrical inspection instead, incase they just wanted to know that it was all safe, but apparently that's not allowed and it's an EICR or nothing, so we declined.

It doesn't mean you won't get one, your vendor might be very happy to do one; and you may well want to negotiate off the back of the report if you do get one!

But I thought I'd offer the other side. I'd have just gone ahead with it if it was me, but our solicitor strongly advised that especially after this years' updates to EICR, it wasn't worth anything to us or them, as the report wouldn't go any further than saying it's not up to current standards, and we both know that it's not, but it's fine and safe.

[quote TakeYourFinalPosition]@aguhiyori You could, but to be honest, we just took the advice of our solicitor - which was that the house is fine, we've had no issues with the electrics and nothing installed, but it was built in 1890 and it won't meet the EICR requirements, so the report will be full of advise to upgrade everything.

We wanted to compromise and offer an electrical inspection instead, incase they just wanted to know that it was all safe, but apparently that's not allowed and it's an EICR or nothing, so we declined.

It doesn't mean you won't get one, your vendor might be very happy to do one; and you may well want to negotiate off the back of the report if you do get one!

But I thought I'd offer the other side. I'd have just gone ahead with it if it was me, but our solicitor strongly advised that especially after this years' updates to EICR, it wasn't worth anything to us or them, as the report wouldn't go any further than saying it's not up to current standards, and we both know that it's not, but it's fine and safe.[/quote]
Thanks, that's a very useful perspective to have!