Electrics in ex-rental

[mnahmnah]

Hi

We have found a house we would like to buy. It’s been rented out for the last two years, when the children of the owners inherited it. They put a new kitchen and boiler in at that time. I know in order to rent out a property, it has to meet certain standards.

We are wondering about the state of the electrics. It looks like something was probably done to improve them for renting out. But what standard had to be met for renting standards? Could we still potentially be looking at rewiring the whole property? Thanks for any advice!

It wasn't compulsory until recently to have any sort of electrical test. So it might never have had one.

1st April 2021 it was introduced so you might be lucky.

It looks like the regulations came in in 2020, so it must have met those standards if it was rented out in the last two years?

But how strict are those standards? Could we still face electrical work, reworking etc? There are multiple sockets in each room which seems odd. Eight in one corner of the kitchen!

Do you know if it was rented thought an agency or privately? An agency would make sure they were compliant.

You could ask for a copy of the electrical safely certificate.

this is pretty informative and includes a link to the actual wiring regulations https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electrical-safety-standards-in-the-private-rented-sector-guidance-for-landlords-tenants-and-local-authorities/guide-for-landlords-electrical-safety-standards-in-the-private-rented-sector

Good point. I can ask for that info from the estate agents hopefully. I had a look at that link earlier, but I’m not sure if it means JUST safe, or whether there is still potential for lots of work needing to be done. I don’t want to get further down the line, paying for a survey etc if this electrical testing doesn’t mean that much

If you can get a copy of the certificate, maybe you can call the electrician who did the test and ask what it involves
If it was a complete horror show they’d probably remember and try to get your business.
Maybe I’m turning into a CF in my old age

Yes! Great idea. I’ve emailed the estate agents asking for the info.

It should have had an EICR done, but they're really quite basic in scope - designed to catch the things most likely to cause a fire and not much beyond that. https://pssinstallations.co.uk/eicr-test-procedure-what-happens-during-the-test/

When I bought my house, we did check the electrics (including using a socket tester) and all looked well. We also had a Level 3 RICS survey.

Let's just say that we discovered some incredibly dangerous electrics when we moved in - we were incredibly lucky the house hadn't gone up in flames. The kitchen electrics were some of the worst they'd ever seen - only visible once they started removing the kitchen tiles - and necessitated a full rewire of the kitchen (and two of the electricians managed to get shocks in the process - it was that bad).

It hadn't had an EICR, but almost certainly would have passed one as the consumer unit was fine, the sockets looked fine, and the socket tester also didn't flag up any issues.

I wouldn't say it's necessarily odd. A lot of people say you can never have enough sockets 🤣Socket fest

Why?! What were the unplugging in?!

*plugging!

Every room looks like ITU!

So they got the electrical testing certificate done to current standards last august.