If you own your own house rather than rent, how often should you get your electrics tested? And do you?

[Pigeonqueen]

The wiring etc I mean …

We’ve been in our 1950s 3 bed semi since 2010 and I think when we first moved in we had the electrics checked. Do we need to do it again from a safety perspective? (ie similarly to having the boiler serviced annually- although I know electrics wouldn’t be annually, how many years)?

I don’t know why I’ve started thinking about it, there’s nothing “wrong” as far as I can tell. I guess I’m just aware that maybe they’re pretty old! Not a clue. Wondering what others do.

If you have had them tested, how much has it cost you?

It’s not something I have ever done but it certainly couldn’t hurt

Personally never bothered doing it formally.

BUT we have had work done over the years so the installation has been tested.

We had the electrics checked when we bought our house last year and it cost about £85 I think.

No idea other than about price but interested to see replies.

Once every 5 years

www.openrent.co.uk/landlord-electrical-safety-certificates-eicr-pat-testing

Thank you for the replies. Hmm maybe we should do it then. I’m just worried we’re going to get told the whole house needs rewiring when it doesn’t actually need it. 😬

I never think to do it.

We do it as we are thatched. Every ten years.

We have a 1930s house and it didn’t need rewiring - just a new consumer unit which wasn’t too expensive.

We live in an apartment and having circuits checked every 10 years is a condition of the building.

I've never thought of this, but my house is quite new (about 20 yo). Probably should though!

If there are any problems you would have fuses blowing or the earth leakage tripping. If no ones been doing anything to it there should be no problem (assuming it's all relatively modern). If they test to latest standards it may well fail, but it only has to comply with the standards when it was installed.

It doesn't need checking unless you have a thatched house or you are having issues with it. Wires don't degrade by themselves, they can only degrade if there is a long term maintainence issue which is being ignored like long term damp. I think it's a total waste of money.

Had my 11 year old house checked turned out the builders had never completed the earth circuit!

I would hope it would have been re-wired at some time since the 30s, if an electrician thought it was OK, things have changed a lot for the better since then. Did they say how old the wiring was?

If you got it checked when you moved in, you should have a good idea about what likely needs doing. I wouldn't do it again unless I was having a specific problem or was planning on selling. We've only ever had ours checked when we've had work done e.g. a kitchen refit or extension.

Weirdly I find electricians to be the least "inflationary" when it comes to work needed. Perhaps they all hate rewiring older properties so don't want to suggest it :-)

Sorry, I mistyped in my post - it’s a 1960s house! No idea where 30s came from

I have both , my own home never my rental every 3-5 yrs

Never. This is not a thing. An electric check is going to check whether you have an up-to-date consumer unit and whether your sockets are appropriate for current building regs etc. The regs might change, but your electrics won't unless you actively go in and change them.

Ours is quite old and they recommended upgrading but told us it was safe to be left still. It's worth checking incase it's not safe though. They did find one thing that needed changing (a metal light switch wasn't earthed) so definitely something worth checking and may be a similar thing which is cheap to fix.

I don't have rentals but I've just had that realisation that we don't check any cables until something happens like power flops when multiple items used (in the old building apartment) so we've had new cables put in (eye watering costs). It did make me think do I need to check the other property but I'm intimidated by the costs! I only did it at the apartment because we are here a lot due to school and the power kept cutting out. Its not just new cables but also multiple other things we will have to do electric related 😱

I have very old wiring in my house. What happens if you don't get a rewire done? It all works perfectly fine...

No. I moved in three years ago and had done rewording done then. Unless there is a fault why would you? I mean you'll know pretty quick if there's an issue.

33 years in this house (was a new build when we bought it) and never had the electrics checked specifically. We have had work done over the years which included needing a new consumer unit - although even that was 20 years ago now. Never occurred to me to get them tested.

Interesting reading the range of replies. I suppose my main worry is that something will catch fire somewhere 🙈🤔 is that even a thing? I mean I guess I’d know if there was a dodgy wire as things would be flickering or cutting out but I worry that something won’t cut out properly or some old wiring will catch fire when we’re all asleep. Probably irrational. I do like to panic… which is why I started the thread.