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?

Rentals get a visual inspection once a year and every 5 years needs an full electrical inspection and it just lets landlords jump through insurance hoops and keep on top of the fabric of the building. You don't need to do it in your own house at all - assuming you are in a standard home.

Put your mind at rest and get a EICR done.
I think mine cost me £90-100.

Never had it done and had the house 20 years in may! I think I'll just wait til something electrocutes my husband and then get a sparky out!

I have a 1970s house and just had it rewired as the wiring was dangerous. The whole house was on one fuse (mad). My electrician cheerfully told me the whole house was in danger of burning down, the electrics were that bad!

Never had it checked unless we've had a problem. Whilst having some work done, we found out our old house had a large spur off the main circuit so we had to have that looked at. Electrician told us the houses in our road were rewired by ex Housing Association in 1970 and we did have some old power points in places. While he looked into the spur for safety, he also tested the electrics which were fine. No idea what state electrics are in now, but we know it hasn't been rewired since we moved out, so now 55 years old.

Our current electrics were installed in 2010, so certainly won't be getting them checked for many years until we have a reason to.

If your home has original electrics from 1950, obviously at some point in the near future it will need doing, so worth starting to budget for that now.

If you had the electrics checked and any issues resolved when you moved in, I really wouldn't worry about this at all.

House still has the original wiring and was built in 1960s. I've been here 28 years and never had a problem, and when we had electric put into a new garage the electrician said the consumer unit was fine. Old but fine... like me 😆

There is often a sticker on the consumer unit saying when the next inspection is due but I have something electrical done every couple of years so the electrician sees it all then.

We were advised to have our wiring checked after a flood from the flat upstairs - it was fine but the fuse box was not up to current specs. These specs are updated every few years and you may find that even if the wiring is fine and not that old, you will end up having to replace the fuse box. And, once an issue has been notified you are bound to do something about it, so just be aware of that.

Dependant on the electrician. I’d say up to £100.

Landlords are required by law to have EICR checks every 5 years. There is no such requirement for other domestic properties.

The property was built in the 1950s - when was it re-wired? If it hasn’t been re-wired since it was built then it’s something that I’d be getting done instead of a ‘check’ - properties should be re-wired every 25-30 years.

Our previous house we purchased in 1991 (built in the 1910s) - was re-wired in early 1980s last time before we purchased - we rewired again in 2007 when we had major building work done.

The exact same with the property we have just purchased. Built in 1970s, same owner from build - apart from a wet room installed about 20 years ago then not much work has been done to it, we completed in January and completely gutted the property back to brick - the electrician had told us that the previous owner was very very lucky to not have had a fire….

No electrical check is going to be able to check every wire in your house for deterioration - they'd have to pull out every wire and look at it.

Wires don't wear out - it's not how electricity works. What happens is the electrics are done badly in the first place, or the insulation might deteriorate - you'd always want to replace the really old fabric covered wires. Modern plastic insulation is most likely to deteriorate when it's nibbled through by animals - in which case you'll know when the electrics cut out because the wire is severed.

Consumer units/fuse boxes exist for a reason - they are designed to break the circuit if there's a problem. We've all been there where a fault has developed in an appliance and the switch goes in the consumer unit - that's the system doing the job it's supposed to do to keep you safe. Overloaded sockets, dodgy extension cables etc are more likely to lead to an electrical fire than old electrics.

We had ours checked about 2 years ago as we had a small issue that needed to be resolved. Tbh there's only 2 rooms in the house that haven't had some building work done in them so it should be okay. I periodically get the fear about things like this!

For the sake of £100ish I would get it checked.

We had to have our fuse box changed when we got an oven with a large induction hob as the electrician installing that was concerned the original one would not support it due to the power it draws. As part of that process they checked every plug and light socket in the house which was reassuring!

Unless there is some sort of issue from an enthusiastic diyer, and assuming the fuseboard is up to date, it is almost impossible for a house catch on fire from wiring!

@Pigeonqueen Label on our lovely new fuse box says to get it checked every 5 years.

Fwiw, we had a full re-wire in our 1950s ex-council house because there was only one socket in each room and just four fuses in the consumer unit (which were those wire fuses which were a nightmare to fix if a fuse tripped...which happened a lot). I worried a lot about fire and felt uneasy about having our major appliances plugged into extension leads. It cost us about £5500 in 2023, took 10 days and we had loads of extra electrics put in for extension and loft, extra sockets everywhere and fuse box with actual switches. Very messy but I'd recommend.

Never ever ever.... In decades of home ownership.... Have your consumer unit upgraded because you want a different arrangement or more circuits, yes. Have bits rewired because you want more sockets or different loads, yes. Find and replace faulty appliances causing earth leaks, yes. Anything else.. not needed