failed eicr, whats the next step please ?

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Hi, I have a rental property with a few failures on the eicr.

I have a few items I need to address eg mcb ratings to change (even though they passed last time with the same company)

Do I need to get a certificate to say thats been done or can I do it myself and document it ?
thanks
 
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I'm not sure what the official legal line is, Im sure John will be along soon and I'm sure he'll advise accordingly. But realistically I suspect you'd be sensible to end up with some kind of document from an enitity which carries appropiate PI cover saying its all ok, whether or not that is an electrical installation certficiate worded as such "To correct defects 1,5,6 on XYZ-EICR carried out by another contractor, leaving the installation with no remaining C1 or C2 issues" or simply a cover letter on headed paper saying the same. I suspect that having no documentaion other than that issued by yourself would at the very least be heavily frowned upon, unless you have qualifications to prove you are competant in electrical work, otherwise every rogue landlord would just be saying they'd fixed all the problems themselves!

What issues have been flagged up? We have seen on here that sometimes spurious issues have been classed as making an installation unsatsifactory

You could query with the company why its now unsatisfactory if the same issues were there before and whether they

a) had not been picked up the first time (its legitimate for some issues, but probably for a breaker/cable size mismatch that should have been spotted before,
b) been coded differently due to a different chap doing the EICR
c) been affected by regulation changes
d) Got worse over time
 
There is this guide for landlords in England Wales and Scotland are different. It simply says "Landlords must then provide written confirmation that the work has been carried out to their tenant and to the local authority within 28 days." for the electrician to do the inspection it states he needs insurance and a level 3 qualification, but I have seen nothing about anyone doing a repair, clearly if the repair will need Part P registration then either you need a scheme member or have to pay LABC to get a compliance or completion certificate, but personally I would say if you have before and after photos as proof, then as with all health and safety things, even a note on fag packet would do.

It does seem strange in one way, but I have had it where some one has phoned with a fault, I have gone to the building as I have heard "unit 5", but could not make out what the guy was saying, on getting there no one has admitted phoning and not fault found, and only thing I could do was walk away. It was found again latter and fixed, but it did point out how to be traceable it needs to be written down, however a text message is considered as in writing. So you can email the tenant or text them but can't simply talk to them on the phone. With most health and safety the writing down, is to avoid errors, and keep a record.

Where the problem arises is where an inspector reports a fault, but when an electrician gets there he can't see any fault, this has happened many times, I have walked into a hotel with an EICR and to be frank wondered if the report was for the same building.
 
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There is this guide for landlords in England Wales and Scotland are different. It simply says "Landlords must then provide written confirmation that the work has been carried out to their tenant and to the local authority within 28 days." for the electrician to do the inspection it states he needs insurance and a level 3 qualification, but I have seen nothing about anyone doing a repair, clearly if the repair will need Part P registration then either you need a scheme member or have to pay LABC to get a compliance or completion certificate, but personally I would say if you have before and after photos as proof, then as with all health and safety things, even a note on fag packet would do.

It does seem strange in one way, but I have had it where some one has phoned with a fault, I have gone to the building as I have heard "unit 5", but could not make out what the guy was saying, on getting there no one has admitted phoning and not fault found, and only thing I could do was walk away. It was found again latter and fixed, but it did point out how to be traceable it needs to be written down, however a text message is considered as in writing. So you can email the tenant or text them but can't simply talk to them on the phone. With most health and safety the writing down, is to avoid errors, and keep a record.

Where the problem arises is where an inspector reports a fault, but when an electrician gets there he can't see any fault, this has happened many times, I have walked into a hotel with an EICR and to be frank wondered if the report was for the same building.
I too have been out to 'repair' after EICR and found the highlighted problems have been fine. In one I was sent to correct the neutral wiring to a 3ph heater system [albeit powering 3 single phase heaters] listed as sharing neutral, the only shared neutral was part of the 3ph supply.
 
Thanks, apart from the circuit breaker mismatches, the copper of the cable looks black in one of the flats, which they said is unusual, they put it as thermal damage but theres no sign of insulation etc melting.

the other issue was a low insulation reading on an internal lighting circuit fitted with a pir sensor.
when i questioned the engineer he said he had asked his boss if the sensor could have caused this, but the boss said put it down on the report.
 
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the other issue was a low insulation reading on an internal lighting circuit fitted with a pir sensor.
when i questioned the engineer he said he had asked his boss if the sensor could have caused this, but the boss said put it down on the report.
You might want to ask more about that. If they did the IR test with the PIR circuit, it certainly mioght have affected to IR readings but, depending on how they actually did the IR test, might even have damaged the PIR.

Did he give that a "C2" code? If so, you should ask what 'urgent remedial action' he believes should be undertaken.

Kind Regards, John
 
Are any more of the wires that black colour? I see it on the stranded wires and maybe on the earth wire
I've had this effect on a coaxial cable which I put down to water ingress, no way was it possible it had overheated.
The dirt on those surfaces isn't just dust, I think it looks like it's been subject to something atmospheric but before anything else I'd like to know how many wires are black.
 
If that ring final has been attached to the 40A breaker, could that have a bearing?
 
Thanks I think they all are black but Ill double check today.
 
You might want to ask more about that. If they did the IR test with the PIR circuit, it certainly mioght have affected to IR readings but, depending on how they actually did the IR test, might even have damaged the PIR.

Did he give that a "C2" code? If so, you should ask what 'urgent remedial action' he believes should be undertaken.

Kind Regards, John
Thanks, they gave “F1” code, “Further investigation to ascertain fault on circuit.

on the black cables its “Further investigation to ascertain extent of thermal damage”
 
If that ring final has been attached to the 40A breaker, could that have a bearing?
Thanks, That 40a breaker is for a shower Im currently getting no hot water from, but I know the shower is ok as it works when in a different flat. Could this possibly be the cause ?
 

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