Saw this post - just registered to reply to it - I have to sympathise with this fella. I was in the same boat in Feb this year. Sold house STC, buyers had homebuyers survey done - recommended gas and electric survey. No prob I thought until I got my copy. Loads of 1' and 2's on the PIR. Started researching it all, never heard of Part P, regs etc so it came as a bit of a shock. NICEIC bloke pulled my place to pieces in my opinion.
Tried to get in touch with the buyer to find out how to resolve, wouldnt respond. Told my estate agent that the only way we were going to resolve this was to talk about it. Buyer said he wouldnt talk to me direct, only through solicitor etc. Sat on it for 2 weeks. Meanwhile Im getting worried about buying my new place and the chain - stress indeed when you cant get someone (who supposedly wants to buy your house) to talk to resolve it.
I then sought to get the most serious 'defects' fixed by someone I know because I thought, you are not going to angle for a lower price here mate, got them fixed, certificated at minimal cost to me then 2 weeks later, letter from his solicitor 'In respect of the electrical survey, would you be prepared to make an allowance.............'.
I sent them the certificate with a covering letter saying Ive done this much, the installation is now safe (We lived there 7 yrs and the damn place had always been safe as per retrospective regs) and that if he wanted the remainder sorted he could pay, now lets crack on!
This little episode almost cost us our new house due to time delay as our vendor threatened to pull out the next week due to delay and had I not got the issues fixed myself, my buyers dithering would have collapsed the chain. I knew our buyers really wanted our house and I even said that if we lost the house we wanted to buy, they would lose our house because we would stay and still they dithered.
It is a difficult position to be in, because you want to tell them to go **** themselves, but you cant because you want them to buy your house.
The whole situation opened my eyes to part P, however, I did electrics before and I will continue unless I feel out of my depth, whether part P says I can or not. I am not going to pay LABC or a spark to do something I have done before, safely, and know I can do.