Consumer unit to replace old fuse box.

[SUNRAY]

Or sell now before the dip in both prices and rents. Long term, property is always a good investment but I fear a significant short term dip is somewhat imminant, and the OP would be forced to either sell lower or ride out what could be a difficult rental market for the best part of a decade.

I'm with @flameport market seems to be somewhere near peak, its a good time to sell unless you want to be in it long term

prices have already dropped to some extent and are currently being purchased for rentals, 2 elderly deaths in our road and both sold before the board went up. I have some rental properties and dealings with a number of property managers from that side and also the electrical EICR side.

I don't see why rent should fall unless we have a major financial crash like late 80's, and that was with interest rates falling which led to higher rates and negative equity.

 

[Murdochcat]

How would the OP be able to tell if it’s been done properly?

Not go with the cheapest and be onsite when it’s done

1/2 day onsite probably

 

[Gordonwon]

In general there are several reasons why wiring may need to be replaced.

1. The house is wired in old rubber, old rubber cabling is way past it's safe lifespan at this point.
2. The house was wired with cable from a bad batch. Most plastic-insulated cable lasts a very long time, but there have been bad batches that have not stood the test of time.
3. The wiring was horribly bodged and was never fit for purpose.
4. The usage of the installation has changed and the provision is no longer appropriate.

If one of these problems is happening on a localised basis then a localised fix is likely to be appropriate, but if they permeate the entire installation then there comes a point at which it's easier to just start again.

On the other hand, there are still plenty of properties wired with plastic-insulated wiring in the 1980s, 1970s and perhaps even 1960s where the wiring is still in a perfectly serviceable condition to this day and with a new fusebox and potentially a few other minor fixes they can continue to give many more years of service.


The aren't banned per-se, however they don't provide RCD protection and with the possible exception of upper floor flats lack of any RCD protection for sockets will almost certainly get you an "unsatisfactory" on an EICR.

While there are potentially ways to add enough RCD protection to scrape a "satisfactory" without replacing the CU doing so is unlikely to be a sensible way forward.

The property has had no problems with tripping or lights blown.
Electric shower was Installed about 10yrs ago by an approved electrician . Would he of checked wires and condition before hand.

 

[Taylortwocities]

The property has had no problems with tripping or lights blown.

That is not any sort of guide to the condition of the installation. The fuses in your old fusebox will only blow (not “trip”) in the event of a very high current. And there is no RCD that might indicate an earth fault.

A proper inspection, test and report is the only way.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Would he of checked wires and condition before hand.

Would he have checked...

 

[ericmark]

Price wise, last 4 years this house has really gone up in price, the house I sold has near enough stayed static. All depends on area.

 

[SUNRAY]

Likewise in my area. At the start of Covid prices fell and houses being purchased also stopped. Until Mrs Mays blunder they were rising and now since the hiccup rising much faster and I've even heard the word gazumping being used. Currently anything requiring work is selling so fast it's very difficult to find them (and there is lots) There are now 3 very near me being renovated by investors/by to let.

In OPs situation in this area, would I sell? As long as I had the means to ensure it was in a rentable state (to me that's a state I'd be happy to live in) there is no way I'd be selling at the moment and have been looking to add to my portfolio, however that's with nearly 30 years renting experience under my belt. To a newbie the thought may be a very daunting proposal and I know to many the thought of being a landlord is akin to being an astronaut or some other unatainable/dangerous operation.

I do of course know it's very different now but my first property was inherited like OP and additional purchases purchased on B2L mortgages but whole thing has been self supporting and I've seen my properties increase in value by around 1000% and since the mortgages have been paid off early (probably in around 30% of term) taken a decent profit to the point I really REALLY regret ever spending money on a private pension which I paid into for 25 years and end up with a pittance, each property has cost me almost nothing in the long run and pays me more than the pension.

Yes I know things are different now but the basic premise is a free property and some investment for an income now. In the future sell at a higher price - and yes the value will increase, despite the peaks and troughs the trend is always up.

 

[plugwash]

Would he of checked wires and condition before hand.

There are certain things that should be checked before doing any work, mainly that earthing and bonding are satisfactory, but aside from that, there is no compulsion to check parts of the installation that are not being worked on. Also particularly in the case of adaptation works for elderly/disabled people there is no budget to fix things beyond the immediate scope of the adaptation works.

It looks like whoever installed the shower installed a small CU with two breakers, I would guess one of them feeds the shower itself and the other feeds lighting and/or a fan associated with the works.

 

[crystal ball]

No often you can just swap fuse box for a consumer unit, pre 1966 often rubber cables and no earth post 1966 normally OK, there was a short time when Ian Smith was in power we had Ali cables, but need as said some form of inspection first.

You trot the Ian Smith story out regularly, with no evidence to back it up

 

[Murdochcat]

Ian Smith ?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Ian Smith ?

Ian Smith - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[SUNRAY]

Sell it.

House prices are not going to be increasing, you don't need the property, and remedials to meet rental standards will cost a non-trivial amount.
Then there's the possibility of tenants causing damage, problems and so on.

Slightly blinkered comment I feel.

more than slightly realistic opinion I feel, yes sell it

What I didn't mention when I posted that was; I assisted with an EICR on a rental property in early June ordered by the letting agent as part of their sales department selling it. A company I have a reasonable amount of dealings with including managing one of my properties.
The property already had the for sale board up and was in a lovely clean condition. We spent 2 hours there, some of which was with the tenant present. After the inspection I returned the keys to the agent and we chatted. The tenant was under notice to vacate by end of July and agent said she was a good tenant and struggling to find another nice property to move into.
According to the official paperwork the property was vacated on July 28th and keys handed over etc.

The tenant had to stay in a hotel with her daughter as they could find nowhere else (just happened to be Splash Landings).

1st August a brand new tenancy agreement between Sunray and a highly recommended single parent family began and I handed over the keys to her myself.

Jobs for me: replace 50 year old NSH's, replace 50 year old Wylex CU's, replace front door, top up loft insulation. I estimate £5K on top of the £140K purchase price.

Keep it if you possibly can, property is still the best long term investment, you will not regret it in 10 years time when the price has doubled .

Blup

I hope so.

2 months ago the last thing on my mind was buying another property but this one dropped into my lap so to speak. Fingers crossed the doom mongers have it wrong.

 

[JohnW2]

Sell it. House prices are not going to be increasing ...

As has been said, that may be somewhat of a 'blinkered' view. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that house prices are not going to increase in the short term, the history of the past many decades is that, over the longer terms, house prices relentlessly rise, usually in excess of what could be achieved by any other 'investment'

, you don't need the property, and remedials to meet rental standards will cost a non-trivial amount. Then there's the possibility of tenants causing damage, problems and so on.

All true, but still may not mean that, over an appreciable period of time, selling would be a (financially) better option, although I agree that renting out houses is not without its problems, and not generally anything like a way of 'making a fortune'!.

One thing that has not been mentioned (in relation to not selling) is Capital Gains Tax (if the property were retained but then eventually sold during the OPs lifetime), which would take an appreciable bite out of the (long-term) increase in house value. That may shift the argument in the direction of selling, but a lot obviously depends upon what one would do with the proceeds of the sale.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ebee]

"house prices relentlessly rise, usually in excess of what could be achieved by any other 'investment'"
Buying gold would have been a lot better choice. Our nations change from the gold standard to back our nations wealth was a big mistake so my proff friend has told me. The Politicians all got it wrong (All meaning them that advocated dumping it whilst actually purchasing heaps of the stuff I mean - of course they would not do it on purpose!)

 

[JohnW2]

"house prices relentlessly rise, usually in excess of what could be achieved by any other 'investment'" ... Buying gold would have been a lot better choice.

In relatively recent times, that's undoubtedly true, although I'm not sure that many 'ordinary people' consider investing in gold. As far as I can make out, in the period from Q1 2000 until Q3 2022 (just before the recent fall in UK house prices), gold increased from about 293 US$/ounce to 1,784 US$/ounce (about a 6.1-fold increase, whereas UK average house princes increased from about £77.7k to 273k (about a 3.6-fold increase.

Our nations change from the gold standard to back our nations wealth was a big mistake so my proff friend has told me. The Politicians all got it wrong (All meaning them that advocated dumping it whilst actually purchasing heaps of the stuff I mean - of course they would not do it on purpose!)

I thought that the UK abandoned the gold standard over 90 years ago, in which case that change would not explain changes in recent times (as above)? If one looks at the very long-term changes, in the 50 years up to Q3 2022, gold seems to have increased from about 65 to 1,784 US$/ounce, (about a 27.4-fold increase), whereas average UK house prices have risen more, from about £7.4k to £273k (about a 36.9-fold increase).

Having said that, over that long (50 year) time period, a person buying gold in GBP would probably have done better than by investing in UK property, since there has been a very marked change in GBP/USD exchange rates since 1972 (but not a lot of change since 2000). However, that benefit of 'investing in gold' derives from the change in exchange rates, not the changing price (in US$) of the gold.

However, as I said above, I doubt that many ordinary people consider investing in gold, so I'm still inclined to think that (considering only 'financial return') there will be few other commonly-used type of investments that would do better than investment in UK property. However, as always, I might be wrong!

Kind Regards, John