home report and a smoky fusebox

[SparkyTris]

I recently viewed a house which is on the open market, with a view to purchase. This is one of the fuseboxes in the house:

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• SparkyTris
• 18 Nov 2014
• 1

I had read the statutory Home Report before viewing the house. Here are all the parts of the Home Report that make reference to "Electric"

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• SparkyTris
• 18 Nov 2014
• 1

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• SparkyTris
• 18 Nov 2014
• 1

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• SparkyTris
• 18 Nov 2014
• 1

Would it be reasonable to expect the Home Report to make some mention of the fact that one of the fuseboxes has apparently undergone some stress?

Incidentally, the fusebox had been in that state since the house was built in 1998. The home report is dated 2014.

 

[wingcoax]

Are there traces of a funny smell in the property? Are all the floorboards in place? Looks to me there has been a serious overloading of circuits(Indoor vegetable patch)

 

[skenk]

The Home Report is a sham. Name and shame the company responsible pls! Last two properties where I am familiar with the electrical installation whose home reports I looked at. 1) PVC/PVC wiring throughout with an earth, split load 6yr old CU - got a code 2 for electrics because some sockets are low in the wall and there was an old, redundant (disconnected) 3036 fuseboard which has previously served storage heaters many years ago. 2) No earth in cloth/rubber/conduit lighting circuit; multiple unsheathed in-service wiring; masses of rubber and lead sheath cable; wooden back-boxes and ancient accessories; dodgy diy alterations everywhere (and much more...) got a code 1. The electrics parts of a home report are worthless!

 

[bernardgreen]

The MCB that was next to the main switch was the first failure from severe overload and /or loose terminal. The heat from that fault melted the cover and therefor was hot enough to have damaged the adjacent main switch. The MCB that had been next was scorched and has been replaced but then fitted as the far end of the row of MCBs

With that much damage at the front of the CU there is no doubt there will be carbon and maybe copper deposits spread around the back of the CU. If the main switch was an RCU it is likely these deposits could cause enough earth leakage to trip it.

IT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED

 

[skotl]

That's appalling that the home report assessor scored that as a one.

Slightly off-topic, but perhaps helps to explain; we moved house 2.5 years ago and, as expected, got a copy of the seller's home report.
When we decided to move forward, our mortgage broker said "You need to pay for a home report".

"Eh?", we responded, "it's already got a home report that the buyer paid for!".

Their response was "Yes, but every assessor who works on behalf of selling solicitors knows that he should never write a bad report, otherwise the selling solicitor will never use him again. So, other than the valuation and a couple of other pointers re energy-efficiency, the seller's home report has no value to a buyer, and especially not to a mortgage lender".


Great, huh? So the seller needs to pay for a home report by law, and then we buyers (and prospective buyers) still need to commission our own.

 

[skenk]

Um, most home reports come with a valuation from a surveyor on the big banks' 'approved list' and no further survey is necessary for a mortgage lender. I agree that the repair codes in the single survey have little value to a prospective purchaser though.

Your mortgage broker sounds like a chancer (aren't they all!?)

 

[AlanE]

Gas is more my line.

That report refers to gas supply stating 'bottled Butane gas plumbed into cooker hob. Gas bottles stored against wall'

So where are the cylinders supplying the hob? If outside don't expect hob to work in cold weather. Or has he got the gas type wrong?

 

[SparkyTris]

Thanks very much BernardGreen for the forensic analysis.

A few years ago, I comissioned this same "surveyor" to do one of these reports on a private-sale house which I now live in. (so I got him in from the other side of a purchase) the result of that was that I lost all confidence in any of his reports.

needless to say, I wasn't too surprised that his report did not mention the roasted fusebox.

its a difficult situation. He's a one-man band, and the area is very tight-knit community. I don't really want to rock the boat and most people with a bit of savvy know that he is at best incompetent and at worst a crook. I feel like I ought to report him, but do we really need the aggro. possibly a "friendly visit" is the right thing... again difficult because he is 20 years older than me.

this is the sort of thing that ultimately can get people into negative equity innit? especially this area where a surprising proportion of housing stock is technically unmortgagable.... if the actual lender saw the proposed collateral, they likely would not regard it as suitable!

 

[JohnW2]

its a difficult situation. He's a one-man band, and the area is very tight-knit community. I don't really want to rock the boat and most people with a bit of savvy know that he is at best incompetent and at worst a crook. I feel like I ought to report him, but do we really need the aggro. possibly a "friendly visit" is the right thing... again difficult because he is 20 years older than me.

As you say, it's somewhat of a difficult situation. However, that report is clearly plain ridiculous, at least as far as the electrical bits are concerned - hence a potential danger to anyone who interprets it as meaning that the electrical installation is safe. He has, of course, covered himself to some extent by recommending that the installation should be inspected by an electrical engineer - but that's still no excuse for what he's written in the report.

One has to assume that he didn't even see that consumer unit (so what else didn't he look at?) - since even a 5-year-old who saw that would probably realise that something was wrong!

Kind Regards, John

 

[bernardgreen]

its a difficult situation. He's a one-man band, and the area is very tight-knit community. ~~~ ~~~ I feel like I ought to report him, but do we really need the aggro. possibly a "friendly visit" is the right thing

One man band or not he is giving in-accurate reports and that could result in a buyer of a dangerous property suffering harm, injury or other loss because of the in-correct report. That could result in him being sued for negligence so it is in his own interests that he be "re-educated" as to what is and what is not dangerous. So report him.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

One man band or not he is giving in-accurate reports and that could result in a buyer of a dangerous property suffering harm, injury or other loss because of the in-correct report. That could result in him being sued for negligence so it is in his own interests that he be "re-educated" as to what is and what is not dangerous. So report him.

Him being made to pay back the fees he'd been given to provide a service he clearly didn't provide would be good too.

 

[deadshort]

Are you sure the board has not been disconnected and is out of service ? It is marked 'off peak'. If the property has gas central heating you have the answer You have chopped off the home report just before heating so only you can tell !


Regards,

DS

 

[JohnW2]

Are you sure the board has not been disconnected and is out of service ? It is marked 'off peak'. If the property has gas central heating you have the answer You have chopped off the home report just before heating so only you can tell !

Yes, I suppose that is a possibility which none of us has considered. However, there appear to be some tails entering it at least one from the nearby Henley, which looks as if it is probably in-service), presumably going to the main switch which appears to have been very close to a conflagration - so, even if the CU is 'out of use', it doesn't look to me as if it has been 'disconnected' (from supply), hence not really safe.

Kind Regards, John

 

[stardanny]

If you seen electric storage heaters in house, this is the CU for storage heaters?

I'm asking because you can see bottles gas for hob.

Daniel.

 

[IJWS15]

Are you sure the board has not been disconnected and is out of service ? It is marked 'off peak'. If the property has gas central heating you have the answer You have chopped off the home report just before heating so only you can tell !

Yes, I suppose that is a possibility which none of us has considered. However, there appear to be some tails entering it at least one from the nearby Henley, which looks as if it is probably in-service), presumably going to the main switch which appears to have been very close to a conflagration - so, even if the CU is 'out of use', it doesn't look to me as if it has been 'disconnected' (from supply), hence not really safe.

Kind Regards, John

And all but one of the breakers are 15A.