NAPIT Sign off Issue

[JohnK106]

Hi,

Hopefully someone can advise. We had some work done in 2011 that involved electrical changes for which the electrician working for the contractor gave us a NAPIT certificate with the Gas / Water Supply boxes ticked to say they were bonded. Didn't check - ok probably should have done in hindsight, but the lights & electrics all worked so that was fine

Fast forward to now & we're having some further work done, & the electrician comes & asks if the gas & water supply are bonded & I say sure here's the certificate. He then checks & says, no it isn't!!

New electrician says I can't do anything contact the previous guy, NAPIT etc. We do, & after a couple of texts from the contractor saying we'll look into it we get full radio silence & everything is ignored. We've given him every opportunity to come & show where it has been bonded etc, & given him the subsequent quote the new electrician gave us to carry out the work?

The work needs to be done, so NAPIT advise that the new electrician can do the work, but he's then signing off the work, & we lose any cover from the previous electrician over the work he did. The new electrician has now done the work at my cost now & I think my next action seeing as I've had no feedback from the previous contractor is to go to the small claims court to get the costs back.

Thoughts? Sorry for long post

Thanks, JK

 

[ericmark]

Personally I think it's unlikely you will get any joy with small claims court. Been there found in my favour but never got the money. There is a problem with bonding in that today it may not be visible and also other trades have been know to remove bonding wires. Using a meter one can test the resistance and clearly if that is high you can say bonding does not exist but in real terms the cost of showing it does not exist i.e. pay for new electricians time to come to court is only considered worth while when there has been an injury as a result.

Your only hope is NAPIT etc. Getting the guy to fork out. And to put a wire between water, gas, and electric is not a big job I have spent less than 1/2 hour doing that job which is less money than it would cost for an inspector to visit.

Of course it varies house to house in my sons house water is plastic so no real reason to bond. In the main gas will feed some item which has an electric supply so those items will earth the gas pipes. So if tested with a meter likely it will show the gas is bonded. However since you have got another electrician to bond can't see how any inspector could ever test to show it was not bonded.

 

[JohnW2]

Hopefully someone can advise. We had some work done in 2011 that involved electrical changes for which the electrician working for the contractor gave us a NAPIT certificate with the Gas / Water Supply boxes ticked to say they were bonded. Didn't check - ok probably should have done in hindsight, but the lights & electrics all worked so that was fine Fast forward to now & we're having some further work done, & the electrician comes & asks if the gas & water supply are bonded & I say sure here's the certificate. He then checks & says, no it isn't!!

Did the 2011 electrician claim to have installed (and charged for installing) bonding, or did he merely tick the boxes on the certificate to say that bonding was present? If the latter then, apart from a (probable) error in completing the form, you would really have no 'not done' work to claim for the cost of. I say 'probable' error - since, as eric has said, even if it is correct that bonding was present in 2011 (but not now), the electrician could argue that someone (maybe a plumber) may have subsequently removed it.

Kind Regards, John

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Don't Napit have a Work Guarantee Scheme? And 6 year period to claim for non-compliant work?
If the original installer is not able or willing to correct the work, I would be putting in a written claim to Napit, before taking any other action.

 

[Taylortwocities]

As an (ex) NAPIT member I would say that any dispute with one of their electricians should be presented to NAPIT.
They do have a dispute resolution and work quality guarantee scheme.
BUT
you need to read the small print here http://www.napit.org.uk/why-napit/homeowner.aspx

Supporting our members to support you
You must make sure that any work carried out is completed under a written contract and notified to NAPIT by your installer. This will ensure you have access to support and guidance should anything go wrong, including mediation, a work quality guarantee (where applicable) and advice should you wish to take things further in the event of a dispute.

This implies that you should have had a written contract and that the work you had done was notifiable.
Was it notifiable work? What was the work that was done in 2011? Did you receive a Building Regulation Certificate of Compliance that looks like this?

I think that if the job was not logged with NAPIT thern they wont be interested…….

 

[flameport]

I think my next action seeing as I've had no feedback from the previous contractor is to go to the small claims court to get the costs back.

That will involve spending more money and achieve nothing.

The NAPIT route is also useless, http://www.napit.org.uk/why-napit/raise-an-issue.aspx
given that their only remedy is to have the original contractor rectify the problem.

 

[JohnW2]

Don't Napit have a Work Guarantee Scheme? And 6 year period to claim for non-compliant work? ... If the original installer is not able or willing to correct the work, ....

As I said in my question to the OP, I'm not actually sure from what we've been told that the electrician was asked to install, claims to have installed or was paid to install the bonding - it may be that he simply ticked a box on the EIC to say that bonding was present. If that were the case, although an error, that would not represent any loss to the OP.

Hopefully the OP will clarify.

Kind Regards, John

 

[RF Lighting]

Do you really require bonding? I've had another electrician work on a job I'd signed off to tell the customer there is no bonding and it must be installed before he can do anything at X amount of pounds, despite the service entering the property in plastic pipe.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

It was 4 years ago.

Good luck proving that it didn't get removed at some point.