Had a call today from a lady saying her shower wasn't working. Apparently, an electrician had installed a replacement, but couldn't get it to work, so just left the job saying the house needed a rewire - and took £125 from them to-boot.
I went there and saw that it's a 9.5KW shower (at 240v) that is wired in 10mm2 T&E from CU to wall DP Switch outside the bathroom. The electrician had pulled out the existing cable (size unknown) from switch to shower (that are on the same wall, back to back approx 600mm apart) and replaced it with 2.5mm2 T&E, diagonally from the switch into the back of the shower, which he had put into the wall by gouging out the plasterboard and leaving it in the small void between the plasterboard and inner brick wall.
He had tested the circuit with his screwdriver voltage tester, and concluded the shower was faulty because the circuit was live but the original shower didn't work, so it had to be a faulty shower. In fact all it was was an inoperative neutral contact in the DP switch, so the original shower was probably ok but couldn't be put back on the wall because he had cut the cold water inlet off in the shower with a saw instead of just unscrewing the pipe from the inlet.
The question is, is there anyone the homeowner can report this man to, firstly, because of the undersized cable, and secondly, because he's taken their money without completing the job?
F
