Situation; I have owned and let for about 17 years a small (1 bed) flat in large converted house. Conversion was done in 1987, six years or so before I bought. The property is in England.
A Managing Agent looks after tenant's requests and has a raft of contractors on their books for everything from plumbing and electrics to carpet-fitting, decoration and gardening. MA calls us for approval before engaging their contractor on any job. They arrange regular GasSafe inspections and certificates and at our request carried out an asbestos survey (none found!).
They have just written to advise that in line with new regulation they sent their electrician to carry out an EICR on the flat. Copies of the completed EICR and a quote for remedying defects arrived with their inspection advice.
I don't know why, but I'm always a little wary of such combined "we found a dangerous fault, but don't worry we can fix it for you" quotes.
I'm quite possibly wrong here, so I'd appreciate experienced opinion.
I really am not trying to avoid works that are necessary, even if they would require my tenant to move out (in the event of a full rewire for example).
Cut to the chase.
In the quote, one of the discovered faults to be repaired is described as, "No end to end reading on ring circuit, locate fault and re-terminate".
That same message is repeated in section 7 (Observations and recommendations) of the EICR, "No end to end reading on R2 - Locate and terminate" - with a C2 classification.
Ok. An open-circuit of the cpc loop needs finding and fixing, but..
In section 16 (Schedule of circuits and test results) the values for r1, rn and r2 are written in as 0.55, 0.54 and 0.84.
Can someone explain how the 0.84 Ohms measurement was made with an open cpc loop?
(I think 0.84 Ohms is quite good for 1.5mm vs 2.5mm. With r1 and rn around 0.55 I'd have expected at least 0.9.)
Moving on from that, and now feeling unsure of the veracity of the inspector's report:-
Next old chestnut; "Old consumer unit with no RCD protection - replace". To my certain knowledge there has been no modification or addition to the flat's electrics since I bought it. Has "retrospective normalisation" now caught up with us? I do realise that there are different regulations for let properties... Another C2.
Lastly; "Excessive exposed copper within sockets, need re-terminating. Another C2.
Again, to my certain knowledge there has been no modification or addition to the flat's electrics since I bought it.
To add to the pressure, EICR sect. 6 recommends next inspection in 2 weeks.
I doubt the electrician will want to engage with me if I question the report, far less re-quote with reduced scope.
Would it be best to ask the MA to arrange another, independent, EICR?
Please be assured, I do NOT suggest simply finding an electrician who will sign off an unsafe installation. If it is unsafe, or safe but doesn't meet regs, it must be rectified.
Sorry for the long post, but I've tried to include all relevant info.
