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New EICR "unsatisfactory" - complete rewire required?!?

Former Community Member over 4 years ago

The lighting circuit has no CPC (earth), this is not uncommon in older houses. For that reason all light fittings are Class 2 i.e. plastic with no metal, and there is a clause in the tenancy agreement which forbids tampering with the light fittings (this is a house we own and rent out).

Previous EICRs did not even mention the lighting circuit because of the Class 2 fittings. I have just got a new EICR with an observation "lighting circuits have little or no earth" and classification code C1 ("Danger present, risk of injury, immediate remedial action required"). The overall assessment says "Unsatisfactory" with the comment "Needs updating to current regs". This can only be fixed by a complete rewire of the whole lighting circuit.

This is pointless, there are no earth connections in the plastic fittings.

Any thoughts? Many thanks.

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0 Former Community Member over 3 years ago

I decided to use low-profile plastic surface pattress boxes rather than metal back boxes. Here's some examples of the old and the new.

Old two-way switch with wooden back box.

New surface pattress box fixed to firm plaster (not the same switch as above)

New light switch with nylon screws

All other light switches with metal back boxes have had the metal screws replaced with nylon. All light fittings checked to make sure the tenant hadn't changed them. New big label on consumer unit.

I'm not sure there's anything else I can do without rewiring the whole lot, which I will do at next change of tenancy.

Thanks for all your advice on here. I have another question about grounding metal back boxes which I will put in a new post.
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0 Former Community Member over 3 years ago

I decided to use low-profile plastic surface pattress boxes rather than metal back boxes. Here's some examples of the old and the new.

Old two-way switch with wooden back box.

New surface pattress box fixed to firm plaster (not the same switch as above)

New light switch with nylon screws

All other light switches with metal back boxes have had the metal screws replaced with nylon. All light fittings checked to make sure the tenant hadn't changed them. New big label on consumer unit.

I'm not sure there's anything else I can do without rewiring the whole lot, which I will do at next change of tenancy.

Thanks for all your advice on here. I have another question about grounding metal back boxes which I will put in a new post.
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New EICR "unsatisfactory" - complete rewire required?!?

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