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EICR Remedial Work

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Hi, my first post, I wondered if I could get some advice from the community regarding a failed EICR report and the subsequent remedial works.

Me letting agent appointed a local electrical firm to conduct an EICR report on my flat before new tenants moved in. The timescale was tight since the new tenants were due to move in on the 1st Feb.


The flat is a purpose-built flat constructed in 2005 so id be surprised if the electrics were too far out of spec.


The report came back as failed due to the following points:


1 No Bonding, substantial metal pipework in property

8 Fan is not low voltage in bathroom, and is in zone 2


the quotation for the remedial work was to install 100mm bonding from the consumer unit to the stop cock and replace the extractor with an extra low voltage fan and controller.

"estimate of a morning for 2 which hopefully will be less, however the route is not particularly easy" - £630 inc VAT.


the quote sounded high for a mornings work but due to time constraints i had to agree.


the final invoice came back as 28 hours work, £1399...  so that's 28 hours work to run about 6metres of earth bonding and replace the bathroom fan when the initial quote was a morning's work for £630.


So obviously I've questioned this and after doing some digging, I found that firstly 230v fans are allowed in zone 2, and not all incoming water pipes need to be bonded if there is plastic in the incoming supply..


I'll upload screenshots of the paper work and photos of the job, but any advice would be greatly appreciated!

fef58217ef06411ab3fcb5e012db7a01-huge-quotation.png



b2dc16ff7b1f285e61c95ea8dd664268-huge-eicr-report.png


  • 0
    I think you`ve got some very good advise so far on here.

    Just one word of caution.

    Never assume that just because a property is relatively new that it would indeed have complied with regs relevant at the time. They should be but often are not, sometimes by a wide mile. I is not at all uncommon.

    Secondly, it appears to me, at first sight, that your questions and thoughts indeed have much merit though.

    My first reasoning would be 1/ was any of that work necessary? if no, then do not pay.

    2/ if some was then pay a reasonable price for what was done but no more.


    I slightly disagree with Dave Z on one small thing - a "quotation" has no definition in law, it is an estimate and as such is usually expected to be within a plus/minus 10% band of accuracy. A "quotation" is just an estimate, nothing else.

    A "fixed price" is just that (with some exceptions) and is what people often mean when mentioning a "quotation".


    Good luck and please let us know of your progress
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    davezawadi (David Stone):

    No if the pipes are plastic and therefore an insulator, one cannot make a connection! It is only conductive pipes that might require an Earth connection, but see my post above.


    David


    Yes sorry I should have been more clear, the incoming pipe is metal up to the stopcock and then it vanishes into the wall where it turns to plastic to supply the kitchen and bathroom.



     


  • 0
    It's OK Joe, that is not the place for main bonding anyway! The main bond goes after the stopcock on the plastic, oh perhaps that is not right! Where did they put it? Photo didn't work again BTW.
  • 0
    It is normally considered that a quotation is a contracted price. If you buy a new car, and you are quoted a price to compare with elsewhere do you expect to be charged more when you say yes? Certainly not.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    davezawadi (David Stone):

    It's OK Joe, that is not the place for main bonding anyway!


    So they charged £199 for the EICR report and failed it on:

    * 230v extractor in zone 2 which isn't a problem, and from what I can tell the ceiling is higher than 2.25m so its outside of zone2 anyway,

    * No bonding to the incoming water pipe which isn't the right place to bond to anyway!


    They then butchered my flat and inflated the price from £630 to £1400 for 28 hours labour for the job they estimates would take a morning or less...

    Cowboys?? 




     


  • 0
    What sort of a flat it is? E.g. in the 5th storey of a tower block, or the ground floor of a house split into two, or...? Do the supplies (electricity, water etc) come directly into the flat from outdoors (like a standard house), or via some sort of shared / communal / splitting arrangement?
  • 0
    Note that zone height is measured from the "floor" of the bath or shower, not the floor of the bathroom.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    wallywombat:

    What sort of a flat it is? E.g. in the 5th storey of a tower block, or the ground floor of a house split into two, or...? Do the supplies (electricity, water etc) come directly into the flat from outdoors (like a standard house), or via some sort of shared / communal / splitting arrangement?


    Purpose built block of 8 flats, 2 per floor. mine is 2nd floor. the electric just appears out to the wall and into the main fuse - ive not see where it enters the building as its locked away.

    Each flat has its own plastic water tank on the ground floor and water is pumped up to each individual flat so water pipes are not shared/connected between flats.

     


  • 0
    JoeB:
     


    Yes sorry I should have been more clear, the incoming pipe is metal up to the stopcock and then it vanishes into the wall where it turns to plastic to supply the kitchen and bathroom.



     






    Are you sure, as that sounds unlikely. In a flat of that age I would generally expect blue plastic water supply pipes into the flat?


    If the supply pipe into the flat is metal then I would expect main protective bonding may be in place where the supplies come into the building.


  • 0
    If there is a water meter, where is it?

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