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EICR Remedial Work

Former Community Member over 3 years ago

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!

0 Sparkingchip over 3 years ago

JoeB:
Sparkingchip:

Just remember this is a business to business transaction, so "consumer protection" legislation may be not relevant.

Good point, but the letting agent who subcontracted the electrician (despite me expressing my concerns due to the price of a previous job this electrician did for me and being reassured by the agent this was the best electrician they had!) are invoicing me for the work so at that point it becomes a "business to consumer" sale.

I think you are classed a business as a landlord, not a consumer.
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0 Legh Richardson over 3 years ago

'This EICR is in a potentially dangerous position, urgent remedial action is required'

IMO, from what I have read here, particularly the article from sparkingchip, my advise would be to change both the electrical contractor and the managing agent once the present situation has been resolved.

Legh
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0 Zoomup over 3 years ago

wallywombat:

Note that zone height is measured from the "floor" of the bath or shower, not the floor of the bathroom.

The pictures on page 244 of B.S. 7671 shows the 2.25 metre height as from the room floor. Fig. 701.2

Z.
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0 Former Community Member over 3 years ago

Zoomup:
wallywombat:

Note that zone height is measured from the "floor" of the bath or shower, not the floor of the bathroom.

The pictures on page 244 of B.S. 7671 shows the 2.25 metre height as from the room floor. Fig. 701.2

Z.

and the extractor and light are not directly above the bath.. it didn't seem to make much sense to me that a 240v ceiling light was allowed but not a 240v extractor...
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0 Alcomax over 3 years ago

Where is the supply fuse and electric meter in relation to the Flat?

There is no gas you say, so is there off peak electric for heating and hot water or electric boiler and a 2nd consumer unit or maybe an extra large consumer unit with two sets of tails into it?
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0 Former Community Member over 3 years ago

Alcomax:

Where is the supply fuse and electric meter in relation to the Flat?

There is no gas you say, so is there off peak electric for heating and hot water or electric boiler and a 2nd consumer unit or maybe an extra large consumer unit with two sets of tails into it?

this is what's inside the cupboard by the front door. No gas, and night storage heaters and electric water heater. Economy7 electric.
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0 Sparkingchip over 3 years ago

How can the RCD and main switch be swapped around in a Crabtree consumer unit?

I have seen it done in other makes, but not in a Crabtree.
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0 Former Community Member over 3 years ago

There is another row of RCDs above that aren't in the photo. Not sure if that makes a difference??
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0 Sparkingchip over 3 years ago

Yes, it does.

Presumably the main switch and the three MCBs on the righthand side are the storage heaters and possibly an immersion heater?
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0 Alcomax over 3 years ago

That just answered my next question; it is a double decker consumer unit, I thought that cannot be enough circuits from the photo.

So a red head and there will be a Ryfield somewhere in a common area. Something like this was designed and managed as a whole and so it would be very unusual for main protective bonding and if and where its is required to not have been considered at build stage.

As Sparking said the main water into the building will be PVC if it was a new build in 2005. What happens after this PVC and how it goes to Flats in what material influences a few things, but that would have been obvious when it was being wired for the first time. As there is no gas service there would have been a fairly simple test to establish if the copper coming to the stop tap was extraneous or not.

Unfortunately this all does not help as remedial work has been completed.
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EICR Remedial Work

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