Exposed: Cash for logos and drive by inspections

A letting agent emailed me around one hundred and eighty job sheets for EICRs all as separate emails with a pdf. job sheet attached.

I went through them and printed a hardcopy of each job sheet, then put them in a ring binder ordered by their postcodes, with dividers to separate them into towns Worcester, Malvern, Stourport on Severn, Tewkesbury then I literally started at the beginning and trying to arrange to do two inspections a day in close proximity to each other with the intention of doing eight inspections a week leaving a day a week for the paperwork.

However there was also remedials to price and get done, so in reality I wasn't getting eight completely signed off in a week, it was taking at least a fortnight.

The general standard of the electrical installations were dire with many C1 and C2 issues.

Then Covid struck, the government should have then delayed the required completion date, but after an initial delay they said it was essential work and electricians could still go into peoples homes to work despite the general restrictions.

So initially I was not allowed to leave home and was not allowed to work, however as restrictions eased a bit I went back through the folder and pulled out all the job sheets for empty properties and started working my way through them, then I started to do the inspections where there was going to be a change of tenancy, because the transfer of tenancy could not go ahead without the EICR.

One of the first jobs I did was two empty flats over a bank in Tewkesbury High Street, I drove down the M5 and as I approached Strensham Services there was not another vehicle in sight, neither in front or behind me  on either carriageway, at that point I was literally the only person on the motorway.

Tewkesbury was a ghost town, all the car parks were free with parking charges suspended, all the non-essential shops, pubs and cafes were closed, there were less than a dozen people on the streets.

I did the two inspections then went back a few days later to do the EICR repairs and some void maintenance, when I got back there were three East European builders there, they had driven up from London to do void maintenance and decorate the flats on the understanding they could live and sleep in the flats, because they were homeless and had been living in their vans for weeks being unable to book into a bed and breakfast or get any other accommodation, they said they would have returned home to Bulgaria, but were unable to get out of the UK because of Covid, so were doing this job for pocket money just to be able to live in the flats for a few weeks.

I had to replace an electric shower and realise I had not got any solder in the plumbing box, rather than try and get some from Screwfix who were restricting the products available to "essentials" then delaying your collection and making you queue for a hour in the car park I went to the local ironmongers a few doors away, their actual shop fronting the High Street was closed, so I had to go around the back to the rear entrance from where they were selling "essentials" then smile and say please nicely to get a roll of solder at half as much again as I would have normally paid.

And so it went on, add onto that I was very unhappy about what I was being told I should sign off as satisfactory and eventually I decided doing the landlords EICRS were not worth the hassle, particularly when I had to start chasing the letting agents for payment.

The suggestion that electricians were sat in cafes writing out landlords EICRs is so far off the mark it is actually laughable, it is a myth that just gets perpetuated by being included in articles like this.

The government could have quite simply extended the completion period and eased the situation, but they don't have any grasp on reality.

Another Covid related issue is the "Great retirement" which I have been muttering about since the Covid lockdowns, an economist was discussing it on Radio Four a few days ago, basically when a lot of older workers were told they had to stop going to work during the Covid lockdowns a lot of them decided that was it, they were retiring particularly those already past retirement age but still working.

As a result of this a huge number of older experienced workers have retired, including many electricians meaning there's even fewer people to do the work, when there wasn't actually enough in the first place.

A letting agent emailed me around one hundred and eighty job sheets for EICRs all as separate emails with a pdf. job sheet attached.

I went through them and printed a hardcopy of each job sheet, then put them in a ring binder ordered by their postcodes, with dividers to separate them into towns Worcester, Malvern, Stourport on Severn, Tewkesbury then I literally started at the beginning and trying to arrange to do two inspections a day in close proximity to each other with the intention of doing eight inspections a week leaving a day a week for the paperwork.

However there was also remedials to price and get done, so in reality I wasn't getting eight completely signed off in a week, it was taking at least a fortnight.

The general standard of the electrical installations were dire with many C1 and C2 issues.

Then Covid struck, the government should have then delayed the required completion date, but after an initial delay they said it was essential work and electricians could still go into peoples homes to work despite the general restrictions.

So initially I was not allowed to leave home and was not allowed to work, however as restrictions eased a bit I went back through the folder and pulled out all the job sheets for empty properties and started working my way through them, then I started to do the inspections where there was going to be a change of tenancy, because the transfer of tenancy could not go ahead without the EICR.

One of the first jobs I did was two empty flats over a bank in Tewkesbury High Street, I drove down the M5 and as I approached Strensham Services there was not another vehicle in sight, neither in front or behind me  on either carriageway, at that point I was literally the only person on the motorway.

Tewkesbury was a ghost town, all the car parks were free with parking charges suspended, all the non-essential shops, pubs and cafes were closed, there were less than a dozen people on the streets.

I did the two inspections then went back a few days later to do the EICR repairs and some void maintenance, when I got back there were three East European builders there, they had driven up from London to do void maintenance and decorate the flats on the understanding they could live and sleep in the flats, because they were homeless and had been living in their vans for weeks being unable to book into a bed and breakfast or get any other accommodation, they said they would have returned home to Bulgaria, but were unable to get out of the UK because of Covid, so were doing this job for pocket money just to be able to live in the flats for a few weeks.

I had to replace an electric shower and realise I had not got any solder in the plumbing box, rather than try and get some from Screwfix who were restricting the products available to "essentials" then delaying your collection and making you queue for a hour in the car park I went to the local ironmongers a few doors away, their actual shop fronting the High Street was closed, so I had to go around the back to the rear entrance from where they were selling "essentials" then smile and say please nicely to get a roll of solder at half as much again as I would have normally paid.

And so it went on, add onto that I was very unhappy about what I was being told I should sign off as satisfactory and eventually I decided doing the landlords EICRS were not worth the hassle, particularly when I had to start chasing the letting agents for payment.

The suggestion that electricians were sat in cafes writing out landlords EICRs is so far off the mark it is actually laughable, it is a myth that just gets perpetuated by being included in articles like this.

The government could have quite simply extended the completion period and eased the situation, but they don't have any grasp on reality.

Another Covid related issue is the "Great retirement" which I have been muttering about since the Covid lockdowns, an economist was discussing it on Radio Four a few days ago, basically when a lot of older workers were told they had to stop going to work during the Covid lockdowns a lot of them decided that was it, they were retiring particularly those already past retirement age but still working.

As a result of this a huge number of older experienced workers have retired, including many electricians meaning there's even fewer people to do the work, when there wasn't actually enough in the first place.

Work......................the curse of the drinking classes.

Z.