Owning your own home

Just had an electric check. I suspected it would be bad, some of the work seemed to have been done by an enthusiastic amateur, but I wasn't expecting:

**thank you for your enquiry and as requested have visited the above premises and carried out a full test and inspection of the electrical installation and list deviations from IEE Wiring regulations as follows.

1. No bond to gas pipes at meter under consumer unit. (1)
   
2. Broken twin socket in kitchen. (2)
   
3. Broken twin socket on chimney breast in dining room. (2)
   
4. No earth to single socket in dining room. (1)
   
5. Open live connectors tucked behind panelling in mains cupboard. (1)
   
6. No circuit identification at consumer unit. (3)
   
7. Broken twin socket in 1st floor front bedroom. (2)
   
8. Excessive number of socket outlets bunched onto 1 x 16amp mcb with risk of overloading circuit
   – 5 x twin and 2 s single sockets. (2)
   
9. Excessive use of extension leads where sockets are limited including flexes run around door
   frame and extension leads plugged into extension leads. (2)
   
10. Boiler in bathroom plugged in via extension lead on landing with flex run along floor and under
    bath. (2)
    
11. All lights bunched onto 1 x 6amp mcb. (3)
    
12. Pendant in rear bedroom showing signs of overheating. (3)
    
13. No earth to ground floor and 1st floor lighting circuit therefore metal light fittings are not earthed.
    (1)
    
14. No fire rating to recessed lights on 1st floor landing. (2)
    
15. 240volt extract fan fitted over shower unit in loft room. (1)
    Recommendations
    Taking the above into consideration I would strongly recommend a complete rewire.**
    
    

£3900 plus VAT.

jesus christ, there's some really dangerous things there. What size is your house? I would expect it to be around £3k for a 2 bed in London.

3 bed East London.

I'm guessing (1) means 'effing dangerous', (2) means 'it'd be good to get these done ASAP' and (3) means 'if it's perfection you seek, do these too'.

Ask for the cost of the rewire off the price, obvs, then just get the (1)s and (2)s done and spend the rest of the saving on disc wheels.

i asked my mate (an electrician) if he would be willing to re-wire my house and i'd happily pay the going rate (said some people mention 3k is a rough figure). he told me to poke it. he said he earns enough money during the week to not worry about doing 'foreigners' (he's a northerner and this is the term for moonlighting) on the weekend!

Yes mate.

10.Boiler in bathroom plugged in via extension lead on landing with flex run along floor and under bath. (2)

That's a pretty generous 2.

So foreigners is a northern thing?

Fuck - so that's why the polish lad I asked to plaster the back room off the books (not a euph) looked at me like I'd put my cock in his coffee.

Be aware that you'll have all the boards up at this point, so if you want any central heating work done, then I'd consider doing it before putting them back down. Also, generally speaking, it will damage the boards to some extent, so you may need to re-finish if you have varnished boards.

It's also the time to decide if you want to add any extra outlets, eg. near your TV, or in any room where you are lacking.

As it's a lot of money, get an actual quote of what the "re-wire" will entail. For example, will they re-plaster where they have had to remove any?

It happens everywhere. Current plumber seemingly does fuck all on the books.

The house I'm buying is getting valued tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

I expect it's going to need a rewire so I need to start planning what's going to go where. I think I might give one of the online tools a go as I have all the room dimensions but no floor plan.

I think (1) means "switch power off at mains and go live somewhere else until it sorted".

Or wear wellies.

. double post.

We bought our flat for £268k (inc. parking space) 26 months ago. Today, a moving van arrived for a couple in an almost identical flat in the block next to ours (same size etc, just different layout). They sold it for £400k.

Fuck me; that's a 50% increase in two years.

Haha love that film, "johnny's here, time to die!" Classic

I think (1) means "switch power off at mains and go live somewhere else until it sorted".

The sparky said if anything was a direct threat to life he would have fixed it there and then, the Category 1s need urgent attention. I assumed plastering wasn't included, I'll check.

Or wear wellies.

Ha! Plus a double pair of marigolds. And if you want to use the shower best add an old style rubberised oilskin to be safe.

The reason I will never be able to afford to buy in London.

^^^^Boast post

Will be interested to see how the rewire goes, cost, what's included, etc as I suspect I'm going to have to get my place looked at at some point.

It isn't (or at least I don't think it is) in the same state as above but it is a bit dated (consumer unit is the old pop-out button style for instance).

So we were supposed to be moving in tomorrow.

However:

the electrics are not finished, the heating and boiler installation are not finished this in turn means that the insulation isn't installed on the floors and the boards are not down. This in turn means that the floor boards that go on top are not even ordered yet. The kitchen won't arrive until the 30th.

Going to have to move the majority of our stuff tomorrow anyway and put in downstairs under tarps.

Luckily the agent hasn't rented out our current place yet so we're having to stay here at least another week. living out of a suitcase though with two plates, mugs and bowls etc.

£3k seems about right for a full rewire. We've put a load of new lights, dimmers and electrics in and it's come to a bit north of that.

Signing stuff and giving over some money.

Couple of questions:

When applying for a mortgage will they give a mortgage based on OTE?

We want to buy a house next year but looking at it monthly mortgage repayments would be around 1600-1800 - that's equivalent to what we currently pay in rent. Is that a good basis to go on?

Jeez, @soul - you're only a mile from me, but I can guarantee that Downham hasn't gone up that amount. Or at all! Incidentally, I've finally bought a bike. And we should go for that drink soon.