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Sparkie

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Everything posted by Sparkie

  1. Sleepwell your giving your age away now, as I've seen re-runs of Citizen Smith I know what you mean, but I can assure you I not him and live well away from Tooting. Most sparkies when they pass there 17th edition throw the red book in the back of the van forever. Your best bet if you want to do your own electrics, is to get hold of a copy of 'the electricians guide to the building regulations' it's a green small book. I've nothing against you doing your own electrics in your own home, just not in a property your letting out, after all I do my own plumbing, cos I'm too tight to pay for a plumber, but I certainly won't touch gas. Electrics (domestic) now all revolve around Part P, it was introduced to stop homeowners and landlords from doing there own electrics, and it's been a spectacular failure, as you can still go down to B&Q and buy all the electrics you want. In certain rooms you have to notify your local council to do electrics and it's a bit of a nightmare, and cost a fortune to become registered. When you employ an electrician your paying for the testing which proves the electrics safe, an that's what its all about.
  2. The names 'sparkie' dose this give you a clue to my job? Citizen Smith eh, I'm not angry, I just have a dislike for landlords and letting agents. I take it your one, looking at your cut and paste job from 'landlord zone' I bet you even do your own electrical work, am I right?
  3. Oh how the clueless post on this site. A minor works certificate is for replacement of like for like e.g a broken socket replacement, however if it's in a kitchen or bathroom, it's notifiable to building control. An electrical installation certificate is for the addition of a new circuit back to the consumer unit, and if in a kitchen or bathroom or garden area, is notifiable to building control. Any work, and I repeat.....any electrical work should be carried out by a competent person only and the correct certificate issued. Rewiring a house is a major works, so only a qualified electrician con do it. BS7671:2008 covers everything electrical from rewiring a factory to replacing a broken socket in your home. If the landlord replaced the light switch recently, he should be able to produce a 'minor works certificate issued by a electrician, but I'd be surprised if he paid for it to be done.
  4. Absolutely, you can let any old electrified property even dating from the 40/50's with no means of emergency fault disconnection of any sort. As you pointed out earlier, a let property is not a business premises, so has light touch regulation regarding the electrical systems. The Whittall case had some amazing buck passing, the owner said she asked her electrician to check it, the electrician said he was never informed it needed checking and so on. Until electricity in rented property is lifted to the same status as gas, many more Tennant's will continue to be electrocuted. This is unlikely to happen as gas explosions in properties cost insurance companies lots of money, dead Tennant's are not so costly, thats the plain truth.
  5. As I've mentioned before, there are no statutory regulations for electricity and letting, most apply to electricity at work. I will bet any money you like there will be no test certificates from the landlord, and no pre-tenancy inspection certificate; meaning he did all the work himself, contravening BS7671: 2008, requiring electrical work to be installed or altered by a competent person only. Treat letting agents the same a estate agents, prepared to lie for money. This is the only one you will get him on, as the the rest is a legal minefield, that small L/L's can riddle out of with ease. Most people have never even heard of The Electrical Equipment (safety) Regulations 1994, which covers electrical appliances in rented property. He only needs to plead ignorance to get out of this regulation as many do.
  6. The guy is only alive because he was either standing on carpet or wearing rubber soled shoes. 50 milli amps will kill a person in bare feet stood on ground or a metal object thats grounded. A.B I'm very familiar with the Whittall family case, someone should of gone to prison or find heavily for that incompetence, if you where electrocuted in Mc D's during a family visit, you would be able to claim thousands in compensation, but if your an amateur landlord it's classed as an accident, its all bo**ocks. The new strict gas rules only came about because of insurance companies insisted on them. MP's won't do anything to add red tape to letting, I wonder why?
  7. This report cost between £150 and £300 to produce, so trust me the L/L won't have commissioned one, they never do. It sound as though the switch face plate is metal, and the L/L won't of wired it up properly, the thing is dangerous. If you can afford it, get an electrician in to repair it and bill the agent or L/L direct. Get the electrician to write on his certificate he'll give you, the condition of the switch as he found it. If he won't pay, ask to see the test certificate from pre-tenancy testing, and also the building control certificates for any work he's done recently, with the name and address of the electrician who carried out the work, and also the PAT testing certificate for any appliances in the property, this should get a result. At the end of the day the property is probably full of bodged wiring done by the L/L and you have every right to break you letting agreement if it can be proved faulty and dangerous and he won't do anything about it. As for your deposit, a small claims court will come down on your side with good evidence. Good luck.
  8. It sounds like a fault with the wiring on the metal box behind the switch, and your B/F touched a live screw, you did not say if it knocked out all the electrics, as wondering if its installed with an RCD? The switch next to the socket maybe a fused spur for the alarm system which is correct. Your best bet would be to contact trading standards, as all let property should have a 'periodic inspection report' prior to letting, also any work on the property should have been installed by a electrician with part P as a minimum qualification. If there are any electrical appliances in the property, they should be PAT tested and have a sticker on them when tested and next test due date. Your agent and landlord will know this, so explains why he has tried to blame your B/F for the incident. If this involved gas, then the authorities would throw the book at him (L/L) but with electrics they seem to turn a blind eye. I could tell you stories about electrics in let properties all day and night, but unfortunately it takes someone to die to have the L/L up in court. Hope i have been of some help.
  9. What about the tenants, how many where entitled to be in this country?.............Oh stop it sparkie, there you go again (slaps back of hand).
  10. I've worked in Tewkesbury and its a very nice place, they recently lost allot of employment, and is heavily dependent on military spending, but for location and people and property value for money, I rate Tewkesbury high.
  11. This is why I can't afford Taunton. http://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/8243404.Taunton___a_magnet_for_retired_people/
  12. O.K so where isn't a dump unless you have £500K to spend, Cheltenham? I'd need a large Alsatian in some parts of that town. Bristol? Forget it, they didn't base 'casualty' on Bristol for nothing. Taunton? Too posh for my money. Exeter? The BTL center of the South West and full of pissed up students kicking sh*t out of each other. I'd rather pay working class house prices to live in a dump, than posh prices to live next door to a dump, take your pick, most towns and city's are all the same. I've worked on £1M houses in London where you get mugged putting your dustbin out, and I've worked on Council estates and felt very safe. A town or city is made by its people, not by its surroundings or how expensive the properties are.
  13. Being an electrician and working throughout the southwest, I'm not tied to one town, so I only needed to be next to the M5. I had a modest amount of STD (sold to divorce ) fund, and needed to get the best value I could in a property with what cash I had. I refused to compete with cash rich boomer's heading to my home town in Devon by taking on a mortgage millstone for a slave box. I spent 12 months researching areas along the M5 for property value for money and quality of life and finally settled on Bridgwater. Not everyones taste, but suits mine. Just about to complete on a new house built by a small local builder needing cah flow, negotiated a £20k discount . I still believe prices will tumble another 20-30% over the next 5 years, more if the government stops protecting house prices. In my job I get to speak to some very successful business people, who can pay for good advice, and I get the same message all the time that we'll get deflation...but the powers that be will want inflation, so we'll see some interesting times ahead. But I'm looking forward to a mortgage free existence, working to live and enjoy life, and yes I do count myself lucky.
  14. As someone's resurrected my O.P, I'll up-date: I never did buy in Gloucester, too rough, the sight of smashed car window glass strewn around car parks says it all.
  15. Thanks for the advice, I'm giving the LL my notice next week, but suspect I'll have a fight for my deposit, to call her a spendthrift LL is an understatement, took 3 months to pay a plumber £30 bill once, he vowed never to work for her again.
  16. Hi Guys My deposit was given to the LL in 2006 prior to the TDS scheme, Should she have placed my deposit in the scheme by now, or is she exempt due to the deposit placed prior to start of TDS? Cheers for you help.
  17. This bit worries me.............Many Congressmen were told that if they failed to pass the bailout package, they were threatened with martial law.[22] Sure enough, Congress passed the bill, and the financial coup had been a profound success.
  18. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/6250559/Repossession-councils-to-offer-earlier-help.html Yes folks you have been selected to support home owners who over borrowed to mew for holidays in the Caribbean, BMW X3, X5 cars, 50" LCD TV's, conservatories, block paved driveways etc, etc, etc. The money can be found from street cleaning, maybe not replace the old fire engines, close a few public loos, I mean what the heck, using council tax for that sort of thing is so yesterday anyway! Anyway thanks again for your support, you know its the right thing to do. :angry:
  19. Every man and his dog went to night school to do plumbing over the last 3-4 of years, I know a 20 years in the business skilled plumber who recently lost his job, can't find work for love nor money.
  20. The new Octavia 1.4 TSI will do 127 mph, and has 122 bhp. I have seen this car and for a value for money purchase rather than prestige, you can't go wrong.
  21. Yes you get 'contribution based JSA' but only for 6 months, after that you get sweet fec all from the guberment if you don't have kids.
  22. We don't need manufacturing, we just need to sell house to each other, and maybe do web design and oh yes abit of financial engineering
  23. What a dipstick, did he not figure out why most rental ads say 'No DSS or HB'?
  24. I think your the fool.....unions in the 80s negotiated some eye watering redundancy payments due to their negotiating powers, for example each London docker received on average £50,000 pay off, most went out and purchased property with the money. Unions weren't smashed until late 80/90s.
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