UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all
Just need some advice on the new electrical requirements. Sorry for the long post.

The electician has said that my house built in around 1995/6 needs new RCDs fitted and wired smoke alarms due to the new regulations. The  report he's made says ' the existing consumer unit fails to meet current regs as per BS7671. The main reason for this is that no circuits are protected by RCD. When the installation was completed around 1996, the current regulations only required RCD protection for outlets cable supplying equipment for the outside. '.It goes on to say that 'regs 18th edition BS7671 all circuits mut now be protected by LCD. The new regs also require upgrading the meter tails.The existing consumer unit would have to be changed as it would be non compliant'.

I haven't found any information either here or elsewhere which supports what my electirican is saying. Yes new houses would need to comply with RCDs  but not necessarily those already built. and as for wired smoke detectors, again I haven't come across anything which makes them mandatory.

Can anyone confirm that my electician is wrong. ?

Thanks

Another Electrician? Not really someone on a forum... right? Well, maybe a forum for Electricians.

The EICR is supposed to confirm (?) your property is electrically safe. It's not supposed to be a feeding frenzy for Electricians to go around suggesting improvements that amount to retrospective implementations of the regulations as they change. Any work done would have to comply with current regulations, obviously, how an Electrician achieves this would be up to them - but it only pertains to work being done - not the existing installation - with the exception of stuff like earthing (which I believe is required to be retrospectively looked at).

Why not accuse your Electrician of being on a fishing expedition and suggest he re-thinks what he's come to you with... what a good plan, nothing can go wrong!

This is what Electricians have wanted for years... they've seen the Heating Engineers raking it in over the years and wanted some of the pie... don't think they're going to release their jaws easily now the law backs them.

By the way, I'm not saying he's wrong either... it might be a cascade type of effect... like, you change a light fitting (maybe I mean "adding"?), and there's no RCD protection, so to get that you do need a new Consumer Board. But, of course, that would be a proactive change being made... here it's an inspection and you're going to need to be canny if you even suspect your Electrician is taking you for a ride.

If the wires in your house had the old colours... red and black? versus the new brown and blue... they don't comply with current regulations... but they're not a safety issue, and don't require a rewire! This is the balance - what I don't know from your post is whether your Electrician has taken you through this, or you're just reading something from a report without feedback / valid questioning.

Thank you for your replies Hippogriff. They're much appreciated. This was done through my management agency and there was no explanation.

I don't believe the wires are the old red and black because the house was built in 1996. I am relatively happy with having the new RCDs installed because it's best practice but I am not happy with having to fit wired alarms if they're not mandatory.

Thanks again

The smoke alarms are your beef?

Um... I'd just go with that... they're best off being hard-wired and it's been the case that all new ones should've been hard-wired for years (well over a decade) and when the battery ones go they need to be replaced with hard-wired ones anyway... I'd probably bite the bullet on that aspect. I'd probably go with Nest Protects throughout... but I'm a dickhead.

I thought it was the new consumer board you're were balking at.

Actually my beef is being told that something is mandatory when it isn't.
I'm all for safety but if my current system was safe then I don't like being told that I need to do XYand Z to make it safe.

Thanks again for all your help