Hi all.

We are selling our property and the people buying it had a survey carried out which highlighted the following things.

Electrics not up to current regulations. My father is an electrician and checked the electrics out when we bought the house in 2007. He found nothing wrong but changed all the plug sockets and light switches anyway.He did not give us a certificate though and now no longer does that.

The roof frames in the loft aren’t tied together. Apparently some houses don’t have this anyway?

The surveyor also suggested taking up the decking in the garden as it poses a slip problem.

My question is should we be paying or should the buyer be paying to have an electrical safety check. They our buying the house to let it out and I can’t help feeling that if I pay for it it saves them paying for it when they let it out.

What about the roof ties ? I’ve never heard of this ?

Any help would be great.

It all comes down to how much you want to sell the house. You can tell them to pay or no sale and lose the custom or if you want to sell the place get an electrical safety check done.

You can also get a second opinion on the roof ties if need be from a professional.

Decking is a pointless comment IMO and should not have been included.

I suspect the electrics just means that it’s not got the latest type of consumer unit. Not a big deal but any changes to the electrics could mean someone has to do more work to make that circuit confirm or get a new CU (normally easier in the long run).

Roof ties – no idea

Decking – maybe he slipped. Not a big deal, if the buyers want it they can keep it and clean it. If they don’t they can rip it up. It was there when they viewed it so they obviously don’t mind it and might get shirty if you remove it but they want it. Probably just needs a good clean and treatment.

The mortgage company may want to put a retainer on the borrowings until the buyer has moved in and had the electrical work completed. Happened to us and I negotiated with seller and got them to pay for an electrical report. Think it was 80 quid

I think I would want some more clarification on what the surveyor means by the electrics if that is all you have.

Unless they’re a cash buyer of course

Just got told that the electrics aren’t up to the current regulations and the estate agent said it may be worth getting a safety check done. The thing is the house was built in the 70’s so they aren’t likely to be up to them anyway. ?

Ditto roof ties …. Apparently some houses have them and some don’t ?

I wouldn’t worry to much, the regs seem to change fairly often, it dosnt say they are unsafe.
I personally wouldn’t be to bothered by a report like that. It would be different if work had to be done as a condition of the buyers mortgage.
It has been a while since I’ve bought/sold but from memory survays are basically arse covering exercises for the surveyor.

Is this the same house that they’re having a mortgage survey on?
It’s all nit picking stuff TBH and it’s wasting your time. I would be sorely tempted to put it back on the market. The buyer does seem to be mucking about. What does your agent say?

I would imagine most houses electrics aren’t up to current regs….
Nor do they need to be.

I’ve had clarification on the mortgage survey. They have the cash to buy the house. They are trying to get a mortgage before the sale goes through. If not they have said they will pay the cash.

It does seem they are nit picking.

Surely if they are going to rent it out they will have gas and electrical checks done any way?

Ignore the decking comment for a start, complete waste of time either party even thinking about it.

Electrics not up to current regulations.

As they keep changing this is no surprise. There is no requirement to meet the latest regs, just those in force at the time, so you can ignore this. if they want an elec safety check, they should pay, 99% chance it will say all fine.

NB My house buyer repot was 46 pages of issues, so if that’s all they found you’ve got off lightly. Normally surveyors just list everything they can think of as a ‘potential’ problem.

We have just moved into our new house, the survey made note that the electrics need checking so we paid for the safety check (as it’s us that want to know what the score was) the report back was that some items were dangerous others just needed replacing.
We then negotiated the cost of making right the dangerous things so the house was safe to move into, we are now paying for a full rewire so that will be fun!

Roof ties I have no idea on and the decking issue will be just to cover the surveyors ass.

“Electrics not up to current regulations. My father is an electrician and checked the electrics out when we bought the house in 2007. He found nothing wrong but changed all the plug sockets and light switches anyway.He did not give us a certificate though and now no longer does that.

The roof frames in the loft aren’t tied together. Apparently some houses don’t have this anyway?”

we had this on last house we bought- on leccy we ignored(regs change all the time – so depending on when built/changes and as said above it’s not a legal reqt). FYI – recently British gas replaced our old meters with smart meters (free) – our wiring still doesn’t comply though ….

roof ties ditto – they could be added but as our house was built in 1990ish the comment was – it hasn’t moved in 20 years has it

I would do nothing and await buyer feedback (in our case it didn’t change our offer – but we did want the house)

It will be the Surveyor covering his backside about electrics.
They know little about them, see an old fuse box, and usually say “should be checked by an Electrical Inspector”

Some pointers:
To pass an inspection, (actually, it doesnt pass /fail, it is either ‘satisfactory, or unsatisfactory’, then you will need the following:
RCD protection on socket outlets that may be used for outdoor equipment.
An earth conductor, and bonding conductors to any gas/water/oil.
There must be no live terminals able to be touched. That means any cracked sockets/light switches muct be changed for new ones.
If not all RCD protected, then there must be supplementary bonding between all metalwork in a bathroom – that means an earth cable joining copper pipes and the radiator/metal light fittings etc in the bathroom.

Basically, thats it.
I suspect yours would fail on the RCD requirement. That does not mean it is unsafe, just that for outside equipment, an RCD adaptor should be used.
If you have got RCD protection for the downstaors sockets, then it could be quickly brought up to a ‘Satisfactory’ result, so long as the gas and water bonding is in place.

A new consumer unit should be £300 maximum. Reduce your price by that, and they cannot argue about it.

Is RCD a requirement though ?? It has bonding on the pipes etc.

If anyone does an Electrical Installation Condition Report on a house, then, yes, having no RCD is pretty much an instant ‘unsatisfactory’.
It will be a C2 rating – a possible dangerous fault.
This Regulation (for sockets likely to be used outside) has been around since 1996 iirc.

The report is judged on current standards, not on what it was when installed, so any old installations are likely to not be up to current standards if they are just as they were when installed.
Have a read of this – it gives a number of examples:
http://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/mediafile/100126678/best-Practice-Guide-4.pdf

So in reality as my house was built in the 70’s there isn’t a requirement for me to fit one just to please my buyers ?

My parent’s house still has a bakelite fuse box with loose fuse wire which you wind round the terminals. Probably original to the house (1930s).

So in reality as my house was built in the 70’s there isn’t a requirement for me to fit one just to please my buyers ?

None at all.
You can sell it with live wires hanging out of the wall if you want. That doesnt mean they’ll accept that – they would want a reduction in price for repairing it.
It sounds like the Surveyor is covering himself, and the buyers can now try to negotiate a discount.

My house built in 1910 still has that same Bakelite fuse box and I’ve got no plans to be changing it anytime soon! I have however fitted “mini-trips” instead of the fuse wire thingies.

Is that all they found renton? 😯 You must have one of the best built 1970’s properties out there!

You would find more on a new build!

I had 25 points on my property when I sold it, which was only 11 years old! They even mentioned the radiation emitted from X-rays from a local hospital a mile down the road! When they started going on about rare newts in my pond, I stopped reading it any further!

Don’t budge on price 😉

Renton.

It’s nearly always about points to use to knock the price down.

Frames tied together can simply be floorboards used as cross tries in a trada truss roof or a ridge member in purlin roofs.

Electrics, gas etc all slowly become “not to current standard”

As for clarification on any point they look to use for a drop in the price etc and ask if it breaks the law.

An enquiry for a rewire or just a new mcb board and a few bits by you may be 1k-2k but they will likely claim 3k etc

It always coms down to how much you want to sell and how much they want to pay, it’s a poker game.

I remember your original post on selling it was only a few weeks ago so it hasnt taken long to sell and I am sure you wouldnt have trouble selling it to another buyer at the price. I’ve heard that cash buyer bollocks from estate agents and buyers alike, often used as a tactic to make the seller think the buyer is in a better position than they are so take it with a pinch of salt, especially as they are getting a mortgage survey and appear to be stalling or messing you about.
Tell them the minor things on the survey are nothing, if they are not interested at the price negotiated then you’ll be taking more viewings on the assumption the sale may fall througb and you want to get some backup options coming through.

That sounds more like a Homebuyers survey than the basic valuation a mortgage company would use as a minimum.

As they are supposedly cash buyers, a retention on the mortgage shouldn’t be a problem as they have the cash to make up the shortfall so I wouldn’t be in a rush to reduce the price (if thats what they intend to ask for)

I’m not going to reduce the price. To be fair they got it under the lowest I said I would take as they are cash buyers and promised to move fast.

I’m also not going to rush to have the electrics tested at my cost. It’s a 70’s house so they aren’t going to be up to the current regs. It does have a proper fuse board already as well as new plugs and switches.

Thanks for all the replies.

If they come back to me about it I am going to say the following……

The electrics are not up to current regs as the house was built in the 70’s. If they want them checked then they can pay.

With regards to the roof. It hasn’t moved in the last 34 odd years so I doubt it’s going to move now.

Both things are not deemed dangerous therefore we are not going to reduce the price.

Does that sound fair ?

Go on the offensive.
Just ask
“As the surveys reveal no material faults when are you in a position to exchange?”
Any more half-larks and back on the market with it!
It’s been reduced in price to allow for a quick sale;if that looks unlikely then there’s no reason to sell at that price. (Depending on your local market, of course)

Having had a survey back for a house we’re buying, the report seems to be full of arse covering by the surveyor. Not seen a certificate for gas or electric so probably out of date and need checking, any martial he couldn’t identify was potentially asbestos and the flat roof may leak because it didn’t look brand new. Didn’t identify anything worthy, but now have a retainer on the mortgage for flat roof and guttering.