Buying, selling, renting or letting...
Whether you're buying, selling, renting or letting your property you'll need to be sure that the electrical installation is fit for purpose and in good working order.
Thankfully, much recent legislation has been passed to help reduce the likelyhood of poor electrical installations being overlooked when a house is renovated and subsequently sold or rented.
Since January 1st 2005, any work carried out in a domestic premised in England and Wales has to meet the required standards laid out in Building Regulations under Approved document Part P. Any work carried out from this date onwards must have a certificate from one of the approved government bodies. The NICEIC is the largest and most recognised of these bodies and fuseboxheroes have been with the organisation since 2003.
If you're buying a property with a new kitchen, new bathroom, new extension or loft conversion then you should expect to see the associated certification. If this is not forthcoming, you then are perfectly entitled to ask that the electrics be inspected and tested at the vendor's expense. In short, the government is trying to stop purchasers paying top price for new a kitchen or bathroom only for it to have to be replaced in a few years due to poor workmanship. Certified electrical complance is seen as a significant benchmark as it often non obvious if an electrical circuit has been upgraded.
Equally, if you're selling your home it is prudent to have the electrics put in order before you put the property on the market. A request for electrical certification is a standard question for lawyers as part of their preliminary enquiries and when certification is not presented, this becomes a strong bargaining tool when re-negotiating the sale price.
If you're renting a property, then you are perfectly within your rights to ask to see some form of periodic inspection of the electrical installation. This is now a legal requirement and the landlord must provide certification and have a basic monitoring proceedure in place (see our landlords section).
In summary, always use a qualified electrician to install and certificate any electrical work you have in your property and always check that the electrics in property that you are buying or renting have been installed by an professional and are certificated before you hand over your money.