Electrical certificate problems,
I'm buying a house, what should I do?

As a buyer, you need to make sure that you are given the original electrical certificate. Why? Because if something goes wrong and the installation is found to be defective because a proper inspection wasn’t done, you can get the electrician to come back and fix it – at his cost **.

** An invalid certificate applies only if the electrician is found to be negligent and it is clear that a certificate was issued without a proper inspection. This does not apply if the defect is of a latent or hidden nature.

Remember that you bought the property with a SANS 10142 compliant wiring installation. That’s the law! So why should you accept wiring that is obviously defective and should of been fixed by someone else?

Sometimes it happens that the previous owner did not reveal DIY wiring that may be in violation of the code. The electrician that inspected and issued the certificate may have been lazy. Fact is, why should you pay for other people's neglect or incompetence?

Electrical certificate problems occur because many new homeowners are unaware that if an electrician wrongly issues a coc that, the electrician can be held liable when problems arise. Often the seller obtained the coc and rushed it off to the transferring attorneys. The transferring attorney files the certificate with all the other piles of paper and gives it all to the bank.

As the buyer, you need to insist on keeping the original filed away. Then, if something goes wrong or you decide to sell the house a year later you simply refer back to or transfer the certificate to the new buyer, assured that there will be no problem. That's the whole point of the certificate!

What are the most common hidden problems found by electrical inspectors?

• not properly terminated wiring in ceiling spaces and boxes

• switches and outlets in bizarre locations like inside the bathroom above the bath

• DIY ripcords passing through cupboards, ceiling spaces and all other kinds of places

• distribution boards with hardly any access to it because they are inside cupboards, etc.

• open wiring connection in the ceiling, cupboards and elsewhere

• inappropriate double up wiring (especially neutrals) in the distribution board

• wiring may have been installed by the homeowner after the house was built, and was not buried deep enough or was done with the wrong kind of wire

• downright dangerous garden light cabling (like twin and earth flat cabling laid just below the ground cover)

• ditto for automated gate motors

-- and the list goes on and on and on

Low voltage down-lighters are a persistent headache

What happens is that the heat generated by the transformers and a 50 Watt 12 volt lamp is extreme. If normal PVC wire touch the transformers or is too close to the lamp, it quickly becomes brittle and the insulation burns away. A year or two down the line, your lights start tripping and you call an electrician who then has to check all the low voltage lights and put in heat resistant sleeves for a couple of thousand Rand.

Frankly, the electrician who issued the certificate should of picked this up and the seller should of fixed it -- at no cost to you.

Any further comments welcome?