Overcharged by electrician

[ruston]

To be honest "Almost caused  a fire" .  Maybe a bit expensive , but prompt action maybe averted a tragedy .

 Just a thought 

 

[kerching]

Ah, charging for an assistant is taking the pee

i doubt that his governing body, if he has one, will be interested in the slightest . They don't decide on hourly rates. They don't even police shoddy work, being only concerned with fraudulent use of logos, making money and professing to be a Charity

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

He then charged again for the trip on Monday, as he didn't have an RCD with him on the first visit. 

Hello Hazel,

Just in case you don't know;

RCD's that provide electric shock protection, and MCB's that do overload protection in fuse boxes are designed to operate to the same technical safety standards...

But the physical shapes and sizes are not all identical!!   So they are not all interchangeable between manufactures.

And as many RCD's are, as you said, anywhere from £30+ it is unlikely that many electricians would have the correct RCD for your fuse board sitting in their box of spare parts.

So the need for a second visit is perfectly normal in these situations when wholesalers are closed.

However £500+ is without doubt a rip off!!!!

For your reference I did an out of hours call out before Christmas to a customer who's RCD wouldn't reset.

in this case the actual fault was the connector block on the rear of their built-in double oven.

So I did second visit after ordering replacement part from e-spares @ £25 for part + delivery

Both visits were mid week outside normal working hours, total approx 2 hours.

travel time more than 10mins but less then 15 mins each way.

location is classed as Worcestershire though the post code is a DY (on the boundary with Dudley borough)  

But the total cost was just under £120

(This is a private domestic dwelling not a rented property)

Had this of been a replacement RCD the materials would have been about £10 more.

And if one of the visits been on a weekend I would have probably added on £50 for Saturday or £75 for Sunday.

So I would be guessing £220ish would have been an OK sort of price for labour and materials with Sunday call-out

Guinness

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Did you authorise the tenant to use their own electrician???

If so why?

As this should have been done free of charge by British Gas if they messed it up first time!

But, that said,  I don't think I would have trusted them to come in the first place, from what I've seen of their work.

:C

 

[Sidewinder]

I've just priced this up now based on the information given and our charges and the bill would have been £460.13+vat giving £552.16.

So, I don't think that he is over charging.

Based on a well known brand RCD.

 

[Sidewinder]

Thinking about this, if, there was no means of isolation, then remember it's illegal, like it or not to remove the cut-out fuse.

Also illegal to work live except in a very few circumstances, so really, if the guy did work live to do the job and charged for an assistant, then that is not unreasonable.

Remember the DNO will not do one man live working, at least two if not 3 guys, for live work on a cut out, unless, there are other competent persons on site.

(changing a cutout fuse is a different ball game)

So charging £40 for an assistant is reasonable yes, if he had to work live as a safety man.

We don't know what the scenario was, so we cannot, and should not comment.

One person live working and relying on the householder/general public/bystanders as your rescue plan in the event of an incident is foolhardy at best.

 

[Hazel Barrett]

He was not working live, as the powercsupply to the house had been isolated by the fire brigade who stated that the power could not be restored until the fuse board had been made safe by a competent electrician. 

 

[roys]

He was not working live, as the powercsupply to the house had been isolated by the fire brigade who stated that the power could not be restored until the fuse board had been made safe by a competent electrician. 

How did the Fire Brigade achieve an isolation, did they call out the electricity board (DNO) ?

 

[Sidewinder]

He was not working live, as the powercsupply to the house had been isolated by the fire brigade who stated that the power could not be restored until the fuse board had been made safe by a competent electrician. 

Was he working at heights?  Another reason why a second safety person would be required.

 

[Blue Duck]

What would you have payed a plumber had a pipe burst in the loft? 

 

[ProDave]

He was not working live, as the powercsupply to the house had been isolated by the fire brigade who stated that the power could not be restored until the fuse board had been made safe by a competent electrician. 

If you want the forum to help you it might be worth giving all the facts right from the start in chronological order.

Waiting until the second page to throw in the information about a Fire Brigade visit does not help to build up a clear picture of what actually happened and when.

I would be tempted to refuse to pay the tenants bill on the basis it was no longer an emergency as the power had been disconnected and the correct procedure would be to call the original repairers back to correct their mistake at their own cost.

BUT you have to be mindful of your responsibilities to your tenant, and your duty to house him. It could well be that for the duration the property was uninhabitable you should have put him up in a hotel at your cost.  I know alternative accommodation is something included in my landlords insurance.

 

[Andy™]

yep, missing half the story does not help

 

[Murdoch]

Maybe the OP should start again and give ALL the facts ............. an RCD needing replacing is very different to a situation which involved the fire brigade!

 

[binky]

Defo a steep price, but then how many other electricians could you get to even answer a phone on a Sunday? Yiu could try re-claiming costs from BG, spcially if Fire Bigade have been involved so would possibly act as an independent witness.

As for cets - replacing like for like parts is not something I would issue a cert for unless it was specifically requested prior to leaving site.

 

[Hazel Barrett]

The facts were outlined in full in the original thread, including the fact that our tenants called out the fire brigade and then the electrician whose bill is now the subject of this thread. 

 

[Murdoch]

Thinking about this, if, there was no means of isolation, then remember it's illegal, like it or not to remove the cut-out fuse.

Got to disagree with this - SSE will allow scheme members to break seals, remove the fuse and fit a temporary seal ...

The facts were outlined in full in the original thread, including the fact that our tenants called out the fire brigade and then the electrician whose bill is now the subject of this thread. 

er no ............ the Fire Brigade are not mentioned in the original post.

 

[Andy™]

The facts were outlined in full in the original thread, including the fact that our tenants called out the fire brigade and then the electrician whose bill is now the subject of this thread. 

there was no mention of calling fire brigade in post 1

 

[ProDave]

IF the fire brigade isolated the supply, then it was no longer an emergency needed, just a repair, so I would say the tenant should not have called his own electrician.

It does after all sound like the electrician making the Sunday call out was not able to restore power on the Sunday as he had to return on Monday with the part. So power was not restored any quicker than getting the original repairer back on Monday.

 

[kerching]

Definitely no mention of Fire Brigade in the original post!

 

[Doc Hudson]

The facts were outlined in full in the original thread, including the fact that our tenants called out the fire brigade and then the electrician whose bill is now the subject of this thread. 

Unfortunately you did forget to actually mention a fire brigade visit in your initial post. If this situation had escalated to the point of requiring the fire brigade  I would certainly have expected far more detailed testing of the installation to verify it is safe to re-energise which would involve much longer time on the Sunday, in which case the bill may not be quite so expensive as it first sounds. Are there any other relevant details you may have omitted?
 

We have a rental property, for which we have a contract with British Gas for electrics. Two weeks ago, the tenant called them out to repace a faulty RCD in a fuse board. They did this, but failed to tighten the screws. The result was that the RCD blew and almost caused a fire. Distressed, our tenant called out their own electrician on a Sunday evening to make the board safe and returned the following day to fit a new RCD in the board. He has now sent us a bill for GBP 540. 

We do not consider this sum to be fair and reasonable for what was a simple job to tighten a few screws and fit a part that retails for just under £40.

We feel doubly let down. Firstly, by the electrician subcontracted through British Gas, and now by the second electrician, whom we did not call out, and were therefore unable to request quotation from before any work was carried out. 

I have since asked two other electricians to quote for the job, and their prices came in at below £100. 

What would youvonsider to be a fair and reasonable figure for an emergency call out on a Sunday evening?

Doc H.