Need RECI cert for mortgage

philcsl

I bought a house in Dublin 12 a few months ago and gutted it and renovated it with help from friends doing nixers. It was rewired by two of my mates who are both qualified sparks but neither is RECI certified.

I need to get a RECI cert for my bank's surveyor so that he can value the house so that the bank can loan me more money against the house..

Does anybody know of any RECI contractors who are quite cheap for signing off on a house? It doesn't matter if they are a good or bad electrician, the quality of work on the house is not in question. I just want someone cheap who is RECI certified. There are litteraly hundreds in Dublin alone and I've called a good few and there is quite a big difference in what they charge.

If anyone has been in a similar situation I'd appreciate any help. Cheers.

Stoner

RECI themselves will recommend the nearest registered person to you.
I advise that you get this test carried out and let the guys complete a proper test, IMO all electrical work is in question until it is tested and certified.
I doubt that anyone could recommend someone who would just fill out the papers without checking the installation, they would be very foolish to do so I have seen fantastic electricians making mistakes and anyone who just signs off someone elses work in their name without checking their work is going to end up in court some day, electricians know this to be the case that's why I doubt you will be sucessful.

IMO it would be better to pay a RECI registerd guy to come in and check the work before writing the cert, this is still "wrong" and not something I recommend but you have the place wired this would be the right thing to do next.


Not the response you wanted to hear, but here we are:)


http://www.reci.ie/findcontractor.php3

Reci Phone 01 - 492 9966

looksee

I suspect RECI will not be interested in signing off a job they haven't done. I had a problem where an electrician told me he was RECI but in fact he wasn't he was a member of ECSSA (he said RECI because that is what I had specified, I had never heard of the other organisation). RECI do not have any sort of identity card for their members. When I tried to check with RECI about the quality of the work it naturally led to huge confusion. Then ECSSA wouldn't take up the problem until I had allowed the electrician in question to come in and check out HIS OWN work. They said that the work could be checked by their inspectors but it was a 'maybe sometime when he is in your area we can't say when that might be' type of situation.

Both these organisations are entirely reputable professional organisations, but they are there on behalf of their own members. It should be possible to pay a reasonable fee and get a completely independent/government appointed person to check out electrical work. Electrical work is too important to leave to chance.

philcsl

Thanks for the responses, I reckon I'll have to go with any one of the RECI members off the site. I am 100% sure the work is completely safe, the two sparks who wired the house have wired over a hundred houses between them and they have already carried out the checks which will be done by RECI (resistance tests etc). Their boss is in RECI but lives almost 100 miles away and wouldn't expect him to sign off on any job without checking it himself so it would be cheaper to get someone local.

I just don't want to be landed with some cowboy who makes up some reason to fail the work so that I will have to get a second call out and pay another €400 - this is the main complaint I've heard from people (well two people) and that was the reason I was looking for someone who would be looking for a quick buck to sign off on it straight away or preferrably somebody who can recommend an honest and reasonlbly priced RECI spark they have used...

eoghan.geraghty

"I was looking for someone who would be looking for a quick buck to sign off on it straight away "

Maybe this is unintentional but it is naive at best.

Its unusual that your 2 sparks posess all the test instruments to test the work yet are not trusted by their boss to certify installations on his behalf.

400 euro seems about right for certification, whether ECSSA or RECI it does not matter.

I would offer my services but my ECSSA membership is still in the application process and i understand you are in a rush.

One small bit of advice, whichever contractor you choose, it is reasonable to ask that IF he does notice a fault(s). You have an agreed timeframe (2 weeks?) to get your sparks in to put it right and the revisit is free.


Best of luck

Hoagy

RECI Rule 14.
14. Completion Certificate......
The Registered Contractor may not certify new installations not constructed by him/her without specific authority by RECI. Failure to comply with this rule will give rise to disciplinary action and/or a fine (not to exceed €634.87).

ECSSA Rule 31.b.111
A contractor's right to self certification and membership is automatically lost by reason of......
Using, or permitting the use of, Completion Certs issued to him/her, for the Certification of an Installation not carried out by the Contractor to whom there were issued.

Just so you know.

antoinolachtnai

Those clauses, particularly the ECSSA rule could well be contrary to the Treaty of Rome and the Competition Act. RECI would have to give the electrician authority unless they had a specific reason not to. (RECI is within its rights to offer a full inspection though.)

Illegal rules are not binding on members and cannot lawfully be enforced. (This is not legal advice mind you and you should not rely on it as such.)

philcsl

Thanks Eoghan, I should have been more specific..

The reason I was looking for somebody to sign off on it quickly was because I was certain of the quality of the work and it had been tested (even more thoroughly than the spot tests required by RECI). I am living in the house myself and wold definitely want a thorough inspection if I wasn't sure..

My mates boss will not sign it off without personally inspecting it (even with guys working 15 years for him) which is totally understandable. He allows them use of his equipment for nixers but that is as far as he gets involved. He has a lot of sparks working for him as has the same rule for everybody.

You're suggestion of agreeing a 2 week period to fix any problems and not charge for a second visit would sort out all my problems, i'll try this. I wasn't aware that some sparks would work like this. I'm almost sure there is nothing they could find wrong but I just didn't want to throw away money incase I happen to get a chancer and the bad experiences I've heard of would not have happened if this was done.

Thanks again!!

muttly365

HI im a electrican an a member of ECSSA i would be more than happy to call out to your house and give you price for certificate of completion on the electrical work carried out in your house i could not see any problems in writting a cert 4 this job if your 2 electricans have carried out their work to ETCI regulations and standers if how ever a fault is found i will give you 2 weeks to have you 2 Electricans to come back and fix the prob at that time i will come back out 2nd time free of charge and finish off my part of the jod and sen in the paper work witch you will recive a copy of for insurance.

aws

You also pay reci or ecssa to come out and do an full inspection . I think they charge around €300 for this.

enmac

see attached application to ECSSA
you need to get the sparks to fill in the relevant bit - they don't need to be certified themselves - the inspector will sign off

this basically means that any sparks can wire a house and then get ECSSA to sign off the completion cert

initial cost 300 euro
revisit is 124 euro

mooseygoat

hi muttly365, im a spark myself ,more industrial experience than domestic good friend asked me to wire his house trying to help him out money wise ,new build , i have domestic experience but have not wired a house in 6 years ,been reviewing the e.t.c.i rules see there has been a few changes like kitchen and ring mains are now a no no and fuse board has new height measurments,etc etc . any ways was wondering how much you would charge to carry out tests (as i do not have the correct equipment)and provide a completion cert , cheers

GhanGee

Last year, work had been done in our house by a qualified electrician, but not RECI registered. Who do we need to contact to get it tested and certified ? Thanks for any advice.

Jack the Stripper

Try Robbie, may be stoned though.

Stoner

GhanGee wrote:

Last year, work had been done in our house by a qualified electrician, but not RECI registered. Who do we need to contact to get it tested and certified ? Thanks for any advice.

You need to contact RECI directly imo. You might be in a tight spot.
The issue here now is that was the electrical contractor a registered electrical contractor.
If not then this work was potentially carried out against the law.

Note that this forum can't be used to promote or source RECs certifing work they did not install, even if the work was carried out by someone working for a REC, but on their own.

RECI used to have a solution to this if you called them directly you could explore it. But the law has changed now. Rather than open up a big legal debate my advice to you would be to call RECI and explain your situation generically and see what they say.

Your​ best hope is that the electrician is now a rec. This has little to do with being qualified as an electrician and more to do with being registered, paying tax , paying​ membership to RECI etc.

Stoner

Jack the Stripper wrote:

Try Robbie, may be stoned though.

Jack. This is a very old thread, the charter and law has changed since it was created.

Promoting someone who can certify another's work is now against the law, and it's now a legal requirement to be a REC to carry out this work.

The stoned reference is noted, as was the one at the weekend. They don't amount to much on their own, I can't and don't want to identify who Robbie is. But please don't expand on your advise in the direction of your last post here.

voodoochile

Stoner wrote: »

Jack. This is a very old thread, the charter and law has changed since it was created.

Promoting someone who can certify another's work is now against the law, and it's now a legal requirement to be a REC to carry out this work.

I know that this is an old thread, but you seem like you're in the know.

Just to be clear: are you saying that RECI cannot or will not sign off on work carried out by a non RECI registered electrician?

_Brian

voodoochile wrote: »

I know that this is an old thread, but you seem like you're in the know.

Just to be clear: are you saying that RECI cannot or will not sign off on work carried out by a non RECI registered electrician?

They cannot do this, how could they stand over work they had no control over the quality of.

voodoochile

_Brian wrote: »

They cannot do this, how could they stand over work they had no control over the quality of.

Well I guess they can't as you say. What I was interested in was an inspection service, similar to how an engineer signs off on work not carried out by themselves.

Calahonda52

voodoochile wrote: »

Well I guess they can't as you say. What I was interested in was an inspection service, similar to how an engineer signs off on work not carried out by themselves.

That does not happen if the folk care about their PI.

At best you will get a heavily caveated opinion
In addition, the RECI work is a test based system: a world of a difference

meercat

voodoochile wrote: »

Well I guess they can't as you say. What I was interested in was an inspection service, similar to how an engineer signs off on work not carried out by themselves.

A registered electrical contractor can carry out a periodic inspection report on an installation he hasn’t done however.this is generally an older installation
He can also test and certify a disconnected installation for purposes of reconnection.
As others have said;he cannot certify other electricians new work

voodoochile

Thanks for the replies everyone. Useful information for the uninitiated.

Calahonda52

meercat wrote: »

A registered electrical contractor can carry out a periodic inspection report on an installation he hasn’t done however.this is generally an older installation
He can also test and certify a disconnected installation for purposes of reconnection.
As others have said;he cannot certify other electricians new work

Is this without testing or not at all.?

meercat

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Is this without testing or not at all.?

Not at all.

Bonzo Delaney

meercat wrote: »

Not at all.

Out of curiosity what happens in situation like the op (I know it's years ago now)
Or say present time that house is sale agreed and the purchaser needs a cert what process does the new sparks hired by the new purchaser take

Sleeper12

Bonzo Delaney wrote:

Out of curiosity what happens in situation like the op (I know it's years ago now) Or say present time that house is sale agreed and the purchaser needs a cert what process does the new sparks hired by the new purchaser take

Worst scenario is reci electrician insists on rewire the whole house before issuing a cert.

meercat

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

Out of curiosity what happens in situation like the op (I know it's years ago now)
Or say present time that house is sale agreed and the purchaser needs a cert what process does the new sparks hired by the new purchaser take

A periodic inspection report should suffice. A rec is permitted to do this.it would be prudent to get this periodic inspection report before contracts are signed.