Scottish Rentals require a current satisfactory EICR.........

[Nicky Tesla]

Agreed but a nosey real finger does not find much trouble in dislodging those thin plastic blanks that slide onto the front slot of a CU either.
But yes. Put a decent blank in if you have one.

 

[UNG]

“That tape is all that stops someone putting a finger in and onto the busbar.“
If it stops a finger then it stops a test finger.

With that comment I doubt you have ever seen a British Standard test finger
On a recent course I did the tutor did not even know they existed until I mentioned it then he looked it up he was going to buy one until I pointed out the cheapest one was around £450

Agreed but a nosey real finger does not find much trouble in dislodging those thin plastic blanks that slide onto the front slot of a CU either.
But yes. Put a decent blank in if you have one.

The soft plastic blanks maybe but the hard plastic blanks are a lot harder to dislodge, ok the British Standard test finger does not have finger nails to prise them out but the plastic ones are a lot safer and will put up more resistance to penetration that a bit of tape will. Be it a nosey finger or a nosey screwdriver it is difficult to protect some people from their own stupidity
My spares box CU blank of choice is the Crabtree or Wylex metal twist fit blanks although you have to remove the cover to fit them they also take up a lot less space than the "decent" ones you suggest by a factor of around 20 to 1

 

[Bruspark]

Seems to me :
Some Landlords feel they might need a certificate but if so it's more as an alternative to complete or up to date electrical safety than a guarantee
Letting agents definitely want the certificate . . and their commission
Plenty of people in the dark corners of the trade happy to print one off and maybe even write the property address on it.

State of the country today

 

[UNG]

Plenty of people in the dark corners of the trade happy to print one off and maybe even write the property address on it.

I think there are plenty of people in some slightly lighter corners of the trade doing it as well
The big problem is we have trade scams misleading the general public and this is perpetuated by the press, consumer TV and dare I say forums like this one
How many posters have all these forums had over the years from the "I have my 18th edition and C&G2391" how can I get out there doing EICR's, ok the scams are tightening things up now but there are plenty that are whinging about that
Someone may correct me but to my knowledge the NICEIC and NAPIT only do assessments on installed work and not EICR's yet confirm that some contractors have been assessed to carry out EICR's, again it does not matter whether the assessed contractor has 1, 100 or 1000 employees one half day assessment covers them all regardless of ability
In the past 10years and may be longer I have not seen an ECIR produced by an NICEIC or NAPIT registered contractor that was close to being accurate and quite a few have been a copy of a previous EICR.
The most recent of these a few weeks ago was presented to the client by their NICEIC registered insurance company although they had contracted the work to an NICEIC registered facilities company who got a subsiduary company who appear not to be NICEIC registered although they have an NICEIC compliance manager to do the EICR a number of C2's were listed on the current and previous EICR, 2 of the C2's were very interesting as the board they were attached to has no mains supply connected to it, I was asked to explain to the area manager what it all meant a quick walk round and the EICR missed at least 1 C2 and possibly another 2 C2's, I asked the branch manager how long it took them to do the EICR the reply was I don't remember but it wasn't that long
So even some high profile companies are doing it with the blessing of the NICEIC

State of the country today

It went to the dogs years ago with Labour's Part P and the promotion of low grade skills that changed the industry

 

[binky]

It went to the dogs years ago with Labour's Part P and the promotion of low grade skills that changed the industry

at least they tried to change the industry, but I've always been of the opinion it was never tight enough, ie should have been more like the Gas industry. The one good thing is it did put off some builders from doing electrical work.

As for assessing competence for EICRs, it was always based on technical knowledge of the regs rather than watching people do an inspection.

 

[UNG]

at least they tried to change the industry, but I've always been of the opinion it was never tight enough, ie should have been more like the Gas industry.

They didn't try to change the industry they did their very best to destroy it and they are now reaping what they sowed with a lack of skilled workers and the older guy's hitting retirement. They allowed a select few carte blanche to develop or create and operate the money making scams that try to rule what we do
Gassafe is as bad as the electrical industry for writing up certs when there areclear and obvious faults on the installation so there is no point adopting what they have

The one good thing is it did put off some builders from doing electrical work.

Did it

As for assessing competence for EICRs, it was always based on technical knowledge of the regs rather than watching people do an inspection.

Back when I qualified it was understood that during the training over 3- 4 years you had been equiped by college attendance and on the job training and mainly full written closed book exams to work as a fully skilled electrician ready to tackle what was thrown at you. Where today we have an industry that has been carved up into limited skillsets / sectors with in a lot of cases extremely limited training and the advent of the multi choice very often open book exams
What we have now are those that get fed up with their current job and decide they want to be an electrician in 6 weeks time and having got the 2382 followed by 2391 seem to have been misled that it is the magic licence you need to go and do EICR's no doubt armed with a copy of codebreakers and an MFT that has green or red ticks to confirm the status of each test, yes the trade has been so dumbed down it has lost it's esteem
It is laughable when you get Domestic installers who decide to move into the commercial world and very quickly get out of their depth

The big issue with EICR's is installations vary a lot which can add to the complexity of some and therefore increase the time needed to properly complete it. I suspect the only reason we have not seen more deaths in recent years from electrical related injury is due to the RCD / RCBO requirements now

 

[binky]

@UNG it definetly put some builders off, at least the ones I did work for.

Quangos, all part of privatising everything as we have discussed many times before.

I don't know what the trade was like prior to Part P, as that was when I restrained, but I get the impression issuuing certs or doing any testing for a CU change was considered optional by many. So I'm not convinced standards were better prior to part p, at least not in domestic works, but at least we didn't have 5 week wonder courses.

The lack of new entrants is mostly down to how businesses work these days, with everything outsourced and lack of incentives to take on apprentices. Plus getting your hands dirty seems to be considered by many as work to avoid.