Visual inspection ???

[Evans Electric]

First time ever , been asked to do a  " Visual "   

Do I drive past in first gear , leaning out of the van window , return to the  office & sign it off or what ???   :C   

Story is ,  family down the road have sold & are moving ,  the guy is a Gas Safe fitter , he's been doing the house up for the last two years ,  being a plumber / gas fitter  he's earned a fortune & is upgrading .  

He phoned me to say the estate agents  want the "electrics signed off "          I told him we can't sign off other's work  but can do an EICR  ,  check if that is acceptable .

He's phoned back to say the agents only want a "Visual"    .   I've never done a "Visual"   as to me there is no point other than to see if switch plates are hanging off say ,  or look at an ancient , wooden fuseboard , with rubber cables  ,  recommend a rewire  and walk out . 

Anyone else ever done a "Visual"?  

 

[Sharpend]

Sorry can’t say I have but that’s more to do with not being competitive on price!!

£15-£20 for visual based on the £50 EICR :C  

 

[kerching]

I believe the NIC used to produce a Visual test Cert ( I think )

i was told years ago by NICEIC man...."if you do a visual then leave ALL test equipment in the Van, Visual is visual and nothing more"

 

[Murdoch]

Not sure a visual would be worth anything .....

 

[Andy™]

just note on cert 'visual only' then FI everything and give it an unsatisfactory as you couldnt verify that it was satisfactory...

 

[NozSpark]

Electraform do a visual EICR form... cost £1 per cert

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

First time ever , been asked to do a  " Visual "   

Do I drive past in first gear , leaning out of the van window , return to the  office & sign it off or what ???   :C   

Story is ,  family down the road have sold & are moving ,  the guy is a Gas Safe fitter , he's been doing the house up for the last two years ,  being a plumber / gas fitter  he's earned a fortune & is upgrading .  

He phoned me to say the estate agents  want the "electrics signed off "          I told him we can't sign off other's work  but can do an EICR  ,  check if that is acceptable .

He's phoned back to say the agents only want a "Visual"    .   I've never done a "Visual"   as to me there is no point other than to see if switch plates are hanging off say ,  or look at an ancient , wooden fuseboard , with rubber cables  ,  recommend a rewire  and walk out . 

Anyone else ever done a "Visual"?  

Quite a long time ago I did one....

Easy money providing customer is happy to pay..

just told them it was half day's labour charge...

(No point faffing around for just an hour & half labour.)

I used some of the generic NIC non-logoed forms..

they were to 17th edition consisted of two pages...

Page #1 front:



Page #1 rear:



Page #2 front:



Page #2 rear:



As I said...  Not many boxes to fill in.....

Easy money if you can charge the right price.

Guinness

 

[Evans Electric]

Thanks guys ,  I agree its not worth a lot  but thats what they want ,  I offered to carry out an EICR  .  

I downloaded this .  (Front page of 2 )

I see NICEIC  have a Visual pad in their online shop but I was unable to buy it as I'm an ELECSA ite .    ELECSA don't do them .  

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Thanks guys ,  I agree its not worth a lot  but thats what they want ,  I offered to carry out an EICR  .  

I downloaded this .  (Front page of 2 )

I see NICEIC  have a Visual pad in their online shop but I was unable to buy it as I'm an ELECSA ite .    ELECSA don't do them .  

If want any of these un-logoed one's I've still got, PM me an address and I will send you some in the post?



I know technically they were printed during 17th.. But how much different info is needed for an 18th edition visual????

:C

And at the end of the day you could just write your own word document anyway covering all relevant details!

Guinness

 

[Rutts35]

If not done already I could build a PDF version that's fillable?

 

[Evans Electric]

Thanks for those kind offers guys ,   however , after all the kerfuffle   about EICRs etc  he still hasn't phoned back so I've wrote it off  .   I think he'll  have moved  by next week .     Job was all of 200mtrs away  , I thought I'd check each room for anything iffy , bathroom for sockets mounted in the bath etc ,   Zs on sockets , Ze at the board , polarity , test button the RCDs  and  fifty squid please for walking down the road. 

 

[brummydave]

I know it's late to the thread but i've just been sent one of these (done in April 2018) and I can't believe it's an official document. Any nic members care to comment? It's not a BS7671 form...

The completed one i've been sent all looks very proper, with C2 & C3 observations and a summary saying that upgrades are needed. How is that possible to say with no testing?!

I've been sent it because I've been asked to do an EICR now on a flat that had a new consumer unit in May! Apparently "an installation certficiate isn't as good as an inspection report" as said by the letting agent. So the 'domestic visual condition report' was the last acceptable paperwork.

I'm having increased interactions with estate agents, landlords and tenants and it seems that there a lot of companies doing 'visual' and/or 'functional' checks and they are passing these off as full and proper testing and inspection. It's worrying from a safety and complacency point of view, and annoying from a business point of view as a proper EICR costs double!

 

[Doc Hudson]

I know it's late to the thread but i've just been sent one of these (done in April 2018) and I can't believe it's an official document. Any nic members care to comment? It's not a BS7671 form...

The completed one i've been sent all looks very proper, with C2 & C3 observations and a summary saying that upgrades are needed. How is that possible to say with no testing?!

I've been sent it because I've been asked to do an EICR now on a flat that had a new consumer unit in May! Apparently "an installation certficiate isn't as good as an inspection report" as said by the letting agent. So the 'domestic visual condition report' was the last acceptable paperwork.

I'm having increased interactions with estate agents, landlords and tenants and it seems that there a lot of companies doing 'visual' and/or 'functional' checks and they are passing these off as full and proper testing and inspection. It's worrying from a safety and complacency point of view, and annoying from a business point of view as a proper EICR costs double!

What does the next inspection date on the EIC state? If its all still good and valid then on your EICR where it says "previous records available and date of last inspection etc.." just write "Yes" and fill in the dates and certificate number of the EIC, then for all your test readings etc. just ref previous "still valid" certificate, write satisfactory in the box, post it and send the invoice! OR photocopy EIC and attach it to your EICR with comments on each page stating see attached additional 4 pages EIC.  Unless they are not providing a copy of previous cert and asking for re-test as they think something is dodgy?

Doc H.

 

[Risteard]

The completed one i've been sent all looks very proper, with C2 & C3 observations and a summary saying that upgrades are needed. How is that possible to say with no testing?!

I realise this is an old thread, but why couldn't you have observations arising solely from an inspection with no testing?

Inspection is more important than testing, which is merely to supplement the inspection. Many things could pass electrical tests, but this does not make them acceptable or compliant or non-hazardous.

 

[ProDave]

Inspection is more important than testing, which is merely to supplement the inspection. Many things could pass electrical tests, but this does not make them acceptable or compliant or non-hazardous.

Many things could pass an inspection but that does not make them acceptable or compliant......

 

[Risteard]

Many things could pass an inspection but that does not make them acceptable or compliant......

I'm not sure what your point is. I was responding to the claim that observations require electrical testing. Patently they don't. Many things would only be identifiable through inspection.

 

[Phoenix]

Risteard is right, while you'll never get a full fault list through inspection, you could pick the vast majority of them up with a through covers-off visual. and probably somewhere in the region of 50% without picking up a screwdriver.

If you think back to EICRs carried out, generally on mine the summaries are fairly wordy (as is the defect list), but I'm not sure theres one where I could not have written the same outcome and summary after a 10minute walkaround (on some quite big installations). What you of course wouldn't have is a comprehensive list of issues to do remedials against, but as a go / no go indication, its pretty effective.

If say there was a big portfolio of domestic properties with no history, you could very quickly sort them out into four groups.

"Visually ok - unlikely to be any major safety issues", 

"A few easily fixed issues - book in to have various list of accessories replaced", 

"Quite a bit wrong - reschedule for EICR to get a full picture"

"Lots of issues - Assign to re-wiring team"