When we are out about in the Bishop Stortford area, we often get emergency callouts and on Monday we such a call out.
It was 4.30pm and Jamie and I had just finished a job at restaurant in the town centre.
It was a young lady that called and explained they had only just moved into their property and some of the sockets in the house didn’t appear to work, but nothing had tripped out in the fuse board.
Strange we thought.
Jamie and I agreed to attend the property to carry out a fault find and rectify the problem.
Upon arrival we were greeted by a lovely couple who were extremely distraught as the sockets in question were in the front room and the children’s bedrooms.
This meant no tv or internet and the children were getting restless, and the couple seemed a little stressed.
After we had made friends with the family dog, we set about finding the fault.
The couple told us that the sockets were run off one circuit and in the front room the sockets had been making a hissing noise and pointed to one in particular.
The gentleman then told us the ones in the bedroom had in fact blown his phone charger!!
By this time, it was 5:30pm and the dark night was drawing in.
We isolated the main fuse board and started to remove the sockets to see what was behind.
Jamie, I said "have you seen this socket", no he replied but "have you seen this one". Both in disbelief at what we had seen.
Burnt cables and melted sockets.
The couple were horrified.
"My children sleep in this room that could have caused a fire" said the lady.
At this point we asked. Was an EICR done on the property before you brought it.
The couple replied no, no one told us about anything like that needed doing.
We agreed to replace all the sockets that had been affected.
By this time the children had grown very restless as the ipads and phones had begun to die. Then the inevitable question. When’s the power going to be back on!!
The sockets were replaced, and order was restored to the house.
This is not the end of the saga as the insulation on cables has broken down and the couple will sadly need to rewire the power circuit throughout the house.
Please before you commit to one of the biggest purchases of your life get the electrics checked, this will show up any faults and a discount can be made by the seller to compensate the buyer for any works needed. Don’t let yourself be out of pocket and always organise your own EICR.
Follow the link to see what’s involved and how it can save you in the long term
https://www.jjb-electrical.com/blog/eicr-hertfordshire
If you need an EICR on your dream home, give us a call today on 07742485307
