Who is responsible for electrical defects? - case study:
"We bought a house 5 years ago and received the electrical compliance certificate etc. We have now installed an inverter system and they are unable to provide us with the Certificate of Compliance as the plugs, connections, circuit breakers are a mess. Who is now liable for that cost? Can we make contact with the electrician that provided the coc, the attorneys or who can we speak to?"
Mc Naught and Co says...
One needs to remember that an electrician issuing a Certificate of Compliance, not being the original installer of the electrical wiring, only certifies that at the time of issue of the compliance certificate, the installation is safe and compliant. One would therefore need to know what the current issues are. Over 5 years a lot can deteriorate making a once safe installation now unsafe. However, if the wrong gauge wiring was used for example, the installation would never have been compliant then and should not have been passed.
Further if the original compliance was incorrectly issued, it doesn't mean that the electrician who issued it is liable to fix it, it means that the owner/seller should have paid to fix it and a claim might still lie there.
So the first step is to get a proper report on each item alleged to be unsafe or non-compliant and whether such issue has happened over time, or would have been evident 5 years ago and take it from there. The labour department might well ask the issuing electrician to return to fix some issues if approached. Another concern is that the electrician who installed the inverter should not perhaps have altered the electrical system if it was unsafe or non-compliant before he started. Altering the electrical installation automatically invalidates a previously issued compliance certificate.