[jjames]

we have just finished a one off end of tenancy clean and it was minging. When we checked the property on friday the smell was disgusting. Two of us started on monday and had to remove twenty black bin bags of rubbish which was left all over the property along with some small items of furniture. We then had to remove five black bags of dog s..t from back yard and disinfect. We had to clean the whole house from top to bottom the worst of which was the kitchen ( still full of food and a weeks worth of dirty dishes ) and had to clean fridge, freezer and cooker. We also had to tidy front and back garden which was Knee high in weeds, replace one broken electric socket and sand down and repaint some badly repaired holes in living room wall. The whole lot took a total of 18 hours between the two of us and we had one full to the brim vivaro van of rubbish. This was a two bedroom house. Needless to say the tenants left owing rent. how much would you charge ?

I will let you know what I charged later ( I am sure not enough )

Justin

[martin19842]

hi there

if you break down the individual tasks, its easier

clearance/ rubbish disposal

garden maintenance

interior dec/maintenance

disenfectation services

cleaning service

18 hours , make that 3 labour days.

therefore youve got to be in about £850.00 plus VAT

regards

martin

[J. Deans]

£540 + VAT

[Jake]

We would have charged around £600 without the re-decoration, and probably had the client
supply a skip!

[richyvezy]

We did a similar one back early this year and charged £550 with the client supplying a skip.

Come on then the suspense is killing me.......

[jjames]

We did this far too cheap

£225.00

This is a new letting agent for us and we hope to have a long and happy relationship. Hopefully they won't expect all our jobs to cost this little. Still we did get £12.50 per hour per person and I did really enjoy turning a complete mess into a clean house. You live and Learn

Many thanks

Justin

[Jonny jones]

i think i should price the jobs where i am and you do the work, then i can still make a profit, anyway goodluck at getting more jobs, you got to do your best with the first one, then hope you get more

thanx jonny

let castle take the hassle

[glenda hollis]

What certification do you need to leave the client with when you replace electrical fittings?

[jjames]

Hi Glenda

There is no certification if you replace electrical fittings like for like. You only need to be certified if you are installing something new or are doing work in a kitchen or bathroom. Replacing electrical sockets, light switches or light fittings is perfectly fine.

Justin

[richyvezy]

We did this far too cheap

£225.00

This is a new letting agent for us and we hope to have a long and happy relationship. Hopefully they won't expect all our jobs to cost this little. Still we did get £12.50 per hour per person and I did really enjoy turning a complete mess into a clean house. You live and Learn

Many thanks

Justin

Justin

We live and learn mate. I just hope the agent doesn't look elsewhere when they don't get a similar quote !!
What I would do now is contact the agent and ask them if they were happy with the job and if they are let them know that it was an introduction price to show them what you can do etc.

I have one other question though - what did you do with the van full of rubbish ?

Richy

[glenda hollis]

Hi Glenda

There is no certification if you replace electrical fittings like for like. You only need to be certified if you are installing something new or are doing work in a kitchen or bathroom. Replacing electrical sockets, light switches or light fittings is perfectly fine.

Justin

Oh. I was sure it fell under the scope of a Minor Works Certificate. That must have changed then in recent months.

[steve doyle]

my understanding is,

fitting, adding, moving And replacing. Taken from guidence;

This simplified certificate is provided by the installer after completion of additions, alterations or replacements to the existing electrical installation which do not extend to the provision of a new circuit. Examples include the addition of a socket outlet or a lighting point to an existing circuit, or to the replacement or repositioning of a light switch. A separate certificate must be provided for each circuit on which work has been carried out.


so maybe you shouldent of done it?

[glenda hollis]

I have a small holiday cottage that I rent out through an agent. They reported to me earlier this year that one of the electrical sockets in the living room was cracked. I know of a gentleman in the area who would have done the job for me but the agent was dead against him doing it because they insisted it required a minor works certificate. I think if they had not known about the problem then no one would have been the wiser, but as it was they who bought the problem to my attention they obviously did know about it and wanted the certificate to support the work. I asked my own electrician what this was all about and he said they have to certificate all work they do. He agreed with the agent so I just let the agent appoint an electrician and send me the bill for it. This is my experience of the situation, alas I do not know or claim to know the exact laws and the like because I took the easy option which was to get an electrician to do the job and left it at that. I am not saying you are or were wrong, i am simply curious about how you dealt with the repair.

[jjames]

Hi

Re electrics

Now I am doubting myself, Checking on the law it is very misty. according to the book in front of me it says certain things are not notifiable ( replacemnets ect ) but now you say it, I have looked up on the internet and yes you should fill in a certificate. Now some industrial bodies are saying you can self certify as long as you are registered. I am not. All the letting agents I deal with don't get certificates from any of their electricians. My wife works in lettings and they have just been told that they have to have an electrical safety check done on each property ( not law but new company policy ) but the bathroom light which they had fitted yesterday by a quilified electrician has not had a minor works certificate. If they are going to make these laws why can't they make them easy to understand. I think I will leave It to the electricians from now on and if they are not doing it right they can get in trouble. what has happened to the good old days when you could do a simple thing like replace a socket and not break the law

Justin

[glenda hollis]

By notifiable you are presumeably taking about the new part-P regulation which means that certain jobs and work done in certain areas of a house are termed notifiable under Part-P. This I do know about as my own electrician was telling me about how he'd had to become Part-P registered in order to continue to do the work that he had been doing up until that point. This is different though to the Minor Works Certificate which as I understand it, and this is purely an understanding, is that anyone other than the property owner is supposed to fill out a Minor Works Certificate if they do electrical work on someone else's property. I think the problem arises not because it is very simply to swap a broken socket for a new one, more that when wiring is disturbed it can be a can of worms if it is perished or was not originally installed correctly It is not the same as the Part-P rules which are a different matter altogther. It is basically a certificate which states that the person doing the work has a level of electrical competancy to carry out what they have done. If you haven't mentioned the electrical work on your invoice I wouldn't worry.

[J. Deans]

You have hit the nail on the head there Glenda. It is about competency.

Like having electrical tools and equipment 'PAT Tested,' it can be done by any competent person, not necessarily by a qualified electrician or electrical engineer and there is no certificate of competency required.

If someone like a letting agent requires a certificate, I see nothing wrong in drafting your own for a situation like this and getting the workman to sign it as a competent person carrying out the work.

Obviously, as previously mentioned, this would probably only apply to minor repairs and replacements, not to actual installations or major upgrades.

[Scotbrite]

Hi,
I would be very wary of giving a self made and signed certificate for any work of this type these days. It is all to easy to be taken to court if there are any probs. in the future and by certifying you are taking responsibility for the job. Who is to say you are "competent" - surely this must mean some kind of qualification in the required field. Just my thoughts,
Ron

[Art]

Hi,
I would be very wary of giving a self made and signed certificate for any work of this type these days. It is all to easy to be taken to court if there are any probs. in the future and by certifying you are taking responsibility for the job. Who is to say you are "competent" - surely this must mean some kind of qualification in the required field. Just my thoughts,
Ron

That's the same as i would think about the same situation.

The bit about the competent person, refers to PAT testing not instalations and even with pat testing. The bit that's not made clear is that a tester should be calibrated (yearly)

DIY jobs and homemade certificates, then your asking for trouble IMO

[glenda hollis]

Actually Ron this is a really grey area, in electrical terms 'competent' means just that - a person who is capable of doing the work just like J Deans said, that person does not have to be an electrician, although i agree with you that it is difficult to say and prove who is and isn't competant. I myself would not be comfortable replacing electrical fixtures for someone else, my huspand would do ours if need be, now he's gone i've done it myself and agree it is not rocket science but i would be wary of doing it for others. I'd let them pay an electrician like i had to do in my holiday flat.

[glenda hollis]

Arthur you can be considered competant to do small electrical jobs, the question is who decides who is competant? Odd job and handy men are still able to do minor repairs but they are supposed to hold a level of competancy and give a minor works certificate. They do not have to be or have been electricians, they are only required to have a knowledge of what they are doing, all the same i find it worrying.

[Art]

Arthur you can be considered competant to do small electrical jobs, the question is who decides who is competant? Odd job and handy men are still able to do minor repairs but they are supposed to hold a level of competancy and give a minor works certificate. They do not have to be or have been electricians, they are only required to have a knowledge of what they are doing, all the same i find it worrying.

Glenda,  If a fatality occured due to a DIY job then god help whoever the handyman was. The HSE would have a field day.

A little knowledge is worse than no knowledge, especially with electricity. So why put yourself at risk in the first place.

Arthur

[glenda hollis]

This is what i was saying. I agree with you totally. I am saying that in real terms though for small electrical jobs like replacing electrical accesories you do not have to be an electrician, even to do it for someone else. But that person is supposed to complete a minor works certificate which is a document that can be purchased by anyone who does the work. You get them from electrical wholesalers. I find it worrying that this is the situation but there we are. Unlike gas where you are supposed to employ a corgi registered person with electrical work there are at least 4 bodies that an electrician can apply to and even then there is no legal requirement to do that. Electrical work is no where near as policed as some people think. I have bought and sold a lot of property in my time and have picked up a lot of worrying information about what goes on.