[Question] CoC for house slated for rebuild (demolition)

[nroets]

A family member wants to buy my house. He wants to rebuild everything except the garage. His bank (and the conveyancer?) insists on a CoC.

An electrician quoted me R8000 for the changes that he wants to make before issuing the CoC. Most of the changes relates to circuits that will be completely demolished (outside the garage).

I want to disable the circuits slated for demolition myself. Should I pull all the relevant wires out of the conduit, or is there a simpler way ?

[nroets]

This is in order to obtain a CoC at minimal cost.

[skatingsparks]

In the past, with the permission of the new owner/buyer of the property, we completely disconnected and remove cables coming into the existing DB. Installed a new DB with a main switch, and earth leakage, 2 x 20 amp breaker and 2 x socket below.

The seller didn't want to rewire the whole place to sell it and the new owner didn't want to pay the extra for rewire which he was going to tear out anyway during his planned renovations.

In section 3 of the COC you can state what the COC covers.

If section 3 only states the installation consists of 2 socket circuits with one socket on each then I don't see a problem with that then, if the buyer of the house is happy with that everyone is a winner.

The estate agent gets a sale, the seller gets a buyer without having to rewire the place and the new owner get a blank canvas and we got the job to rewire the place as new owner wanted - making us happy.

They just used that sockets during the renovations and we rewired the whole place to current standards for them.

As long as the new owner, which seems to be your family member, is aware of this I think its all good.

A little DB with a new an earth leakage a and couple of sockets with a coc is not going to ammount to R8000

Don't think any local electrician could charge more than R2000. Make it part of the deal for the electrician who is going to wire the place for you (would not suggest DIY (ing) electrics to anyone).

I'd probably do it for free if i was going to be given the rewire job.

[nroets]

Thank you for your insights Mr. Sparks.

Suppose I just pay the R8000 and get the whole house CoCed. Then the builder will need to remove / disconnect nearly everything as his first step. And technically he needs a qualified electrician to do it.

So it's much better to contact the builder and make some sort of arrangement.

As a follow up question: Suppose an electrician comes for a CoC and sees holes in the wall where sockets obviously were in stalled previously. And that the wires are also removed. Should he have any issue with that ?

[Dave A]

The requirement for a COC arises from 7(5) of the Electrical Installation Regulations, which reads as follows:

Subject to the provisions of section 10(4) of the Act, the user or lessor may not allow a change of ownership if the certificate of compliance is older than two years.

Section 10(4) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act reads as follows:

Where a person designs, manufactures, imports, sells or supplies an article or substance for or to another person and that other person undertakes in writing to take specified steps sufficient to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that the article or substance will comply with all prescribed requirements and will be safe and without risks to health when properly used, the undertaking shall have the effect of relieving the first-mentioned person from the duty imposed upon him by this section to such an extent as may be reasonable having regard to the terms of the undertaking.

So what does this mean in practice in your situation?

If the purchaser undertakes to take responsibility for the issue of the COC, the seller may be legally relieved of this responsibility. For clarity though, the COC must be issued before the purchaser may take up residence (commence normal use of the installation).

Unfortunately although perfectly legal, the difficulty you are likely to face is to persuade the corporate machines to accept this process.

[nroets]

Thank you Dave. So take the example of a vacation house badly in need of repairs in a remote area. The buyer may need a few months to decide what he's going to do with the place.

We asked the bank if they are OK with no CoC being issued, but they did not reply.

Fortunately, this project is much farther down the pipeline. So we can prepare the electrical wiring for the demolition phase and get a CoC for that.

Note that SANS10142 is also applicable to demolition and construction sites.

[Dave A]

Thank you Dave. So take the example of a vacation house badly in need of repairs in a remote area. The buyer may need a few months to decide what he's going to do with the place.

That would quite possibly be a problem. Read section 10(4) carefully - The legislation essentially means the purchaser must commit (in writing to a specified plan of action) at the time of purchase and prior to transfer.