House diagnostic survey

Morning all

Hoping someone can advise me a an issue we have regarding our house sale,
We have sold our house and had all diagnostic surveys done all passed with good results, On receiving the electric report I see that they have made a plan of the house stating 29 rooms, This is taking into account external wood shed and open garage plus boiler rooms and attic stairwell and passage way,
This alters the tax payment for the future proprietor and us, We have only 8 rooms that are habitable stating 29 rooms makes us some kind of chateau
any advice on how to deal with this situation please

Frustrated

The property tax is calculated by your local tax office. I doubt that the tax office will ever see the electrical report, let alone take any notice of it… The details they use are those on the most recent H1 signed by the owner.

1 Like

Morning Anna

Thank you for the quick reply, the diagnostic
report will be presented to the notaire and I think the last H1 was declared 10 years ago,
I think the buyer is concerned that the H1 and the report are conflicting and may cause a problem with the tax ,
is it normal for a plan of the house showing passage ways and halls necessary on the diagnostic report, seems unusual

George

1 Like

I can’t imagine it will cause a problem, surely a company that does diagnostics knows how to do them, but the notaire is the person to ask if you have any doubts.
The tax office don’t update property taxes on an ongoing basis on a whim. If they have reason to believe it’s wrong and needs updating, they will send out a new H1 for completion and signature, and wait until that comes back before recalculating. This is France, there are procedures to be followed :wink: An electrical diagnostic is about electrical installations. An H1 is about property taxes. I do not think the twain ever meet. They’re done for different purposes, they treat the data differently and they concern different organisations. A boiler room may not be a “room” for taxe d’habitation purposes but it is very much a “room” when it comes to an electrical survey, one of the most sensitive rooms in fact because it’s stuffed with electrics, and it has to go in the report.
If I’m correct, I’m sure the notaire will reassure your buyer. If I’m wrong, he’ll sort it out.

1 Like

Thank you very much I will pass the information on and let the people concerned deal with it thanks again

Kind Regards

George

No surprise here. The report on our house passed the electrics as OK. There was no effective earth connection, many of the circuit breakers were connected with polarity reversed, several sockets had an earth connection between them but no connection to earth at all, others had the earth wire cut off, the tableau did not comply with the norms for the size of the house and sub mains to a secondary tableau were undersized. The gas service was pronounced OK even though it was not tested as it had been turned off at the meter and sealed.

PS It took me about 5 minutes to conclude that the electrical installation was close to lethal and would need to be completely replaced and that was before I had read “Comme un Pro”. On the basis of my experience these reports are not worth the paper they are printed on.

Hi Michael

My situation was that the electric passed the test but on the report they said my house had 29 pieces which makes it a chateaux why can they not just do the electric report as normal

George

Understood George, however I thought it a useful point to make that
although the survey reports are required by law one should not consider
them as in any way evidence that the installations are fit for purpose.

I am not an electrician but I have rewired several houses in UK and done
the plumbing and heating in them as well.

In our house the only earth connection was with an undersized (2.5 sq mm -

it should have been 6 or 10 (I can’t remember exactly now)) corroded
stranded cable which on its own should have resulted in the electrical
system being condemned as unsafe and in UK would have resulted in an
immediate stop notice being attached and the connection at the meter
disconnected. The feed to the secondary tableau was also 2.5 (I replaced
it with 16) and to the workshop also 2.5 I replaced it with 10). I
installed three new linked earth connections, replaced all three tableaux
and will have replaced all the wiring as well by the time we have finished
the house.

The main gas pipe ended in a stopcock opening to the attic space with no
cap on it - again potentially lethal.

The drains were pretty dubious as well - all passed by the authorities.
Nearly all replaced now

On the whole electrical installations that I have seen in France (apart
from completely new ones) have been of poor quality and mostly unsafe.

Of course all this is off the point you make but relevant to anyone buying
in France and a lesson not to rely on the “reports” as anything other than
a necessity for the seller but of little value to the buyer.

All that said I have found the authorities very helpful in most cases as
long as the approach is carefully planned and in (even rudimentary)
French. A request to help with a problem is rarely refused and has always
resulted in very helpful advice. I would expect you will find the rating
authority helpful in resolving the apparent problem over the number of
spaces. I suspect they regard the survey reports with as much disdain as I
do.

When I appealed against the assessment for our workshop (an newly enclosed
part of a previously partly open barn) as I thought they had used the wrong
classification for it the lady at the rating office explained that I could
certainly appeal if I wished but they had changed the basis and pricing
since the assessment and even if I won it would result in a higher
assessment. I was happy to accept the “incorrect” one!

Good luck

Regards

Mike