My first thought on reading that report is "3-day wonder."
That's a somewhat disparaging term we've been using in technical discussions to describe home inspectors who have gone on a 3-day course to "qualify" them to inspect domestic electrical systems when they had almost zero electrical knowledge beforehand. No doubt they're trying their best, but they simply cannot gain enough expertise in so short a time to make a reliable, informed report.
This report certainly reads like many others I've seen from similar sources, as though the inspector has just seized upon a few key points which were covered in the brief course. It's pretty muddled, certainly not written by someone in the electrical field, and after four or five slow reads I
think I've worked out what he's trying to say, but I'm not absolutely certain.
Analyzing his comments piece by piece:
A supply of electricity is available to the property. This was wired on a 13-amp ring main circuit but I believe installed before 1991.
The ring circuit should be 30 or 32 amps. The sockets on it are 13 amps, which I assume it was he meant. Ring circuits have been a standard arrangement in the U.K. for over 50 years, although not supplying the whole house.
The fact that wiring was installed prior to 1991 is really of no consequence. Whether it was installed properly and whether it is in good condition is much more important than whether it was installed in 2001 or 1981. Much older wiring (1940s/1950s) which used VIR (Vulcanized India Rubber) cable needs careful examination, since the rubber insulation can have perished badly over time, but PVC-insulated cables installed since the 1960s don't deteriorate with age in the same way.
There seems to be quite a growing tendency to dismiss anything more than a few years old as being out of date and in need of replacement, when in fact it might be perfectly acceptable.
It is now considered to be out of date in indeed the earth bonding in relation to continuous earthing bonding from the electrical installation in the kitchen for the boiler and elsewhere should have been taken back to the consumer fuse unit and this has not been undertaken.
This part isn't very clear at all.
You should have an earth bonding cable which runs from the distribution panel (fuse box) to the water supply pipe where it enters the house. The connection is typically made with a clamp just above the main stopcock where the pipe comes through the floor from underground. You may then have what is called supplementary equipotential bonding between various other pipes, creating a metallic path between hot & cold feed pipes to a sink, between the various pipes connecting to the boiler, and so on. These supplementary bonds are
not normally extended back to the distribution panel, nor is there any such requirement in the wiring regulations.
So is he trying to say that the main earth bonding to the water system is missing? Or is he looking at the supplementary bonding conductors and mistakenly thinking that they should have been extended back to the panel as well? I'm not sure.
I believe it does not reach appropriate safety standards and indeed the installation and consumer fuse unit is somewhat dated and perhaps a leakage detector should have been introduced into the electrical installation with a more modern fuse unit incorporating this RCD connection.
It sounds as though you have no ELCB or RCD, but except for houses in rural areas that was pretty much the norm at one time. The IEE Wiring Regulations -- which are not mandatory but are the generally accepted standard for wiring in Britain -- have gradually extended the scope of RCD protection over the years. I suspect this might be where he is getting his assumption that the installation predates 1991 or thereabouts.
The 16th edition of the rules which was in force from 1992 specified that RCD (earth leakage) protection should be provided on any socket "likely" to be used for supplying equipment outdoors (and the interpretation of that rather vague term "likely" has been the subject of much debate). The new 17th edition of the regulations has just come into force from the first of this month, and now demands that
all standard 13-amp sockets provided for general purpose use should have RCD protection.
The standards are not retroactive, however, and on matters such as this are very much open to a degree of subjective analysis. The RCD certainly provides an added level of protection, but that doesn't automatically mean that an installation without one is unsafe (in the same way that you might look upon antilock brakes on a new car as an added safety feature, but it doesn't mean that your old car without ABS is dangerous).
The "somewhat dated consumer fuse unit" could mean an old 1960s panel with rewireable fuse carriers, or it could mean a 1980s unit with circuit breakers which is essentially no different from what is being installed today. I've seen some things classed as "dated" when they're really not very old at all.
I don't suppose you have any photos, do you?
All in all, it's very difficult to be precise without seeing what's there and testing, and I'm afraid that this cursory electrical survey with the very confusing and muddled report is of little value.
