Contested electrical certificates of compliance

CONTESTED ELECTRICAL CERTIFICATES OF COMPLIANCE

As we all know no one may use an Electrical Installation (Installation) in any building unless in possession of a valid Certificate of Compliance (COC) issued by a Registered Electrical Contractor (Registered Contractor). Such persons are appointed and registered in terms of the Electrical Installation Regulations of 2009 (the Regs) to the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1993.  The Regs further stipulate that the owner of an Installation may not allow a change of ownership to occur if the COC is older than two years.

The Regs have led to all standard sale of property agreements containing a clause obliging the seller to produce to the purchaser at the seller’s cost and expense a valid COC prior to registration of transfer.

We have had an increasing number of examples of purchasers moving into the purchased properties and then noticing faults and irregularities in the Installation on the property notwithstanding the fact that the seller has, in the interim, produced a COC issued by a Registered Contractor.

A purchaser in this situation then tends to get ‘his own’ Registered Contractor to re-inspect the property and this often results in an impressive list of electrical defects with an equally impressive quotation to address them.  Such purchaser then sends the results of the re-inspection to the conveyancers or the estate agents involved and somehow expects the list of faults / defects to be addressed.

Drawing the matter to the attention of the conveyancers or the estate agents involved will not and does not solve the purchaser’s problem. Both the conveyancers and the estate agents are obliged to apply the law of our country to the contract concluded between the seller and the purchaser.  They cannot therefore advise the seller to address the re-inspection list of defects / faults unless the law obliges the seller to so do.  From the point of view of the law and by virtue of the COC delivered to the conveyancer by the Registered Contractor appointed by the seller, the seller is seen to have performed his contractual obligations.  In this regard the seller had an obligation to produce a COC issued by a Registered Contractor and he did just that.  In such circumstances the conveyancer and estate agent can do nothing further to directly assist the purchaser.

The purchaser’s complaint needs to be placed at the door of an Approved Electrical Inspection Authority (AEIA).  AEIAs are appointed by the ‘Chief Inspector’ who is an official (or office) created in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1993.

In terms of the Regs (and more particularly Regulation 7(7)) an AEIA is permitted if invited so to do, to carry out an inspection of any Installation and if any fault or defect in the Installation is found, has the power to direct that a new COC be procured.  Such an instruction will of course mean that a new inspection needs to be done by a Registered Contractor who will obviously not issue the new COC until the remaining faults or defects are addressed.  If the faults or defects are deemed to be an immediate danger, the AEIA has the authority to have the power supply disconnected.  If the owner of the Installation believes that the AEIA is wrong in its findings and that there are no faults or defects, the Regs provide for a right of appeal to the Chief Inspector.

Even though the Regs don’t expressly say so, the fact that an AEIA is permitted to direct that a new COC be procured, implies that any existing COC ceases to be valid even though the existing COC was issued by a Registered Contractor and even though it is less than two years old.  In such a case the difficulty which the law created for the purchaser and/or the conveyancers and/or the estate agents as set out above falls away, as the COC produced by the seller will no longer be valid.  The seller will accordingly no longer be seen to be contractually compliant and will accordingly be obliged to bear the cost of having the work done properly and a new COC issued.

The Regs also mention that if the Registered Contractor who issued the first COC is found to have been negligent, the matter of that negligence can be reported to the Chief Inspector by the AEIA who will then presumably consider taking steps against the negligent Registered Contractor which steps might extend to removing his registration.  In this regard it should be known that it is the Chief Inspector who registers Contractors.

The contact details for AEIA for the Western Cape region are as follows:

Western Cape Approved Electrical Inspection Authority (WCAEIA)

Telephone:      021 987 3010

Facsimile:        021 987 3083

Email:              info@wcaeia.co.za

Miltons Matsemela Inc

February 2015