Electrical work and repairs in Buckhurst Hill

What are Buckhurst Hill's older houses like?

Buckhurst Hill grew up as a commuter town in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the roads around Queens Road, Palmerston Road and the parish church still hold tall Victorian villas and semi-detached pairs built for families with servants. Many are still single houses. A great many others were split into flats during the twentieth century, some carefully and some not, and it is those conversions that raise the most electrical questions in IG9.

What should I know about a converted Victorian flat?

The wiring of a converted villa reflects how the conversion was done. A thorough conversion gave each flat its own meter, its own consumer unit and its own circuits, with a separate landlord's supply for the hall, the stairs and the outside lights. A rougher one ran a sub-main from one board in the cellar to each floor, left circuits crossing between flats, or put one flat's lights on the landlord's supply. Decades later the result can be a meter cupboard nobody understands, a fuse that serves two flats and a hallway light nobody is sure they are paying for.

Points that come up again and again:

• the sub-main cable feeding your flat may be undersized or unprotected, and only an inspection will show it
• the earthing and bonding for the building may have been arranged once for the whole house and never updated for the flats
• a consumer unit in a shared hallway or cellar can only be worked on with the freeholder's or managing agent's agreement
• a fault in the communal lighting or the door entry system is the freeholder's to fix, not yours
• high ceilings, ornate cornices and lath and plaster make new cable runs slow and messy, so plan them alongside redecoration

Leaseholders should check their lease for who is responsible for what before booking work, and tell the managing agent about anything that affects the shared parts.

What if I let a flat in a converted house?

The five-yearly inspection and report required by the 2020 regulations applies to each let flat, and the inspection usually reveals whatever the conversion left behind. If the flat shares a board or a sub-main with another, the report may call for work that needs the freeholder's cooperation, so allow time for that. Smoke alarms on each storey of the flat and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker are also your responsibility as landlord.

What about houses that were never converted?

A Victorian house still in one piece has the virtues and the problems of its age: generous rooms, long cable runs, cellars and sometimes an attic floor, and wiring renewed piecemeal over a century. A board change with RCBOs, a rewire planned around redecoration, extra sockets in bedrooms wired for one lamp, and outdoor power for a long garden are the common jobs. The St John's area around the church is a conservation area, so fittings on the front of a house there are worth checking with the district council.

And the twentieth-century streets?

Between the wars the town spread north and south with detached and semi-detached houses, and later infill, small blocks and newer housing followed down the slope towards Roding Valley. Interwar houses often have a board under the stairs with no RCD protection and a lighting circuit without an earth, and loft conversions have added circuits to boards that were full already. Newer homes rarely need more than additions: sockets, outside lights and a feed to a garden office.

What helps with a Buckhurst Hill enquiry?

Say whether the property is a house, a purpose-built flat or a flat in a converted house, and whether you own, let or rent it. A photo of your consumer unit and of the meter cupboard, however confusing it looks, helps more than any description. With your agreement, one local electrician who covers IG9, if there is one, receives your enquiry. If nobody covers it, we say so and share nothing.