n 2021 we purchased a property that could possibly be considered a "fixer upper".

After receiving the keys we discovered that it's actually much more of a fixer upper than we realised and that as Previous Owner had lost quite a bit as he had to sell, he decided to be vindictive abd used the time between us signing the OTP and the property being transferred to damage the property.

I can now sit here, type for some time and post many photos of things that had changed between our final viewing and the day we received the keys, but it's useless dwelling on the past. We need to move forward. I do miss the laminate floors he removed and replaced with horrible tile, though.

The electrical CoC was falsified. It doesn't even have all the DBs listed.

My knee jerk reaction was to try taking the matter further by reporting the electrician to the relevant authorities. I received this reply.

Unfortunately, electrician and CoC transparency has become difficult since the ECB was replaced by the Department of Labour, in 2012. Fire damage due to poor electrical workmanship and non-compliant components has multiplied by 6 times from 2009 to 2018 according to the SA Insurer's Association.

It is the Department of Labour's responsibility to deal with illegal electrical installations. I have attached the Occupational Health and Safety Act for Electrical Installations to this email and ask you to reference Section 4 regarding Approved Inspection Authorities. This highlights the AIAs are contracted by the Chief Inspector, an employee of the Dept of Labour, to perform inspections.

As of mid-2022, there were no longer any functioning AIAs in South Africa and there is only one that we know of launching very shortly.

In the interim to get an inspection/assessment done on your property your options are:

1. OHS inspectors for the Dept of Labour, however, we are unaware if they are trained and accredited as electrical inspectors. See list attached.

2. An Inspection Body (not an AIA), based in the south of Gauteng, who performs electrical inspections but charge you as the client. They can not guarantee the guilty electrician will fix the problems or be sent for training or punishment but at least you will know any electrical issue with your property. http://eaibsa.co.za 0861 324272

We are working as an industry to try and solve these problems.

For now, we advise that for future electrical work you visit https://electrician.org.za
The website contains a list of electricians whose qualifications have been vetted and have signed an agreement with us to correct any workmanship problems. Please tell your friends, family and colleagues.

I trust that helps a little.
OK, so I'm on my own.

I then set about using the services of a "trusted" electrical contractor who have done work for our company in the past.

They very cleverly did bits here and bits there. I sourced most everything that was needed for the work to be done - as it turns out our company receives larger discounts from electrical wholesalers than they do.

I'd buy parts, they'd fit them. Do a bit here, do a bit there, send an invoice, receive payment for the invoice and so it went on. At all times, all work was allegedly done to "CoC Standard".

Eventually I was happy that the property would pass a COC inspection and called their manager in to do said inspection.

He then came up with a three page list, that included some pretty interesting failures. A couple of his points were valid. Most were complete and utter drivel and disappeared every time I said; "but your guys did that".

By now I'm thinking to myself these guys are out to milk me and will extract every cent they can from me before issuing the CoC.

One of the "errors" noted on the COC inspection report was that the primary DB's earth reading is too high.

Municipal DB -> Primary -> Fishpond DB -> Pool DB-> Wendy House DB
\-> Main House DB -> Outbuildings DB

According to their magic machine of wanders the earth reading is "19" when it should be "3". Their guys returned with two 1.5m earth rods, a couple of lugs and some 16mm wire. They knocked one earth rod into a flower bed and bonded it to the earth wire from the main DB to the municipal meter box. They then knocked the second earth rod in next to the municipal meter box, bonded that to the earth / neutral "earth point" in that DB, ran tests with another magic little machine, were very happy and left. Another few grand later, thank you very much.

Lo and behold, on the second COC inspection, their magic machine of wanders gave a reading is "18".

Needless to say, they want to return to knock more earth rods in until the value is down to "3".

The municipality has replaced the galv pipes with plastic. They can't bond onto those pipes - which is also something they wanted to do.

I've had enough of playing this silly game, need my CoC and realize these blackmailers are going to keep at it until I tell them to bugger off, at which stage I'm going to be made out as un co-operative, after which stage they'll simply refuse to issue the CoC.

Are there any electricians on here who issue Certificates of Compliance who can explain this whole earthing story to me and advise as to how I can go about dealing with it? That is to say if there is even a problem in the first place?