Hoping an honest electrician can help out with this one...it's a familiar story, with a slight twist....

We bought a house in Oct. Electrical Compliance Certificate issued. In the summer rains, the electricity dies. We call in an electrician. He identifies major problems with the electrics - no earth leakages etc and advises us to get hold of the GEIA for an inspection...

We do and get back a list 20 pages long of faults. The certificate is certainly invalid.

We contact the electrician who issued the certificate - and this is where it starts getting interesting as he's now bankcrupt and moved to Port Elizabeth, but he'll get his mate to sort it out...

his mate arrives in a bakkie that isn't roadworthy and inspires absolutely no confidence that he can sort out the problems, so we tell him to leave and call in a reputable electrician to quote - R40 000...

he's not starting the job unless we guarantee payment, because he knows the broke electrician in PE is not going to pay him - and we know that there's no way we're going to get paid back if we do.

So what do we do? Any assistance greatly appreciated.