Electrical Damage - Insurance

It's irrelevant that he's an experienced electrician. And he did not test the circuit. The light switch cover was not removed when he pulled out the light fitting from the ceiling. I know tradies in other trades that take short cuts all the time and get away with it, doesn't make it right though.

There may have been dodgy wiring up in the ceiling, that he is not responsible for, but that is exactly why he should have turned off the circuit before working on it.

If he cut corners because he's done it that way 100 times without incident and on the 101st time he strikes trouble, its on him, isnt it?

If someone tells me that the electrician is not legally required to switch off the circuit he is working on, then I will accept that. But nobody has actually said this.

 

I don't think you have any hope of getting the sparky to pay for this.

You should really have used a surge protector with your computer and TV to avoid this issue.

Why not just claim on your insurance?

 

I am surprised why everyone is siding with the electrician. OP makes sense and a TV just does not blow off and stop working on the same day and time as the electrician was fixing something.
Obviously there is some connection. Sparkies have insurance for this situation. Why should the OP call their insurance and not get the sparkie call his and pay for the damage.
I know it may not be worth it, but it is about the responsibility that the sparkie should have owned.

 

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I just can't accept that in 8 years of living at my house I have never had a fuse trip on its own. At the exact same time as the electrician is removing the light fitting, two circuits trip and my TV blows.

That is no coincidence. And I still haven't had answer as to whether the electrician is legally required to turn off the circuit or mains before working on it.

 

I feel your pain.

I have seen sparkies do some terrible work (they are human after all) and I'm sure his normal action is denial or self defence.

At the end of the day your costs have been the cost of the sparkie plus the cost of a new TV.

However your costs are likely significantly higher than the cost he was likely to get from you for installing a ceiling fan ($250 my guess).

His insurance excess is also probably higher than the value of the job.

Assuming you haven't yet paid the sparkie and you still feel he is responsible, I would suggest you tell him that you will not be paying his bill for that reason. You could even suggest you will report him to the relevant OH&S in your state ..........

Bottom line is, unless you sue and can prove it you won't get any extra out of him. If he has any doubt on the issue (which I'm also sure he does) he won't pursue you for his payment.

Not ideal, but no winners here.

 

I had a new toilet and a replacement garden tap and extra external wall tap installed by a plumber.

I came home to see the result and it looked good.

As we were standing in the garden, the plumber noticed a damp patch on the lawn and we discovered that the copper water pipe (about 3 metres from the garden gap) to the house had sprung a leak.

He fixed it (extra cost).

Did I blame him because he’d been working on a tap at each end of that pipe? Well, I did wonder for a second or two - but then I realised that stuff happens, pipes burst etc.

If the OP thinks the sparkie is at fault - then pursue them for the cost. But it might not have been their fault.

 

I have turned off my TV set and unplugged prior to going on holidays. Came back weeks later, plugged in the TV & it died. Coincidence?

 

If it was at the same time sparkie busted Curly's tv, then yes.

 

Perhaps your pipe may have busted hours, or days before your plumber was there. I'm not a plumber so I can't comment about how one pipe might affect another pipe.

I got my gas meter replaced because it was making loud noises. The gas distributor came out, turned the gas off and replaced the meter. When I got home I discovered my gas hot water was not working. I tried to relight the pilot but wouldnt work.

Apparently when shutting off the gas, a part on the gas hot water appliance crapped out.

I pursued the gas distributor under the customer compensation scheme. They admitted it was their action (of shutting off the gas) that was the direct cause of the appliance fault i.e. had the gas meter not been faulty and they didnt turn off the gas, the appliance would have stayed operational.

I was reimbursed the cost to repair my gas hot water appliance.

 

That's not a good analogy

 

No different to @Mumbai, turns off supply & hws carks it.

In your case you didn't turn anything off, or consider that you might need to switch off sensitive equipment. Did you ask the sparky whether you should?

 

Exactly.

But you are not an electrician (are you?) yet you are commenting on how one electrical circuit affected another electrical circuit.....

 

One seems to be a little more casual don't you think?

 

* sorry causal, not casual

 

No idea.
I am not an electrician.

 

You are not an electrician but positive that he removed a fitting from the ceiling without testing the circuit. Don't need to remove the light switch on the wall to use a voltage test pen at the ceiling light fitting and electricians carry these in their pockets.

I think you would be hard pressed to prove that working on a light circuit effected the power circuits even if its older wiring and as mentioned before the rcd are connected rather then individual, you typically don't isolate the mains to and entire house to change a light fitting

 

Yes, you are correct, I am 100% positive he didn't test the circuit. And I don't really care what you "typically" do. I only care about what you are required to do.

 

Thanks, yes I called one electrician who was reluctant to comment and I've called the EnergySafe Victoria 5 times and there's been no answer. I left a message twice and they haven't got back to me.

 

Put your issue to the test - Lodge a Fair Trading claim. I'm sure the TV was on stand-by as was the PC (they almost always are) where monitors have a surge thing (a bulgy thing) in the power cable so they tend not to pop. They could easily find you contributed to the issue by not turning appliances off but likely would find the sparkie probably caused the issue. Subject to proof. ie How do Fair Trading know if it was a dead TV already ?