A recent change in French law will impose an additional requirement on house sellers.  As well as the inspections for lead, asbestos and termites, the law, which will take effect from March 2008, will make an electrical inspection compulsory when a property is sold.  The exception will be if the electrical installation has been certified compliant within the last 15 years.  This would be either if the house was less than 15 years old, or if the electrical system had been replaced and certified by a CONSUEL inspection within that period.

Among the reasons for the introduction of this obligation is the protection of house buyers.  There are a large number of homes in France, where the electrical installation is in a dangerous condition.  The Comité Nationale de Consommateurs last year published figures that there were around 7 million homes in France where the electrical installation presented a grave danger to the occupants and each year around 400 people are electrocuted; around 20% of which result in fatalities.

The photograph above shows an example of negligent wiring.  In this house we found wires connected into a consumer unit in such a manner that could have resulted in somebody getting a fatal electric shock.