Selling a house: the electrical file that is required

Selling a dwelling fitted with an old electrical installation involves an inspection visit by an accredited inspection body. Book 1 of the RGIE (section 8.4.2) sets out when this inspection is required, what the notarial deed must state and what happens when the report is negative. It also covers the case where the single-line diagram and the position plan cannot be produced. Here is what the text says, and how the electrician can rebuild these documents.

When is the inspection mandatory?

Section 8.4.2 applies to the sale of a housing unit fitted with an « ancienne installation électrique domestique » (old domestic electrical installation). Under the definitions in section 8.1.1, this is an installation or part of an installation whose on-site construction began before 1 October 1981. Two situations are covered:

• the old installation has undergone no major modification or significant extension since 1 October 1981;
• it has undergone a major modification or significant extension since that date, but its part dating from before 1 October 1981 has not been inspected.

In these cases, the seller is obliged to have the electrical installation inspected, and to have the notarial deed state the date of the inspection report and the fact that the report was handed to the buyer. The text excludes, among others, convents, hospitals, prisons, care homes, boarding schools, hotels and educational establishments, as well as housing units subject to expropriation. In co-ownership, the obligations only apply to the private parts. Nor do they apply to garages, car parks, storerooms and other places forming part of the housing unit whose electrical installation is supplied by the electricity meter in the name of the co-owners or of the association of co-owners.

An exception applies when the seller and the buyer agree that the inspection is unnecessary because the buyer will demolish the building or completely renew the electrical installation. This agreement is stated in the deed, together with the buyer’s obligation to inform the Directorate-General for Energy, which will ask the buyer for an inspection report as soon as the new installation is put into use. Another case is also covered: when the inspection is impossible in a sale ordered by a court decision, the person requesting the sale is obliged to have the notarial deed or the public auction report state that no inspection of the electrical installation took place and that it is in the buyer’s interest to have this inspection carried out. How this applies to a specific property is for the accredited inspection body to determine.

What the buyer receives, and what they will have to do

After the visit, the accredited inspection body draws up a report, sent to the owner in writing or electronically and filed in the electrical installation file (subsection 8.4.2.3). Two possible outcomes:

• The report records no infringement. It joins the installation file, which the owner is required to pass on to the new owner (section 9.1.2).
• The report is negative. The seller has the deed state the buyer’s obligation to notify, in writing, their identity and the date of the deed to the accredited inspection body that carried out the visit. The buyer must then have a new inspection carried out, which checks that the infringements have been remedied at the end of a period of 18 months starting on the day of the deed of sale. The buyer is free to choose the accredited inspection body. If the buyer appoints a different one, that body informs the accredited inspection body that drew up the first inspection report.

For the electrician called in by the buyer, the negative report is the starting list of work. For what Book 1 provides for the report and the follow-up of an inspection visit, read our article on how the RGIE inspection unfolds.

The documents requested on the day of the visit

The visit checks that the installation complies with the requirements of Book 1 (subsection 8.4.2.2, point c). For the part whose execution began before Book 1 came into force, this includes part 8, which contains the derogations for existing installations; for the part whose execution began afterwards, part 8 does not apply. The file of a domestic installation includes, in particular, the single-line diagram or diagrams and the position plan or plans (section 9.1.2), whose content is set by subsections 3.1.2.2 and 3.1.2.3:

• The single-line diagram, with the wiring, the protective devices and the points of the installation. Our guide to the RGIE requirements for the single-line diagram details what it must contain.
• The position plan, which shows where the distribution boards, sockets, lighting points, switches and fixed appliances are located.

If these documents cannot be made available to the accredited inspection body during the inspection at the sale, Book 1 (subsection 8.4.2.2, point d) provides that its representative draws up a summary description of the boards and a rough freehand sketch. They only ensure the traceability of the inspected parts and cannot be used as a single-line diagram or position plan. The absence of the regulatory diagrams and plans must be recorded as an infringement in the report.

The case of the vanished file

When the original file cannot be found, you survey what exists and draw the documents as the installation is actually wired. For the existing parts of old domestic installations carried out before 1 October 1981, section 8.2.1 (point 7) allows simplified single-line diagrams and position plans. The diagram then contains at least:

• the address of the installation and its nominal voltage;
• the cross-section of the incoming cable in the main board;
• the type and cross-section of the various outgoing circuits;
• the RCDs and the other protective devices, with their characteristics.

The simplified plan shows at least the sockets, switches, lighting points and fixed or fixed-installed appliances or machines. Referencing is not required on it, and correspondence between diagram and plan is not required. These relaxations only concern the parts dating from before 1 October 1981. On single-line diagrams, any part whose construction began before that date is marked with the words « partie ancienne » (old part), under section 3.1.2.

As for method, the survey follows a simple order:

• Take stock of each board: RCDs, protective devices, characteristics, outgoing circuits.
• Identify the circuits: what each outgoing circuit feeds, room by room.
• Walk through the dwelling to place each socket, lighting point, switch and fixed appliance on the plan, without forgetting the cellar, the garage and the outdoors.
• Draw the diagram and the plan from this survey, address included.

And with Amperio

With Amperio, you draw or dictate the installation on site, room by room. The single-line diagram and the position plan are built together and exported as a PDF file to hand to the accredited inspection body. Our guide from survey to PDF file details how to organise such an assignment.

The visit report may then list infringements to correct, and the electrician who surveyed the installation already knows it. Our checklist before the accredited inspection body’s visit covers the points to prepare.

This article is informative. It replaces neither the RGIE (Book 1) nor the advice of your inspection body.