So what you’re saying is you’d chuck yourself in the deep end in a tenants house.
No, I never said that.
Agree a price to replace the fuseboard, carry out a couple test I.E Like what?? I want to know from your experience what you’d do.
No, I would discuss it fully with the customer when visiting to do the quote and at that point have a look at the basics to get a feel for what may or may not be involved.
I would check bonding, approximate age of the installation, obvious signs of DIY.
I'd drop a couple of pendant caps to have a look, have a look at any Outbuildings as they are a prime spot for issues.
My quote will include a line explaining that there may be hidden faults which will be brought to the attention of the customer and discussed.
And then replace the CCU, have fault, things tripping. And now with AFDD - ring circuits having high end to ends, open circuit or whichever fault, but main issue causing an arc, and trippage to AFDD
No, I test the circuits before removing the old CU and find anything that might be an issue before the point of no return.
But I have never yet found anything that can't be resolved, or at least made safe until it can be fully repaired, whilst doing a CU change.
IR values being low - informing tenant/customer he’s now going to require a rewire on XYZ circuit.
That's a ridiculous leap! You've jumped from a low IR value to suddenly needing a rewire?
If there is an unacceptable IR value then I would investigate the cause, not just write it off as needing a rewire!
It's also rare to find an unacceptably low IR.
What is far more common is electrician's who see anything other than a perfect result as being a problem.
Now the customer is going to be ----ed as to why you didn’t inform all of this in the first place.
I think the customer will be annoyed if you do carry out an EICR and then change the CU to find that things are tripping despite your assurance that an EICR will find the issues before you start! One of the common causes of tripping after a CU change is not found by carrying out the standard tests on an EICR, but can usually be found by having a quick look behind the switch at the top of the stairs.
I've never had a customer unhappy with me for any of this, I always take the time to discuss and explain everything.
In my experience it's tradespeople who don't take the time to properly explain what needs to be done, and why, that end up with angry customers.
I've watched another electrician try to explain to a customer the difference between an RCD and an MCB and it was obvious the electrician didn't fully understand what they were talking about so the customer was getting visibly annoyed and you could almost see them losing faith in the electrician.
But no you was trying to make the customer happy in the first place by making your price cheap and getting a bodge job done??
I never try to make customers happy with a cheap price, I keep my customers happy by understanding what they want/need, finding the best way to achieve this and getting it done within their timescales.
I don't generally do bodge jobs, and if I do it is a safe temporary solution to allow a customer to keep their business running until I can get a proper repair in place.
CU replacements are not the major project with constant massive issues that you seem to be making them out to be. Most will go smoothly, some you will find small faults that can be fixed very quickly if you know what you are doing and then every once in a while one will present more of a challenge.
You have to accept that every once in a while a job will go a bit wrong and you won't make as much money on it as you expected, you just have to accept it and still do the job properly. That is the kind of thing that really helps with building a good reputation.
People will happily tell all their friends about the tradesperson who didn't charge any extra despite a job going thoroughly wrong, they also love to talk about the time they got stung with a massive unexpected extras bill.