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[Vince Meakins]

I’m about to buy a house that is nicely modernised apart from it having an old style fuse box and electrics that have been added to over the years. Once purchased, should a fault arise anywhere in the electrical circuitry can a qualified electrician work on the existing set up or would he have to insist the fuse box is upgraded first? Can I call upon a qualified electrician to extend any of the existing electrics without updating the fuse box?

Many thanks to all you all.

[ericmark]

Only new bits have to comply there is no need to upgrade the old but that will mean very hard to add an extra socket. Since cable buried in a wall needs to be RCD protected to add a socket to non RCD circuit means either special cable Ali tube and a RCD socket or a RCD fused connection unit where you take the supply from. So it becomes more expensive to add anything.

Also it must still comply with old edition of regulations and sometimes old houses have lost earths or even not been wired right in first place so you could get caught out.