Electrics and gas
Nothing on the visit sampled a bell-wire chase, opened the drawing-room plaster or tested a circuit the chase is not. What has to stay undecided?
Anything inside the chase, and every circuit, stays undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled a bell-wire chase, opened the drawing-room plaster or tested a circuit, and a chase is not a circuit. Old bell wiring can sit in a shallow channel behind plaster, sometimes alongside later cables that nobody has traced. The survey can note a chase line if one was visible. It has not identified the conductors, has not tested electrics and has not decided the installation is sound.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Bell wire in an Edwardian drawing room was often low-voltage and lightly insulated, chased into plaster and forgotten when the bells went. Later owners sometimes reused chases for mains cable. Looking at a crack, a bulge or a filled line does not say which of those histories is true, and it does not energise anything. The plaster stayed on. No conductor was sampled and no circuit was tested. The undecided list is the contents of the chase and the condition of the installation.
Ask the solicitor whether an electrical installation condition report exists, and treat it as a separate document from this survey. An electrician can trace the chase and test circuits if you instruct that work. Do not assume bell wire is harmless mains, or that it is dead, because neither was shown. Tell a lender the electrics were not tested and the drawing-room plaster was not opened. The chase remains a visual limit, not a certificate.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Was the bell-wire chase left unopened behind the plaster?
- Was any circuit tested, or is the chase only a visual note?
- Has the contents of the chase been left unidentified?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the chase and the circuits as untested.
- Ask the solicitor for any electrical condition report.
- Instruct an electrician if the drawing-room wiring needs tracing.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Does a modern consumer unit prove the chase is empty of old cable?
No. A new consumer unit can be fitted while old conductors remain buried in plaster. This visit did not open the drawing room and did not test a circuit. The chase is not evidence that old bell wire was removed. An electrician would have to trace it. The survey has not done that.
Does a hairline crack along the chase mean the cable is damaged and live?
No. A crack follows a weak line in plaster and does not identify the conductor or prove it is energised. The survey did not open the plaster and did not test a circuit. Live, dead, bell wire or mains all stay possible until an electrician traces them. The crack is not that test.