Electrics and gas
Rewireable fuses still feed the garage and the house has an RCBO board. What of the garage installation was not tested?
The garage installation was not tested at all. Rewireable fuses still feed the garage while the house has an RCBO board, and those are two different arrangements. The survey has seen that the garage is still on rewireable fuses and that the house board is the newer type. It has not opened a test of the garage circuits, measured the earthing there, or produced an electrical installation condition report for that outbuilding. The house RCBOs do not extend the test to the garage.
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?
Rewireable fuses are an older form of protection, often fuse wire in a carrier, and they can remain on a submain after the dwelling itself has been given RCBOs. Seeing them names the equipment in the garage. It does not grade the cables beyond, the sockets in the garage, or the joints along the way. The home survey looks; it does not carry out the tests an electrician uses to classify an installation. The house board and the garage fuses were not one inspection.
Ask an electrician to inspect the garage installation separately from the house RCBO board, and to say what those rewireable fuses actually feed. Tell the solicitor the survey did not test the garage. Do not send the house board's appearance as a certificate for the outbuilding. Until that garage visit happens, the fuses remain a visual note of older protection, not a tested result.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which garage circuits are still fed from the rewireable fuses?
- Did you test any part of the garage installation?
- Are the house RCBOs a separate board from those garage fuses?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask an electrician to inspect the garage separately from the house board.
- Tell the solicitor the garage installation was not tested.
- Do not treat the house RCBO board as a certificate for the garage.
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
If the house board has RCBOs, do those devices protect the garage?
No. RCBOs in the house protect the circuits they are fitted to there. They are not the rewireable fuses that still feed the garage. The survey recorded two arrangements and tested neither the garage wiring nor, on this note, the house circuits. Matching the house board to the garage is a guess.
Is the note of rewireable fuses already an electrical installation condition report?
No. A sentence that rewireable fuses still feed the garage is a visual note. It is not an electrical installation condition report, and it does not clear or condemn the garage circuits. The survey did not test that installation. An electrician's report would be a different document.