Am I right to laugh at this?

Joined
7 Apr 2004
Messages
190
Reaction score
3
Country
United Kingdom
With effect from 1st January 2005, Part P (Electrical safety) of the Building Regulations will come into force, these mean that only very limited work can be carried out by non-certified people without notification to the local Building Control authority.

Work which can be carried out by a non-certified individual without notification consists of:

- Replacement of fittings such as sockets, switches and light fittings.
- Replacement of the cable for a single circuit where it has been damaged.
- Work that is not in the bathroom or kitchen and consists of:
- Adding additional lighting, light fittings and switches, to an existing circuit.
- Adding additional sockets and fused spurs to an existing ring or radial main.
- Installing additional earth bonding.

All this is conditional upon the use of suitable cable and fittings for the application, that the circuit protective measures are unaffected and suitable for protecting the new circuit, and that all work complies with all other appropriate regulations.

All other work must either be carried out by certified individuals/companies or notified to the local Building Control before work begins, this includes:

- All new or modifications to the electrical wiring within bathrooms or shower rooms.
- Installation or modification of electric underfloor or ceiling heating.
- Garden lighting or power installation.
- Other specialist electrical installation, examples being, Photovoltaic Solar and micro CHP power systems.

If in doubt, check with the local Building Control.

These rules do apply to DIY activities, anyone carrying out DIY changes which are notifiable will have to submit a building notice to the local authority before starting work and pay the fee to have the work inspected and tested.

In future, problems may be encountered when trying to sell a property which has had notifiable electrical work carried out but for which the appropriate certificate cannot be produced

From another forum, so I don't have the link, but it does seem rather heavy-handed. I seem to recall similar legislation regarding double glazing, personally I think they can shove it up their arse, but I'm not ignorant of electrical safety, or common sense. Perhaps its designed for those really bad DIYers?
 
Sponsored Links
It's a tricky one, I have seen quite a few DIY nasties in my time. But it is annoying that we all have to be tarred with the same brush. Legitimate electricians and professional /consceincious non qualified people needing to carry out small electrical work will have to jump through more hoops than ever, yet bogus bodgers and couldn't care less DIy'ers will continue as before unphased by this legislation.

Well, that's my opinion :rolleyes:

Sounds like another method for the insurance companies to refuse a payout to me...
;)
 
The main problem is that the general public know little or nothing about this or even when other work requires Building control approval for that matter, so will just continue as usual. perhaps if the bodgers really were un-"phased" then the world would be a safer place.
 
Sponsored Links
Chappers,
the general public will become aware of it if they want to sell there house after 1.1.05 and electrical works have been done since then. I think this P section is not something to regard as a thing you don't need to care about.
 
Its the same as all of the building regs it relies on the rest of the general public being aware what building regs are for, many believe they are there to ensure that if they get a builder in that they are there to make sure the builder does the job properly, but if they do the job themselves that it doesn't matter, when the fact is that most builders automatically work within regs anyway.
The main problem with part P is that only those in the trade are actually aware of the new regs.
Even BC are not aware of what their responsibilities are.The other day I quizzed the inspector on their position on electrics and loft conversions and she had no answers to my queries she couldn't even tell me what their test fees were going to be.
What chances are there that the general public now know that they can no longer work on the electrics in their own homes and do you think that any cowboy sparks are going to inform them?
This legistlation will take years to become effective.
 
Your right there, Chappers. New regulations should be 'advertised' by the body that makes them.
I know about these new reg, because the managing director of an electrician company had a 10 min presentation about it last Wednesday at our Network group.

Regards
Wood You Like
 
This Part P business is a load of toss.

In order to become a "competent person" and be able to "self-certify" my work, I have to pay a fee, sign a statement that I will comply with certain BS specs., nominate my supervisor (which, as a self-employed person, can be myself), show that I've got adequate liability insurance, let someone inspect a couple of my jobs, and attend a course to get a certificate. The first 5 of these are no problem. Piece of cake, even. But compliance with no 6???.

The nearest centre which can provide the necessary short-course to give me the necessary certificate is in Bristol. That's 100 miles away. This implies that from 01/01/05 no kitchen fitter west of, say, Taunton, can legally install any electrical work in a kitchen, because no local kitchen fitter from Somerset to Cornwall is likely to spend a week travelling to Bristol every evening to attend the (apparently) only qualified training provider in the South West (Brunel Training Group).

I thought I might actually make the effort to do this, and thus potentially be the only qualified fitter in the South West and thus cream the market, but it is simply not practical for me to waste my time. When I questioned the NICEIC and EAL (who provide the training) their collective answers were "We're appointing new training providers all the time, but unless a training centre applies to run the course, there's not much we can do". When I asked what did they think would happen happen to the south-west kitchen fitting business after 01/01/05, their answer was (in summary) "It's not our problem".

As I said earlier: What a load of toss.
 
Problems that can occur with this are when a property is sold and the legal forms are filled in.
If you own up to carrying out the work after the date the legislation was introduced, you will have to arrange retrospective building regs approval, which is a pain, will cost money and is likely to delay the sale
 
I agree, lucretia, but this implies that the sale of all houses in the south west which have electrical work done on them, will be held up because there's nobody down here who is qualified to do the work.

It's OK to implement new regs and stuff, but making it impossible to comply is damn stupid. What they are saying is: "You have to do this in order to comply, otherwise we'll screw you. However, we are going to make it extremely difficult for you to comply, therefore you will be screwed. But we don't care about your little problems because your one of the little people and we don't care about your problems".

I really cannot believe that on 1st January, all the kitchen fitters in the south west will stop installing electrical stuff in kitchens. It simply won't happen - but they will all be contravening regs and creating future problems for house owners when they sell.

I'm not against the principle of Part P: Far from it, in fact, but all it needed was a little more forethought over its implementation: Invoke the new rules and provide the training infrastructure to support their effective adoption. Is that really too much to expect?

2 Jags Prescot has got a lot to answer for down here (as he probably has elsewhere, I suspect).
 
they have allready done this with windows and gas work, i wonder where it will end?
 
I have to agree with Handyman here. Do you realise it is currently easier to get a pilots licence, than it is to get corgi registration. I agree that Gas can be very dangerous, but you only have to look at the disaster that occured in New York to realise that, potentially, flying a plane is even more so.

Come to that, just consider what you can do with the humble motor car. Just a moments lack of attention can lead to a massive rail disaster.

If you want a driving licence, (or pilots licence), All you have to do is learn and pass the tests. The same can't be said for corgi registration. If corgi is going to be the model for other parts of the industry, I fear the whole building trade will become an elitist industry.
 
Tom's title for this thread is "Am I right to laugh at this?".

The short answer is "No". You should weep.
 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top