Part P & BS7671 Certificates

[AndrewSchofield]

I am carrying out a loft conversion in which i hope to do most of the work myself. I have a basic knowledge of electrics and most importantly i know how dangerous they can be so accept that i am not confident in doing the electrics myself. However, my father-in-law, whilst not qualified, has been carrying out house electrics all his life and is confident he can carry out the work.

I understand that the work i intend to do is notifiable under Part P of the building regs and i have read 'Ban All Sheds' article in the Wiki section which says that Part P does not mean you cannot 'DIY' electrics now. However, I've contacted my local authority who tell me that while the person doing the work does not have to be registered under the 'competent persons' scheme but whoever does the work must be able to issue them with a BS7671 Certificate - i assume that this can only be done by a qualified electrician and so in effect it is not possible to 'DIY' electrics.

Does anyone know what we can and can't do and if the LA are correct or just trying to make life easier for themselves as suggested some of them do in numerous articles on the internet??

We've been living in a caravan in the back yard for 8 weeks now and are desperate to move back in but we need a new wire running under the bedroom floor so can't get the floor down until this is done and can't get an electrician to come and do it anytime in the next month or so!!

 

[pompeygit]

Building Control and their attitude to Part P differs slightly from Council to Council. Our Council is not as lenient as most. Firstly whenever you are the person carrying out the work you must be 'competent'. In Portsmouth to prove competency you have to do the following. Take your electrical qualifications with proof of identity, plus 2 references, to the Council. You are then approved as being able to test and certify an installation. For this you pay the princely sum of £66 per installation.

However, if you have no qualifications you can still do the work by a different route. You pay Building Control £293 and they(or their contractor) come and inspect your 1st fix, approve it and then come back and inspect your second fix, and if all is OK they fill in the test certifactes. A couple of weeks later you receive a compliance certificate for the job.

If you follow route 1 then competency must be proven. Blank Electrical Certificates can be downloaded for free from www.iet.org. Expect to pay £350-£600 for a decent tester. Please note that experience and training are required to conduct these tests. Amongst items that need testing are:
Continuity, Insulation resistance, polarity, Earth loop impedance, RCD disconnection times, prospective fault current. If the person is not capable of doing these tests they are not deemed competent and you will have to use route 2.

Cheapest option would be to look harder for a sparks who may be willing to inspect 1st and 2nd fix and issue certs.....although I suspect not many would..........

 

[AndrewSchofield]

Just as an update, i confronted my local building control office re the situation with DIY electrics and they eventually confirmed that they tell people that it is their 'policy' to request an installation certificate in the hope that it gets people to do it themselves but they admitted that legally they cannot force people to inspect, test and certify the works themselves. If we turn around and say that we don't want to test the installation ourselves the LA must inspect the electrical work and determine whether it is safe or not themselves and at their own cost.

Therefore what 'Ban All Sheds' wrote in his wiki section has been confirmed to still be true by my local BC officer!

 

[pompeygit]

The only danger here is that if your father-in-law is not familiar with the regs the LA hired inspector and tester may fail the installation........it maybe easy to do the remedial work, but then again it could involve major works, it really depends on your F-I-L's competency and his understanding of good design.