Part P of the Building Regulations came into force in January 2005 to ensure that all electrical work carried out within a dwelling – a home or garden – is carried out safely by a qualified and registered electrician and that building control is notified of this work. This notification is particularly important when moving house because the compliance certificate is required by the buyers solicitors to show that any electrical work carried out at the house on behalf of the vendor or seller is safe. In other words, failure to comply could have an effect on the future sale of the home and the onus is on the home owner to ensure the work has been notified.
The requirements of Part P have been updated and came into force on 6th April 2013. Building Regulations is a devolved area of legislation and the definition of what work is notifiable will be different betweeen England and Wales.
To help homeowners meet their obligations under the Building Regulations, registered contractors have been independently assessed annually to ensure that they are operating to the highest technical and professional standards. As such they can self-certify their work as being compliant with the Building Regulations. The contractor notifies their competent persons scheme of the work they have carried out and the competent persons scheme will issue the building compliance documentation to you and the Local Authority in keeping with the requirements of Part P. This means that you do not have to pay the Local Authority for an inspection of the work. Once you have this documentation keep it safe as you will certainly require it if you plan to sell the property.
Examples of Notifiable Work
- a complete new installation or rewire
- change a consumer unit (fuse board)
- installing
- a new final circuit (eg for lighting, heating, socket-outlets, a shower or a cooker)
- extra-low voltage lighting (other than pre-assembled CE marked sets)
- a solar photovoltaic power supply
- electric ceiling or floor heating
- an electrical generator
- power or control wiring for a new central heating system
Outdoors
- installing garden lighting or power (eg a supply to a garden shed, detached garage, other outbuilding, electric gate or pond pump)
- Installing a socket outside
- Installing a lighting point or other fixed current-using equipmnent (eg an air conditioning unit)
Examples of Non-notifiable work
Anywhere in a dwelling or its surroundings:
- Installing prefabricated ‘modular’ wiring systems
- replacing a damaged cable for a single circuit, on a like for like basis
- replacing an accessory, such as a socket-outlet, control switch, ceiling rose or a fused connection unit
- providing mechanical protection to an existing fixed installation
- installing or upgrading main or supplementary equipotential bonding
- fitting or replacing an item of current-using equipment (such as a cooker) to an existing suitable circuit
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