Help needed complying with new NECIEC Regs

8LGM

Hi,

I have just had a house that I plan to rent completely rewired to NECIEC regulations. When it was independently tested it failed due to the new changes that came in on 1st July.

Such is life BUT.... one thing that my electrician says is that one failure point that he says is not in the new regs is the requirement for smoke detectors to be mains fed rather than just battery powered.

Can anyone give me an authoritive answer if there is now a requirement for a house to have mains wired smoke detectors/alarms fitted rather than just battery powered. Obviously this would need to be someone with expert knowledge of the 17th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations (BS 7671:2008).

Any help would be appreciated.

professional_2

Why has the house had to be independently tested? - your electrician should be able to `self certify` the installation.

There is no such thing as the NICEIC regulations!

8LGM

Sorry. I'm a bit of a novice here. It is the council and they insist on thier own electrician testing the house. the letter states failed NICEIC test and states several points (most minor) this just seems to be a point my electrician is arguing about.

paintpot

I am landlord so will chuck in my two penneth but I am not a sparky or 17th edition expert.

My understanding is this, if you get a Part P certified electrician (and NICEIE is one of the accredited bodies for this, is one way to try and describe it) to do the work they should self cetify their work ie. that they have fullfilled the regs, notify building control for notifiable work. The electician gives you a cerificate e.g for minor works, periordic etc and if its notifiable work the building control send you a certificate that your work has been notified.

If your electrician is not part P certified then you have to get a building control inspector to oversee the work and sign it off.

My understanding is that rental properties do not have to have smoke detectors of any sort by law. However building control will not be interested in whether the property is rental or otherwise (unless maybe it is a HMO in which case different rules apply) but obviously their are rules in terms of if you are doing a rewire you must include x y z in whatever new edition it it so the million dollar question is whether the 17th edition includes mains smoke detectors to which I don't have the answer conclusively but this site indicates that you do:

http://bs7671explained.com/17thEdition_FireDetection.html

Just my amateurish opinion...........

I will be watching the replied from others.

myrnahaz

I can't offer any advice, but my DS is building a house and was told ages ago that he had to wire the smoke detectors into the mains. The planning people put a note about it (amongst MANY other things) in with his planning approval last summer.