Electrician final check and certificate...normal to wait?

sashalou8

Hi all,

Just a quick question to those in the know - I recently had my house fully rewired as part of a major renovation. The electrician finished today the last socket and light fixing etc.
From the outset - it looks like he has done a good job, however I wasn't in the property whilst he was working - just let him get on with it.

He is asking for payment today (which is fine, job is finished) but he hasn't issued us with a certificate yet and is a bit cagey on how much 'testing' he has done. He says certificate will be issued in a couple of weeks. Is this normal? Is it ok to pay and trust that he will provide us with this in a couple of weeks, or should we be asking for this now? What should be looking for to check everything is ok?

Cheers
Sash

dil1976

A certificate should be issued upon completion of works. Although he may want to do it on a PC and make it look more professional.

It may be worth paying him some amount now and with holding the remaining payment until he provides the certificate.

Did you have a contract with the electrician regarding payments and completion of work?

sashalou8

dil1976 wrote: »

A certificate should be issued upon completion of works. Although he may want to do it on a PC and make it look more professional.

It may be worth paying him some amount now and with holding the remaining payment until he provides the certificate.

Did you have a contract with the electrician regarding payments and completion of work?

Yeah we did, we paid all the materials cost upfront and 50% of the labour midway through the project - although we originally agreed 100% on completion, delays caused by us meant there was a gap between his fittings and I didn't want him to be out of pocket. Thanks for the advice - I was wondering if that would be a good compromise.
Sash

fluffpot

I tend not to issue the final certs until the last payment has cleared - this is my insurance against dodgy clients (not that i'm implying you are!). However, I would issue them within a few days, a week tops

dil1976

Well completion wouldn't be until he has handed over the Electrical Installation Certificate, so I would tell him that, it probably won't be a couple of weeks til he provides in neither then.

zax47

He will notify his Part P registration scheme, they will notify your LABC, LABC then issue the Building Regs completion certificate. Typically takes 2-4 weeks in my experience, often depends on the council involved! Some of my customers have waited as long as 3 months, and always seem to blame me, but it's not my fault. Daft system IMO.

He should be able to provide you with a copy of the EIC (Electrical Installation Certificate) which he has sent to/filed with his Part P scheme, but it's pointless without your completion cert from the council LABC. Regardless, it can take a few hours to fill out the EIC for a full rewire, I tend to make the time to do mine on Fridays (if i can).

dil1976

Part P can be proved by him printing off the confirmation page from his provider. Unless the LABC are doing that themselves.

zax47

dil1976 wrote: »

Part P can be proved by him printing off the confirmation page from his provider. Unless the LABC are doing that themselves.

Only LABC can provide the householder with the Building Regs Completion/Compliance certificate and only then on the instructions from the Part P scheme confirming compliance with Part P and, by implication, BS7671. Assuming, that is, that the householder is not liaising directly with LABC regarding Building Regs - which apparently they aren't in this case.

Remind me, which of us is the Part P registered electrician doing this day in, day out?????

keystone

dil1976 wrote: »

Part P can be proved by him printing off the confirmation page from his provider. Unless the LABC are doing that themselves.

Text Deleted.

Cheers

FilthyLuka

Dil is correct

The electrician can carryout the notification online and print out confirmation that has has noftified his electrical competent persons scheme.

The compliance certificate would then be posted to the client by the electrical competent persons scheme. The council are notified by the competent person scheme when the compliance certificate is issued but they have no involvement in the issuing of the compliance certificate.
They do hold a register of works that have been recieved from competent person schemes for future reference/sales.

keystone

FilthyLuka wrote: »

Dil is correct

The electrician can carryout the notification online and print out confirmation that has has noftified his electrical competent persons scheme.

The compliance certificate would then be posted to the client by the electrical competent persons scheme. The council are notified by the competent person scheme when the compliance certificate is issued but they have no involvement in the issuing of the compliance certificate.
They do hold a register of works that have been recieved from competent person schemes for future reference/sales.

In that case I apologise for misunderstanding but it certainly wasn't clear from what he wrote that that is what he meant. Nor did I know it could be done that way so I've learned something new today.

Cheers