electric safety certificate

DanJKelly

Hi all

We are in the process of buying a house and one of the first jobs we plan to do is a rewire on the property due to the amount of work we want to do and therefore thought it would be best to just get one done before starting everything.

My question is a friend of ours is going to be doing the rewire.. hes an electrician and can do the safety check at the end but cannot issue a certificate as he is not self employed. Is the safety certficate essential... and if not we may decide we still want one for peace of mind.. how much would this cost to get the electrics signed off.

foxy-stoat

Any decent electrican will not sign off some else's work, just get it done properly by an electrical sub contractor and sleep easy at night - there are too many issues with trying to cut costs on this type of regulated work.

DanJKelly

The electrician doing the work usually works for a company ..but would be doing it for us in his own time. So why go through the company for the exact same person to do the same work but for much more?

Surrey_EA

foxy-stoat wrote: »

Any decent electrican will not sign off some else's work,

I had a house many years ago and although the property had been recently re-wired there was no paperwork. I needed to get the electricity meter moved within the property and the electricity board would only move it if I could present them with a certificate to confirm the electrics were safe.

I paid about £400 with a full electrical test, and was issued with a Part P test certificate, if I recall correctly, although I believe it might be called something different today.

So, I think a decent electrician will be prepared to sign off someone else's work, but only after they have carried out a thorough inspection to check the installation has been done correctly.

DanJKelly

Surrey_EA wrote: »

I had a house many years ago and although the property had been recently re-wired there was no paperwork. I needed to get the electricity meter moved within the property and the electricity board would only move it if I could present them with a certificate to confirm the electrics were safe.

I paid about £400 with a full electrical test, and was issued with a Part P test certificate, if I recall correctly, although I believe it might be called something different today.

So, I think a decent electrician will be prepared to sign off someone else's work, but only after they have carried out a thorough inspection to check the installation has been done correctly.

brilliant thankyou, I know that they do supply certificates for other peoples work as they do this when people are buying and selling houses to get the electrics checked. I fully hope they check it all properly as that's what we are paying for! Thankyou for your reply

marksoton

DanJKelly wrote: »

The electrician doing the work usually works for a company ..but would be doing it for us in his own time. So why go through the company for the exact same person to do the same work but for much more?

Because then you get sign off.

molerat

You may be able to get it certified by your council. As long as the installer has all the necessary qualifications it should not be a problem. The IET forums may be able to help with advice. http://www.theiet.org/forums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=205&threadid=60443

eddddy

DanJKelly wrote: »

brilliant thankyou, I know that they do supply certificates for other peoples work as they do this when people are buying and selling houses to get the electrics checked. I fully hope they check it all properly as that's what we are paying for! Thankyou for your reply

I think you might be talking about a "Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)"

But what you need for a rewire is a "Electrical Installation Certificate".

I would urge you to make sure you have a registered electrician who has agreed to do the certification, before you let your friend start.

I've had many electricians slam the phone down on me when I suggest this. Their view is that they've gone through all the pain and expense of becoming registered to self certify, why should they help you save a few quid by using an unregistered electrician.

AdrianC

DanJKelly wrote: »

My question is a friend of ours is going to be doing the rewire.. hes an electrician and can do the safety check at the end but cannot issue a certificate as he is not self employed. Is the safety certficate essential...

Legally? Yes. Part P of Building Regulations.

foxy-stoat

DanJKelly wrote: »

brilliant thankyou, I know that they do supply certificates for other peoples work as they do this when people are buying and selling houses to get the electrics checked. I fully hope they check it all properly as that's what we are paying for! Thankyou for your reply

Many years ago they may well have, today you will pay for it if you wanted to re-wire and get the firm to certify the work. If they do agree you will not doubt pay through the nose for it.

If the chap's firm agree with this arrangement and are happy for him to carry out the works and them to certify it then its all good - you may save some money, even more if he takes the materials from their stock

G_M

The installation must comply with Part P of the Building regulations and must be certified as such. That is a legal requirement.

That is not the same as 'an electrical certificate'.

It can be certified by the council's Building Control Dept, but they will charge, and willprobobly need to inspect the entire installation which inevitably takes time/cost.

Or it can be self-certified by a contractor (who may be independant or work for a company) who is an authorised 'Competant Person'.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/competent-person-scheme-current-schemes-and-how-schemes-are-authorised