Posted By Stuart Nagle
Paul.

Part 9 of the new Building Control Regulations will require all domestic electrical work to be treated more or less the same as such work carried out in a workplace, in so much as the works must be inspected by a competent person and a certificate issued for compliance purposes.

The reasoning behind this is twofold; 1) it will suposedly get rid of the cowboys who work with forged certifications....and 2) it will prevent fires from dodgy electrical installation works.

The BIG problem is that the certification of the electricians undertaking the work is new also, and ALL electricians will need to be assessed/re-assessed by an authorised body to get their own cetification to be able to inspect and issue certificates, regardless of their existing qualifications!

This has a number of knock-on effects:

There are few authorised bodies so the certification of electricians is going to be slow.

All electricians must get it or face losing their livelihood

It is expensive

In essence it vitually bans DIY electrical works - even if you are competent (but not certificated)

Most people are totally unaware of it

It will add costs to all domestic works

You may not be able to sell your house if you don't have certification to say the electrics are OK

Its another piece of paper to be added to the 'sellers packs' making them even more expensive

There is no safety net to prevent cowboys simple forging the new certifications anyway!

It appears to me to be a totally useless piece of regulatory baldadash which increases costs and will have little real benefit. If you are employing persons to undertake domestic electrical works there are already ways and means to establish if they are bonifide tradesmen. Do we need this
additional layer of red tape...NO me thinks

Stuart

Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Thank you both, especially Stuart for such a complete response.

Paul