Help On The Process Of Notifying Building Control

[Kris370]

Hi all, I'm wondering if anyone can shed a bit of light on this for me.

I'm a fully qualified electrician, and have been for a lot of years and all my qualifications are up to date. Technically I work for the local council but we have since been privatized and now I work for a big corporation doing the same work for the council, but that's basically more commercial and street furniture work. Our company is an NIC approved contractor and I'm registered with them, have my gold card and currently due to be assessed to be our new QS. I test and sign off on a lot of our work but all the planning and hand over side of it is done by management and admin above my head so I never deal with these things and am at a bit of a loss now. I know my way around domestic work as you would expect but never do it day to day, just odd jobs that I manage to squeeze onto minor works.

I've agreed to help out some close friends of mine who need a rewire, they don't have a lot of cash so I said I'd do it for them but am just trying to work out how I go about notifying on the works. I rang up the council and explained my position and that I was doing a full rewire and change of CCU to the team leader at the BC dept, and all he seemed to be able to repeat at me were the words "competent person scheme". I explained I wasn't part of one myself as I work for a large company and technically them and sign of lots of work for his dept but all he could then tell me was ok that's fine, just give your friends a "Part P cert". I'm not sure what that is, I have to be honest. I told him I'd be giving them an EIC and he basically said yeah that's all you need to do and that's fine. I asked him wasn't there something I need to pay and send a copy of the cert to him and he said no as long as you're part of a competent person scheme. I pointed out I wasn't again. He told me to give my friends the cert. At this point I sighed and gave up. This doesn't sound right to me and I don't wan't to leave myself open or my friends in bother if they ever decide to sell the house and it flags up.

Going through my company won't likely be an option as It's too big of a beast and I'm just a number, I know I may be able to sort it on the fly once I'm the branch QS and have met the NIC and HEA assessors a bit more, but to be honest that could be a few months and I just want to do the job above board. So I'm hoping someone here can explain to me what I need to do, If I need to pay that's fine, but who do I pay and where/what needs to be submitted and how. If I'm honest, I don't really even understand all the crack with Part P, other than it's a vague document that's part of the building regs. I recently went and redid the EAL inspection and testing course just to refresh my tickets as I'd last done it in my apprenticeship and it was 2391 at 16th Ed. The tutor on that course basically told me Part P was a load of b*llocks and that it would be gone soon. All this seems to be a bit all over the place and as I say, I just want to know I'm colouring between the lines as it was.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Kris

 

[Pete999]

I believe that as you are not a member of a CPS then your mate will need to pay BC to sign off the work, not sure if that is correct, maybe someone else with the same sort of situation will be able to offer better guidance.

 

[Richard Burns]

A self certification scheme (or a competent person scheme) allows you to sign off your own work.
Where there is a large company then qualified supervisors are appointed (although a sole trader is his own qualified supervisor) who, as you know, monitor the installation work of other electricians or labourers and ensure that it has been completed correctly and in accordance with the building and wiring regulations.
They are then able to sign off building control compliance for the work of people employed by the company.

Technically it may be possible, but probably not legal, to have your company perform the notification to building control for your private work.

Practically and correctly in order to sign off building control compliance for your own private work you would need to be an independent member of a self certification scheme.

If you are not a member of such a scheme then the specified route is to inform building control in advance, pay their fee and they will monitor the progress of the work at various intervals as requried and get an inspector to inspect and test the work and issue the electrical installation certificates. Building control will then issue a building regulations completion certificate.

In practice for a fully qualified electrician (not a scheme member) undertaking the work they may often be sensible about the situation (what, a council?!) and permit you to issue the electrical installation certificates and accept that the work has been done correctly, charge you their fee and issue a completion certificate.
Occasionally they will just accept that a qualified electrician has done the work and given them copies of the EIC.

On balance, depending on the cost of your councils fees (check their website) it may be cheaper to register with the cheapest scheme, Stroma, for just the one job! They charge £288 inc vat for registration and £1.50 for each notification.
If your building control fees are greater than this then possibly the inconvenience and delay of arranging an assessment day and preparation of the paperwork and having a job to show them may be worth while.
Try reading their installer pack information and make your choice.

 

[Taylortwocities]

They charge £288 inc vat for registration and £1.50 for each notification.

Of course you'll need more than that.

• Relevant qualifications (depending on whether you are applying for domestic, commercial, conditioning reports, PAT testing or third party)
• Calibration certificates for your instruments
• Public liability insurance for £2 million
• Professional indemnity insurance for £250K (if carrying out commercial work or conditioning reports)
• Electricity at Work Regulations 1989
• Wiring Regulations BS 7671
• On-Site Guide BS 7671
• and some other stuff, like health and safety policy, complaints procedure, etc.

And they'll want to see some of your installs too.


also, I don't understand this. Hear it a lot and it always make me smile:

just give your friends a "Part P cert"

Part P is a Building Regulation. How do you certify that?

 

[sampsan]

I have just completed this but for myself, fully qualified but don't do domestic. Having building work completed (house extension) and under building control. I informed BC that being competent I will complete the electrical work myself and will issue an EIC for the work. After some consideration they accepted that provided I demonstrated competence via qualifications, they inspected first fix and I issued the correct documentation then all would be fine. In my case no costs as the work was already under building control and paid for anyway.

 

[Taylortwocities]

no costs as the work was already under building control and paid for anyway

And that can be the difference. But the OP is not doing work that is already the subject of a Building Notice. So, unless he can find a friendly LABC guy who is prepared to bend the rules, his options are:
1. Join a CPS
2. Raise a building notice and pay the LABC fee. (The DIY option)
3. Do the work and then find one of the (rare) third-party inspectors that the CPS were supposed to appoint. I have never come across such an animal*, but I rather suspect his/her fee would be a day to inspect, certify and notify.

*There may be some in The Electricians' Arms, perhaps?

 

[Midwest]

Good advice from all. Think the issue with some BC's, is it is mostly simplified for them, with notifications done by electricians/companies in schemes.

I suspect that those electricians/companies, not in said schemes would rarely 'notify' any such work in domestic properties (we've had loads of threads on that subject). So when a BC is faced with such a dilemma, they are unsure how to deal with it, albeit the process is already in place 'The DIY option', as previously mentioned.

I would advise 'emailing or writing' to your BC, evidencing your competence and qualifications, before starting work, and let them ponder the subject, before agreeing the above process. Quite often speaking to someone on the phone, gives just their opinion, as opposed the correct corporate one, once they have time to consider the process. You difficulty, will be evidencing your 'competence and qualifications', with the BC limited knowledge on that subject, ultimately one of the reasons (IMO) why Part P was introduced, to make life easier for BC's.

 

[sampsan]

Good advice from all. Think the issue with some BC's, is it is mostly simplified for them, with notifications done by electricians/companies in schemes.

I suspect that those electricians/companies, not in said schemes would rarely 'notify' any such work in domestic properties (we've had loads of threads on that subject). So when a BC is faced with such a dilemma, they are unsure how to deal with it, albeit the process is already in place 'The DIY option', as previously mentioned.

I would advise 'emailing or writing' to your BC, evidencing your competence and qualifications, before starting work, and let them ponder the subject, before agreeing the above process. Quite often speaking to someone on the phone, gives just their opinion, as opposed the correct corporate one, once they have time to consider the process. You difficulty, will be evidencing your 'competence and qualifications', with the BC limited knowledge on that subject, ultimately one of the reasons (IMO) why Part P was introduced, to make life easier for BC's.

Would agree with this, when I spoke to BC about completing my own work response straight away was that I would have to get someone else to sign off for me that is a member of a scheme, when I pointed out I only needed to be competent they went away, looked into it and confirmed not an issue provided qualified, correct certs issued and they complete inspection at the appropriate stages.

 

[Taylortwocities]

when I pointed out I only needed to be competent they went away, looked into it and confirmed not an issue provided qualified, correct certs issued and they complete inspection at the appropriate stages.

Which is correct. That is the DIY approach.
If you had made that suggestion, without there being the house extension case in progress, then they would have wanted a fist full of money.

 

[Midwest]

Would agree with this, when I spoke to BC about completing my own work response straight away was that I would have to get someone else to sign off for me that is a member of a scheme, when I pointed out I only needed to be competent they went away, looked into it and confirmed not an issue provided qualified, correct certs issued and they complete inspection at the appropriate stages.

Its always best to get these things confirmed in writing before carrying out ANY such work. Otherwise your customer might be waiting on a Completion Certificate for the house extension, because of anomalies with electrical work.