Part P sign off problem

[yorkshireskippy]

Hi there...I'm pleased to find, hopefully, somewhere to answer a situation I find myself in. I'll try and compress the long saga...

In July 2020 I had a full rewire done on my house. Qualified electrician, tick. Registered with NECIEC (I now find out he wasn't). Competent, now I find out not part of the scheme. That's the problem.

He gave it big licks how the competency scheme was well worth it when he was showing the job, however it has transpired he either wasn't on the competent scheme nor in fact registered with NICEIC (I found this today) as he was about to move from self employed to employed.

We chased him for full sign off for over 12 months before he turned around and said its our fault for not opening an account with Building Control and getting them to sign it off when he'd finished. Obviously we argue we didn't do that because he never told us he wasn't competent scheme registered. He says he assumed we knew what we were doing and he assumed we'd gone to BC before he started, thus never mentioned the Part P sign off.

Who's at fault, us for being naive and assuming he was competent because he told us he could sign it all off, or him for not making it clear at the start we needed BC and he couldn't sign off because he wasn't on the competent register?

Thank you in advance.

 

[telectrix]

tricky one. ultimately it's your responsibility to notify BC so they can issue a completion cert. under part p. however, this cost several hundred £££s. as BC then get the work independently inspected and tested. this is where the cps 's come in. a member notifies his cps on line for a couple of quid, and they then notify BC. as it stands, he's not a cps member or you could complain to that cps.BC may accept an EICR ( condition report). you'd need to ask. cost of a report though is a couple of hundred anyway. your main problem would be if you came to sell the house. buyers' solicitors want to see either an installation cert. or a condition report. did he give you a cert. (EIC)?

 

[yorkshireskippy]

Thank you for the response.
Turns out he wasn't registered with NICEIC for over 12 months when he started with us so all the talk about sign off was a red herring or a deliberate ploy to throw us off the scent that he wasn't registered.
BC told me to simply get another electrician to sign it off (I have a quote for £150). They said all they will do is instruct an electrician to come around, simply do it yourself.
We have a full EIC signed off by his after his work, yes.

 

[telectrix]

Thank you for the response.
Turns out he wasn't registered with NICEIC for over 12 months when he started with us so all the talk about sign off was a red herring or a deliberate ploy to throw us off the scent that he wasn't registered.
BC told me to simply get another electrician to sign it off (I have a quote for £150). They said all they will do is instruct an electrician to come around, simply do it yourself.
We have a full EIC signed off by his after his work, yes.

that's your way forward. but make sure the electrician to is a cps member. there is a register you can consult to check.

Home

 

[loz2754]

If you have it in writing, either email, text, or part of the quote for the works, that he claimed to be a member of a Competent Persons Scheme, and that BC notification would be included, then you could consider sueing for damages.

Apologies for all the commas!

 

[yorkshireskippy]

That leaves me out of pocket by £150? Do I have a case to pursue the original sparky for misleading us? He never put anything in writing or quoted NICEIC. He simply led us to believe he could sign it all off hence I chased him for 12 months before he dropped the bombshell he wasn't registered.

 

[telectrix]

That leaves me out of pocket by £150? Do I have a case to pursue the original sparky for misleading us?

technically, yes. but for that amount is it worth the hassle of paying county cout and seeking a judgement. just out of interest, what was the rough cost of the rewire? just note the extra £150 as part of the cost.

 

[yorkshireskippy]

technically, yes. but for that amount is it worth the hassle of paying county cout and seeking a judgement. just out of interest, what was the rough cost of the rewire? just note the extra £150 as part of the cost.

The full rewire for the bungalow was 2.5k, he started at 3.5k. I just feel miffed I suppose.

 

[telectrix]

2.5K is well cheap. you've knocked him down a grand, so just suck up the £150. and write it down to experience.

 

[snowhead]

One problem is that a Contractor could be a member of a scheme at the start of the job but not renew during the job, especially if they know they are going to cease trading / go into employment.
So even if a customer checks at the start of the work there's no guarantee they'll still be registered at the end or in some cases that have happened even still be alive.

Even if they misrepresented being member of a Scheme, it's most likely they'd initially just get a warning / threatening letter to stop, from that scheme.
So taking action could be expensive and yield no positive result.

 

[Dustydazzler]

£150 is quite cheap to get the entire job retrospectively signed off i, , I know someone who paid twice that amount to get their rewire signed off after the builder failed to issue any paperwork for the install

 

[yorkshireskippy]

Thank you all for your help and advice, much appreciated.

 

[7029 dave]

Just my thoughts, yes the job should have been notified to BC, however the Electrician has supplied an EIC by his own hand.
Does that make the cert void just because the job has not been notified to BC. my point is does that make a MWC worthless because of no cps.

 

[DPG]

Just my thoughts, yes the job should have been notified to BC, however the Electrician has supplied an EIC by his own hand.
Does that make the cert void just because the job has not been notified to BC. my point is does that make a MWC worthless because of no cps.

Depends if the work is notifiable though, which in this case it is.

 

[7029 dave]

Depends if the work is notifiable though, which in this case it is.

electricity is still electricity IMO notification is another matter, we could argue then you can only test circuits and issue certs if only registered with a CPS which is not the case just stating the facts.

 

[DPG]

electricity is still electricity IMO notification is another matter, we could argue then you can only test circuits and issue certs if only registered with a CPS which is not the case just stating the facts.

No, you always test the work you have done, and always issue a cert. But you only need to notify it if is notifiable.

Or have I misunderstood what you mean?

 

[7029 dave]

No, you always test the work you have done, and always issue a cert. But you only need to notify it if is notifiable.

Or have I misunderstood what you mean?

What I am trying to say is this guy has been provided an EIC from the sparky that done the rewire, notification aside, he has been given a cert with test results etc signed by him, equally he could have done some minor works and issued a MWC, are we saying you can only provide an EIC if in a CPS scheme.

 

[DPG]

What I am trying to say is this guy has been provided an EIC from the sparky that done the rewire, notification aside, he has been given a cert with test results etc signed by him, equally he could have done some minor works and issued a MWC, are we saying you can only provide an EIC if in a CPS scheme.

No. Anyone competent can issue an EIC.

 

[Lister1987]

Given the recent 'landmark' case where Trading Standards took an electrician to court under consumer protection regulation, I would start by speaking with them and seeing if you have any grounds in a claim.

The contract was awarded to the contractor on the belief that he was CPS registered and at no point did that contractor seek to correct that client, going off what we have above.

Step 1; get off here and get legal advise.

 

[7029 dave]

No. Anyone competent can issue an EIC.

Yep I agree with that, so in my eyes the only mr meaner that has been committed is the rewire not being notified to BC