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.