Building regs and DIY - Petition on no 10 web site

[Harry Bloomfield]

[e-mail] submitted this idea :

Agreed and a facility to insert individual comments to the signature.

[tim.....]

The buyers of both the houses that I have sold since the window rules changed have asked me to supply the relevent details (with certificates if necessary) about my double glazing (the second also asked me if I had ever claimed on the warranty).

The one which I sold after the electricity rules changed did not ask about this.

tim

[Ian_m]

I am sure most DIY'ers are ignoring Part P anyway. Spoke with an electrician who did a relevant Part P course before Part P came in so that he could 1) carry on his normal line of work and 2) peform all the necessary tests for DIY'ers.

In the two years since Part P came in, he has had one phone call about testing someones installation, and after he gave a quote (£125 I think) heard no more. So basically zilch on the testing front. As for Prat P compliance testing of DIY installations being a great money earner as promised the the trade mags in 2004 he had a few words to say about that......

Mind you my council want £325 for Part P testing.....

[tinnews]

I don't think that's allowed. The 'Part P testing' has to be part of the standard building regs charges, they can't add anything extra. A number of uk.d-i-y posters have pointed this out to councils who have tried to charge them and the councils have backed down.

[Bypass]

Are you sure you have this right?

You won't get any electrician to carry out your testing, for Part P certification, without making a charge.

I think you mean that the Building Regulations inspection fee, should be based on the total cost of construction, less the cost of the self-certification works, such as Part P electrical?

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes -- it now says so in the reissued Part P itself, because many councils were breaking the rules.

Any electrician isn't allowed to do the testing. It has to be done by the council. They can subcontract it, but that's up to them to pay for out of the building control fee -- that's what the fee is for. The expectation is that the building control officers would do the inspecting themselves. Councils are forbidden from charging for the inspection, or requiring you to get it done at your expense, both of which were being tried on by many councils.

[tinnews]

It's not the DIYer's responsibility to get the Part P testing done. The DIYer simply goes to the council and says "I've done some work that needs checking under part P building regulations", the council then checks it and, as I understand it, there are standard costs for the check.

If it's "self-certified" by an electrician then s/he must have done the work, the cost (if any) will have been included in the cost of the work. You can't get an 'outside' electrician to certify some work that they haven't done and then show the certificate to the council. If you have uncertified work done then the only way to get it past building regs is to get the council building regs people to check it. If they use an outside electrician then that's entirely up to them but has no effect on what they can charge you.

[Ian_m]

Anyway its a mess. I have the following state in my kitchen:

- The installer(s) did perform electrical tests of the work done (I have a test sheet), but issued no Part P paperwork to me or council as his understanding (which I now know is incorrect) is that he can self certify and needs to issue no paperwork. The kitchen supplier says its up to their contractors to issue correct paperwork and inform council, sub-contractors say they inform the kitchen supplier who then should inform the council of work undertaken.

- The under unit fanned radiator (cost £100) I fitted and electrically tested is requiring a £325 charge from council to get tested and certified.