Talking to the Building Control man today he mentioned that Herefordshire council will start charging extra for electrical testing for DIY rewires etc from 1st April, Presently they get a £200 fee from us but their electrician charges them £250, So I'm going to put in a Building Notice for a total rewire this month!
[g]
Why bother ? I,ve referbished 3 flats over the last 5 years and had no problem selling them. Main thing required was an EPC, which the solicitor insisted on. Sold one myself and two through estate agents. Houses are sold 'as is'. Just don't lie on condition of buildings / works etc.
Our Building Control (Coventry) require you to get a certificate from an electrician. There is no suggestion that they will inspect the electrics themselves. Simon.
Our (very friendly) BCO said the same thing re certificates several times. In the end I said that I'd checked with the small print in Part P, and it appeared to say that as part of a Full Plans building application the council could do the final test as part of the package if I could not certify it myself. He sighed, and said they would need a weeks notice. Done, by electrical subcontractors as a periodic test on the circuits concerned. I didn't get the paperwork (I assume the council kept it) but the electrical work was signed off as part of the whole project by the council. No additional charge....
I suspect our council (Waverly), and probably many others, have a policy of not mentioning it unless you mention the detail. I also got the impression that he felt part P was as much of a pain as I did. More or less the first thing he said was that extending existing circuits was (mostly) not notifiable, but unfortunately I had both a new ring and lighting in a bathroom.
What happens if they refuse outright I'm not sure.
Charles F
My full plans spec has the supplying of the electrical certificate included, and they told me I needed to amend the spec to include this, before they would approve the plans. So I have officially agreed to supply the certficate. I did not fuss at the time. I know an electician who hopefully will be able to test / check what I do without charging me too much. Simon.
Just after the introduction of Part P I did a full rewire of my house myself. I notified Building Control (Preston) before starting work and they said that the bill would be £50 and that they would inspect after 1st fix with final test and inspection on completion.
Instead of using their own council electricians they sub-contracted to Smiths Electrical, who charged the council £200. About a week after inspecting 1st fix, I got a full test and inspection report, and a completion certificate from Smiths, even though I'd not done any further work. Told the council, they sacked off Smiths and started to use their own 'in-house' guys but I don't know if that's still the case or what they charge these days.
To the Council? Nothing.
'Part P' is the legal requirement. It merely says that "reasonable provision shall be made in the design and installation of electrical installations...". Approved Document P is the guidance for Part P, but the preamble to all the Approved Documents say, "there is no obligation to adopt any particular solution contained in an Approved Document if you prefer to meet the relevant requirement in some other way".
In practice, an applicant could appeal to the Secretary of State that they had met the requirement by allowing the LA to inspect the work at their expense. The SoS is always at pains to point out (when they are asked to make a decision) that it's up to the Local Authority to enforce the regulations in their area. If the SoS ruled in the applicant's favour, the LA could still refuse to carry out inspections at their expense. The next step could be to the Ombudsman. If they rule against them, AFAIK, the Ombudsman's rulings are still not obligatory. If questions were asked of the head of department by the Chief Exec or councillors, a report suggesting that a change in policy could cost the Council tens or hundreds of thouands of pounds per year, I'm sure TPTB would come down on the side of Building Control.
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