Building Regs and electrics latest

[Andy Hall]

The solution would be for the seller or purchaser to obtain a test report on the wiring before the house is sold

In most cases, any DIY wiring would have been done in addition to what was already there, and purchasers should want a test report covering that anyway.

So from the selling point of view, the issue becomes one of who pays for the test and the report.

Certainly if I were buying a property, I would want an independent report on the wiring anyway.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Mike Harrison]

I doubt it- the buyer will just ask for a few quid off the price. There is no way a buyer would pull out over something like this - they will have already invested too much time money and effort.

[N. Thornton]

That isnt true. The accidents that occur are almost all due to appliance faults, not installation faults. I doubt even 1 in 100 such incidents are due to the installation. That would give us an estimated death figure for installs of 0.1 per year - an astonishingly low rate compared with almost everything else you can think of.

Another case of idiots running our lives, and criminalising those who dont agree with their idiot views.

Regards, NT

[adder]

...but we'll still be able to DIY provided BCO approves it??

[G&M]

If your BCO understands bits of wire with current inside :-)

[G&M]

Happens far too frequently actually. Solicitors make a big thing about it as one of them was successfully sued by their client over a building regs issue, client gets nervous and heads back to estate agent, sees a similar property without the problem and makes an offer for that as well.

[rrh]

But what about those of us whose jobs frequently take us abroad, requiring us to let our homes out (or pay all the costs of keeping them empty while abroad, or sell up and risk not being able to get back into the UK housing market - both equally undesirable)? We are already required to have annual gas safety certificates; looks like it's coming for electrics too. And A Very Good Thing Too, some may say. Well, OK...but I have my doubts about whether this latest development will really improve what seems to be already a very good safety record in the UK.

[DIYer]

Is the issue here that electrics significantly deteriorate over time (albeit on a timescale of decades), which puts into a very different category to most other controlled building work.

[Andy Hall]

I think that we should stay away from this storey.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup. It's beginning to be a pane.

[Stephen Dawson]

I for one am against Part P. As a registered electrical contractor with the ECA I am no being asked to fork out another £634.50 a year to be able to work in houses. If we are to stay in the domestic game our prices will have to rise to to cover the additional costs, which in practice will probably be double this.

Many of us feel that Part P will be ignored and only encourage cowboys.

Regards

Steve Dawson

About to ditch all my t & e as I dont think I am going to need it.

[RichardS]

Now look you two, stop it. Some of these puns are just paneful.

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[John Rumm]

Much will depend on the state of the market - if it is still a buyers market I would be inclined to say "I did it myself, here are my test results, if you want any other certification then feel free to pay for it yourself!".

[John Rumm]

More important however (from the government's POV) is that it may help coerce more freelance sparkies into employment with bigger firms so as to be able to take advantage of their membership of whichever closed shop self interest group they are part of. Hence more back-handers available from said self interest group, and some nice easy to collect PAYE tax income from the sparky without having to deal with so many PITA small businesses.

(cynic, me?)

[Steve Walker]

It could be a big cost issue. If you are living in the house and want to upgrade the existing electrical system, you may want to rewire a room at a time over a period of years as decorating time comes round. If the BCO needs to see the cable runs before plastering over surely that'd mean an individual application (and costs) for each room!

I'd certainly not like the alternative of trying to rewire, then redecorate the whole house in one go, while trying to live in it with a wife and young children.

Steve W

[David]

snip

there could well be a few takers for it kicking about in this thread.

I'm planning a compete re-wire soon, as I'll have most of my floorbaords up to replace the central heating system.

cheers

David

[Andy R]

Even if it comes out at £1200pa and you work 200 days per year that's only £6 per day, I don't suppose the average punter will even notice the £6. The only person who'll notice it is you once a year when you get stung for it.

Rgds

Andy R

[Tony Bryer]

Yes, also the fact that unlike gas electrics tend to get altered bit by bit and the cumulative result of all these alterations (which will still be uncontrolled) may be an less than safe installation. The exemption for small work may actually encourage making things worse: as a DIYer you can tag an extra socket on the end of an old rubber cable without consent but not replace said circuit with a new ring.

[Owain]

"Andy R" wrote | "Stephen Dawson" wrote | > I for one am against Part P. As a registered electrical contractor | > with the ECA I am no being asked to fork out another £634.50 a year | > to be able to work in houses. If we are to stay in the domestic | > game our prices will have to rise to to cover the additional costs, | > which in practice will probably be double this. | Even if it comes out at £1200pa and you work 200 days per year that's | only £6 per day, I don't suppose the average punter will even notice | the £6. The only person who'll notice it is you once a year when you | get stung for it.

Looking at it another way, if he's just breaking even now, £6 a day is his food, so he either puts his prices up or starves :-)

If Stephen bills £300 a day, £6 a day is equivalent to a 2% tax rise. Though a small amount it all contributes to rising costs of running a business and employing a tradesperson.

Owain

[Mike Harrison]

As I understand it, there is a 2 year transition period for the new colours, started March 31st, during which you can use either new or old colours, and after which new colours must be used. That leaves a convenient 'window' where new colour wiring could have been installed before the regs come into effect.