Signing off electrical work in your own home

Until the recent changes to Part P came into force (in England only), if you carried out an electrical task in your home your only option was to notify the work to the local building control office. Building control would then get a qualified electrician to come and test your work and issue the relevant certification.

The changes in Part P now make provision for the home owner to engage a registered third-party certifier to certify that the works meet the requirements of the building regulations and BS7671 2008 (2011).

A word of warning; the third-party certification scheme has not yet started, and is not expected to be in place until later this year.

The 2013 edition of Approved Document P, which applies to England only, makes provision for notifiable electrical installation work to be certified as compliant with the Building Regulations by a ‘registered third-party certifier’. However, those interested should note that, such a service can be provided only by a ‘registered third-party certifier’, who is ‘a competent person registered with a Part P third-party certification scheme’.

Competent persons registered with schemes that authorise them to self-certify that their own work complies with the Building Regulations are not automatically entitled to certify compliance of electrical work undertaken by others. Following development by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the arrangements for third-party certification schemes are expected to be put in place later this year.

Registration with third-party certification schemes is expected to be available to named individuals from trading companies who meet particular assessment criteria intended to ensure that those individuals are competent to inspect, test and report on the condition of electrical installation work carried out by others.

The DCLG is not expecting competent persons registered with existing Part P schemes to use third-party certification in place of self-certification. The third-party certification option is intended for DIYers and other unregistered installers who currently notify their work to local authorities.

- Mark Jenkins