Full rewire and CU change non registered electrician

[STI]

I have just been in touch with my local Building control to get the forms and fees required to notify them of my intent to rewire my house and change the CU to a full RCBO set up.

They have come back and told me the requirementS are for a full set of plans to be sent in, fee £165.95 which includes the inspection fee plus building notice fee of £199. (This seems ridiculous to me, whats the building notice for there is no building work.)

Can any other unregistered electrician comment on their experience of forms needed and fees charged for this work.

In the past when i have done notifiable work, admittedly on a smaller scale, lights in bathrooms extra sockets in kitchens etc the fee has been around £90 with the VAT.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

They have come back and told me the requirementS are for a full set of plans to be sent in,

"Plans" is just a term for "A description/explanation of the planned work which we can understand". It's a lot easier to describe a building by drawing it than it is to use words. It's probably a lot easier to describe electrical circuits with words than with a drawing. Check with them exactly what they want from you.

fee £165.95 which includes the inspection fee plus building notice fee of £199. (This seems ridiculous to me, whats the building notice for there is no building work.)

There is building work - read the definition of it in the Building Regulations.

In the past when i have done notifiable work, admittedly on a smaller scale, lights in bathrooms extra sockets in kitchens etc the fee has been around £90 with the VAT.

By "in the past" I suspect you mean "before the coming into force of The Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010"

 

[STI]

BAS Thanks for the reply. Is this the section you mean regarding the definition

—(1) In these Regulations “building work” means—

(a)the erection or extension of a building;.
(b)the provision or extension of a controlled service or fitting in or in connection with a building;.
(c)the material alteration of a building, or a controlled service or fitting, as mentioned in paragraph (2);.
(d)work required by regulation 6 (requirements relating to material change of use);.
(e)the insertion of insulating material into the cavity wall of a building;.
(f)work involving the underpinning of a building..

In which case is it point b, sorry i havent had the time to follow through with what is the definition of a controlled service but this is the only element of that definition that could possibly be relevent

 

[JohnW2]

(b)the provision or extension of a controlled service or fitting in or in connection with a building;.
(c)the material alteration of a building, or a controlled service or fitting, as mentioned in paragraph (2);
...In which case is it point b ....

Exactly - or (c). Don't forget that the Building Regulations no longer just cover 'building work' in the everyday sense - 'Part P', relating to electrical work, is part of the 'Building Regulations', not a separate entity.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Yes, it's (b).

And always has been, since 2005, which is why you've been notifying.

Up until now you've been lucky it's only been costing you £90 - many councils have always been charging a couple of hundred.

 

[chivers67]

The Re-wire I'm doing at present the LAB charge £247.32.

Nearly half the fee for a Part P scheme, so next year I'll be applying to register

 

[Paul_C]

They have come back and told me the requirementS are for a full set of plans to be sent in, fee £165.95 which includes the inspection fee plus building notice fee of £199.

So they want a total of £364.95 - Presumably that's including VAT.

That's nothing short of extortionate, and certainly well up into the higher range of what local authorities are charging for electrical work, although the highest I've seen so far is North Somerset, which now demands over £400!

 

[STI]

Its East Devon and i thought its extortionate too. Especially as they can in their small print add an as yet undefined sum if they decide they need a registered spark to come out and offer consultative services to them.

BAS, the reason i got charged 90 in the past is because the BCO classed the work as

Alterations, change of use, installation of fittings or services, structural alterations, other works etc:

I have copied this directly off their fee structure and the cost for work under £2000 to be inspected and signed off was and is still £76.

No plans were required. Im really not sure why this definition especially as it references services, doesnt still apply. I shall ask them this week.

 

[Paul_C]

It looks as though there's a specific electrical category for fees now, toward the bottom of Table C in the domestic fees PDF here:

http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/bc-domesticfees-jan2011.pdf

But that doesn't agree with the figures you've been given. According to that table, it should be £199.15 total.


P.S. Note the confused wording of "Electrical work (Non Part P)." So maybe that section was put there just for the fun of it, since any electrical work which isn't under Part P would not be covered by the building regulations anyway!

 

[STI]

Yes I spotted that too, i thought it all adds to the confusion for poor old joe public.


The whole of the wording is not exactly clear. In that section it states rewiring, under non part P. So not notifiable. !!!! And the price is the first three columns added together.

However on a serious note as this work is notifiable and its not minor work in electrical form filling terms should i be using the price section above which is what my old contact did.

 

[Geps]

Im paying £170 to Birmingham City Council BC for my 3 bed semi rewire.

No other forms had to be filled in - I just said complete rewire and they approved it.

 

[Paul_C]

And the price is the first three columns added together.

So it is - But it shouldn't be. The first two columns are the plan fee and inspection fee, excluding VAT which needs to be added:

(51.06 + 114.89) x 1.2 = £199.14

The third column is the building notice fee, which is shown with VAT included and is the same as the sum of the plan & inspection fees (allowing for the penny difference due to rounding in the calculation).

Hence why whether you submit full plans or just a building notice, the total in either case should be only £199.14/15.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I strongly advise not going the Building Notice route.

Saves you no money, but gets you increased risk.

 

[Geps]

BAS I assume you mean go down the route of qualified electrician instead?

 

[Paul_C]

I think he means as opposed to submitting full plans, as he's stated that a good few times in the past.

But there's a risk of coming up against an awkward building inspector whichever of those two options one takes, so does it make much difference? The building notice route at least eliminates the need to draw up plans which you might otherwise not need to waste time with for minor jobs.