A new metalclad fusebox needed?

[DIYedboy]

I have spent the last 5 years doing my house up including (at the start) having a replacement 17th edition twin RCD 10 way fusebox and a complete rewire. Now that the building work is completed I need to give the council an electrical certificate.
I've asked a sparks to do this, but he thinks he will have to fit a new metalclad box to be compliant.....is this correct?

 

[EFLImpudence]

Not if it was planned before the requirement for metal CUs.

Actually the requirement is NOT for metal CUs but "non-combustible" - yet that's all they have come up with.
Another allowed method is to surround the CU in a non-combustible enclosure.


Why do you have to give the council an electrical certificate?

If you did the work yourself, then you should have notified them before you started and YOU should fill out the certificates.

 

[SimonH2]

My guess would be that the council have a policy of "electrical works, need certificate else won't give completion certificate". I read the OPs post as he's been doing other work that needed BR notification and the electrical works will be part of that notification. It's unclear whether the new CU and rewire was done by a sparks - if it was then the sparks should have provided the certificate at the time.

 

[DIYedboy]

I've had a side and rear extension built (no extra bedrooms), but the council BCO says he wants an electrical certificate before he will sign off the whole job. I never thought at the start I had to tell the council I was having the old house wiring and fusebox replaced. An electrician did the wiring 5 years ago, but he moved to Spain and a mate of the builder did the wiring 18 months ago, I have no idea how to contact him, so it's easier to get a sparks to test and issue a certificate

 

[EFLImpudence]

As Simon said, the electrician or builder's mate should have issued the certificates at the time.
You cannot now get an Electrical Installation Certificate for the work from anyone else.


However, tell them the situation and IF the council will accept an Electrical Installation Condition Report, then as the name suggests, this is just a report as things are, so no upgrading to the latest regulations is required.

 

[DIYedboy]

Brilliant!...........well done Loop...............is the test you're talking about the same as a periodic report?

 

[EFLImpudence]

Yes. New name.

 

[DIYedboy]

Jeez.......why can't anything remain the same? it seems like everything changes every 5 years! with all this change, the only constant that's left is confusion!!

 

[EFLImpudence]

Has to keep changing otherwise the changers would be out of a job.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I never thought at the start I had to tell the council I was having the old house wiring and fusebox replaced.

That doesn't surprise me.

 

[bernardgreen]

Has to keep changing otherwise the changers would be out of a job.

Isn't it time we changed the changers ?

 

[SimonH2]

I've had a side and rear extension built (no extra bedrooms), but the council BCO says he wants an electrical certificate before he will sign off the whole job.

Strictly speaking, they only need an electrical certificate for the work done as part of the extension - having the house re-wired was not part of that and so shouldn't stop them issuing a completion certificate for the extension.

I never thought at the start I had to tell the council I was having the old house wiring and fusebox replaced.

Well, again strictly speaking IF the electrician was a member of a recognised scheme then you didn't have to tell the council - it is sufficient for the electrician to do the work and notify it through their scheme (which is also a LOT cheaper than you doing it thrugh a notification yourself).

... and a mate of the builder did the wiring 18 months ago

And he should have provided an installation certificate. If he didn't, then he failed to comply with BS7671 and you should report it to Trading Standards, and his scheme if he's a member. Did you employ his directly, or was he sub-contracting for the builder ? If the latter, then your builder is responsible for the sparks failings and you should tell him to get it sorted out !

so it's easier to get a sparks to test and issue a certificate

At this stage, yes - though as previously stated, not a test certificate but an EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report).

As an aside since I don't think anyone's explained this yet. If you apply for building regs notification for electrical works, some councils (mine did last time I looked) have two different charges - if you can provide a set of test results/an installation certificate that's acceptable to them then there's one charge, if you can't then there's a higher charge. As most BCOs aren't qualified electricians, they will outsource any testing to an electrician.
When the building control rules changed in 2005 there was something of a debate as the BCOs were effectively asking electricians to certify someone else's work - which they are not allowed to do. The compromise was for the electrician to do an EICR (which they can do) which (if done properly) will provide most of the information that would be on an installation certificate. However, the electrician would want paying for this, and BC departments were not allowed to charge for inspections - hence why there were two scales of charges to get around this.
AIUI the rules on charges have now changed, having a quick look, it's now not clear what the charge from my local BC dept would be for (eg) a CU change.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Isn't it time we changed the changers ?

Yes, we'll form a committee to see how it should be done.

 

[SimonH2]

But we'll need a committee first to decide how to form that committee.

Oh hang on, we'll need to decide first how we are going to form that ...

Ouroboros