Hi Folks,
just passing on my recent experience in the hope that it'll same someone some grief...
We have made some fairly major changes to our house the most relevant (to this saga) of which is relocating the kitchen. Prior to starting work we realised that, in order to do it properly we would need a building warrant and the electrical work would have to be certified.
Our investigations prior to commencing the work indicated that there was no restriction on us doing the work provided it was certified before being put into service.
With the work completed (ie cables run, FCUs, sockets, cooker outlet, switches etc fitted) but none of it connected to the consumer unit we have contacted a number of electricians / electrical contracters to get it tested, connected to the consumer unit and certified.
We have been told that the contratcors cannot certify the installation as they didn't do the work. One contractor has looked at it and says the work is to a high standard and he sees no problem with it however SELECT (the Scottish Electrical Contarctors Trade Association) has instructed it's members that they cannot certify work they didn't perform.
Apparently they could certify it if they had made periodic inspections. I don't have a problem with this what I do have a problem with is that neither the local council, the building warrant, or SELECT make it clear that this is the case.
At the moment we are making further enquiries into if / how we can proceed however it would appear that worst case scenario is that we have to get the kitchen re-wired (which would involve removing the newly installed units, worktops, flooring etc etc.
I should probably point out that as a student I spent 6 months, working for an electrical contractor, as part of a team rewiring housing in a council estate and subsequently worked installing navigation & IT systems in a marine environment.
Whilst I appreciate that this doesn't give me an in depth knowledge of the latest IEEE standards I'm pretty sure that the work that has been done is safe and complies with the relevant legislation (our reason for getting it checked was to confirm his).
So the question is where is the incentive to "do it by the book" when you can do it off the record then wait a few years and apply for a letter of comfort from the council?
Rant over....
just passing on my recent experience in the hope that it'll same someone some grief...
We have made some fairly major changes to our house the most relevant (to this saga) of which is relocating the kitchen. Prior to starting work we realised that, in order to do it properly we would need a building warrant and the electrical work would have to be certified.
Our investigations prior to commencing the work indicated that there was no restriction on us doing the work provided it was certified before being put into service.
With the work completed (ie cables run, FCUs, sockets, cooker outlet, switches etc fitted) but none of it connected to the consumer unit we have contacted a number of electricians / electrical contracters to get it tested, connected to the consumer unit and certified.
We have been told that the contratcors cannot certify the installation as they didn't do the work. One contractor has looked at it and says the work is to a high standard and he sees no problem with it however SELECT (the Scottish Electrical Contarctors Trade Association) has instructed it's members that they cannot certify work they didn't perform.
Apparently they could certify it if they had made periodic inspections. I don't have a problem with this what I do have a problem with is that neither the local council, the building warrant, or SELECT make it clear that this is the case.
At the moment we are making further enquiries into if / how we can proceed however it would appear that worst case scenario is that we have to get the kitchen re-wired (which would involve removing the newly installed units, worktops, flooring etc etc.
I should probably point out that as a student I spent 6 months, working for an electrical contractor, as part of a team rewiring housing in a council estate and subsequently worked installing navigation & IT systems in a marine environment.
Whilst I appreciate that this doesn't give me an in depth knowledge of the latest IEEE standards I'm pretty sure that the work that has been done is safe and complies with the relevant legislation (our reason for getting it checked was to confirm his).
So the question is where is the incentive to "do it by the book" when you can do it off the record then wait a few years and apply for a letter of comfort from the council?
Rant over....
