Building regulation compliance certificate - copies?

[Milligan]

Hi,

I had some work done in 2010 - new consumer unit and an oven circuit.
The chap issued me a Domestic Electrical Installation Cert under BS7671.

I'm now in the process of selling the flat and have provided the buyers solicitor of said certificate - they've now asked me for a buildings regulations compliance certificate.

Frankly, I don't ever recall receiving one so a couple of questions:
- Is not having this cert material - in light of the fact the work is BS7671?
- Can I get a copy of this building reg certificate?

Thanks in advance...

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The compliance certificate is the final part of the notification procedure.
And would be issued once the notification has been submitted and the work completed by the electrician.
If you still have the details of the electrician, contact them to make sure they notified the work, Unless you notified the work, then you need to chase this up with building controls. Regardless which way it was notified building controls and/or the scheme provider of the electrician should have a record of this.

 

[pompeygit]

Contact the sparky...2 ways he should have done this..If he is a member of a scheme (Elecsa,Napit, Niceic) he would have registered this work with his scheme provider who would in due course inform the council who would then send you a compliance certificate.

OR the sparky dealt with a ad paid a fee to the council. In which case he deposits his certificates at the council who in turn send you the Building Regs Cert.

Needless to say there is a possibility he did neither of these. If that is the case contact him to work out a new course of action to get them.

 

[Milligan]

The cert has NICE EIC on it.
He's still trading and certified - I've dropped him a mail so will see what he says.

Forgive the ignorance but is this something significant i.e. what happens if I can't produce this cert?
I was hoping to exchange in the next week, will this hold everything up?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The electrician should have notified the job to his scheme provider "NICEIC"
generally the electrician has 1 month on completion to notify.
The electrician on completion should issue the installation cert but the compliance cert comes from building control or the scheme provider, this can take a few weeks after notification has been made (1-6 weeks).

The issue would be if the job was not notified, then it becomes a bit of an headache and I doubt either the scheme provider or building controls will be greatly helpful and you may need to inform trading standards as the installer has an obligation to notify.

So first things first, contact electrician as you have with your concerns, if he has notified there should be job reference number and you can then chase this cert up with that number.

If he has not notified, there is a complaints procedure that you can follow with NICEIC, but not sure if they with retrospectively issue the compliance certificate, that is when you need to talk to CAB or trading standards.

If the job has not been notified a way of satisfying the buyer solicitor could be by having an electrical installation condition report made on the property.

 

[mfarrow]

The Electrical Installation Certificate tells the buyer that the electrical installation was sound at the time of the installation. The completion cert tells buyer that you've told the council you had some work done, and makes it legal by doing so.

Telling the council you've had some electrical work, and paying their fee so they can record the work, does not make your house safe.

Just answer no and see what they say.

 

[JohnW2]

Forgive the ignorance but is this something significant i.e. what happens if I can't produce this cert? I was hoping to exchange in the next week, will this hold everything up?

That depends upon how sensible the purchasers are. If they have any sense, they would not let the absence of a certificate (or even the absence of notification, if it never happened) stand in the way of proceeding with the purchase. Quite apart from the work undertaken in 2010, they should realise that there could theoretically be all sorts of horrors (not apparent to anyone by visual inspection) in the rest of the electrical installation for all you/they know - so, if they wanted reassurance before they bought the property, they should commission a full inspection and testing of the electrical installation ('an EICR').

Kind Regards, John