Electrical Work, Building Control.

[RB2004]

lol, I certainly wouldnt want to throw my money away and go through all this hastle with the council if it wasnt necessary, thing is, alot of this stuff has been caused by people who attempt DIY electrics without any kind of knowledge.. it goes wrong, they burn their house down, injure themselves and end up in hospital or injure other people.. worst case scenario from an bad electrics would be death... so part p is the governments way of tightening up on safety.

I dont like part p at all, as im sure many dont eigther, but when like in my case I was in B&Q once, and overheard a member of their staff advising a customer that it was ok to protect ordinary flex cable underground in their garden with hosepipe! can you really blame the government? .. that is an accident waiting to happen and im sure it goes on several times a day all over the country, and in general I do believe.. its your house, and as long as what your doing is not going to injure yourself, or other people.. then you should be allowed to do what you want... councils and government seem to do whatever the heck they want regardless of what people think, if they want to build a road they dont even care if they own the land or not.. just issue a compulsory purchase.

But councils, and government, if they want to tighten up on regulations to improve safety.. they should make provisions to make it accessible for people who want to undertake DIY work, where homeowners can do work, and there is a simple, and standard procedure for carrying it out... at the moment the system is quite akward and complicated with lots of red tape... and even then it relies on the council playing ball and not being akward. Some people are finding it easy to go through building control, whereas others are having a really hard time getting it certified.

Thing is though, for those who dont follow the rules, what do you do when you sell the house? sometimes/always a PIR is now required.. and this would probably highlight any extensions or alterations because of the wiring colours being different (brown and blue).. so then next question would be wheres the certificates for the work? and if you cant produce them your in a stuck situation... if you admit to doing the work yourself then your implicating yourself as breaking the law... Suppose you coudl always argue somebody else you got in done it, and you wasnt aware of part p or where to contact them any more.. but it still doesnt solve the certificate situation lol

 

[LiamPope]

Out of interest, how did you get the LABC to accept your competence?

Liam

Also have a look at //www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=119162[/QUOTE]

Interesting - somehow I'd missed that one. Seems an awful lot of effortto go to only to have to pay the same fees anyway! Were you forced down this route by an LABC refusing to inspect/test notified work, or did you just find it preferable to do everything yourself?

Liam

 

[Paul_C]

But councils, and government, if they want to tighten up on regulations to improve safety.. they should make provisions to make it accessible for people who want to undertake DIY work, where homeowners can do work, and there is a simple, and standard procedure for carrying it out...

There used to be, up until 2005. You just did the job, with councils not being involved in any way whatsoever.

Part P is not going to prevent people from doing hack jobs on wiring, and even if we were to accept the general premise of this being to improve safety, the list of notifiable vs. non-notifiable work turns it into a joke. There are many non-notifiable works under the Building Regs. which could be bungled in a way to result in fire, injury, or electrocution.

The statistics for electrical accidents in the home show absolutely no reduction in fatalities since the introduction of Part P.

Thing is though, for those who dont follow the rules, what do you do when you sell the house? sometimes/always a PIR is now required.. and this would probably highlight any extensions or alterations because of the wiring colours being different (brown and blue)..

A PIR is a report on the condition of the wiring using the current edition of BS7671 as its basis. As brown & blue are the current colors, their use should cause no mention on a PIR whatsoever. Older parts of the installation still in red & black would warrant a code 4 - Not compliant with current edition but perfectly safe.

Besides which, brown/blue cable was available before Part P came into effect, so its presence alone proves absolutely nothing with regard to compliance or otherwise with the Building Regs.

so then next question would be wheres the certificates for the work? and if you cant produce them your in a stuck situation...

Why would you be stuck? How many people have certificates for work done on their property since the year dot?

if you admit to doing the work yourself then your implicating yourself as breaking the law... Suppose you coudl always argue somebody else you got in done it, and you wasnt aware of part p or where to contact them any more.. but it still doesnt solve the certificate situation lol

If it's beyond the statute of limitations for enforcement of the building regs., it doesn't matter if you do implicate yourself as having broken them, since by that time no enforcement would be permissible.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The key thing when selling is not to lie about work done that should have been notified and wasn't.

Lying takes you from having broken a law (that nobody will care about) and having to get a PIR done and/or knock a bit off the price, into fraud, and that's a very different kettle of fish.

 

[RB2004]

So, what your saying is then, that as long as what people have done is safe and poses no danger to themselves or anybody else.. preferebly done within the regulations.. the council cant enforce part p? and that people shouldnt worry about going through building control etc because if they dont, after a certain amount of time they cant be prosecuted? and that theres nothing to worry about when you come to sell your house? because i was under the impression they asked for certificates and stuff... because i remember reading on here somewhere on another thread about somebody who did a DIY consumer unit fit without notificatino, and the solicitor wanted to see a certificate for the work.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The limit for prosecutions was always 6 months from commission of the offence.

Some contraventions now have a 2 year time limit, but they still have to bring a prosecution within 6 months of them having the evidence.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/plann...ions/legislation/buildingact/longertimelimits

IANAL, but I think the chances of being prosecuted if all you've done wrong is to fail to notify electrical work are pretty small.

But any decision to break the law must be an informed one, based on peoples' own analysis, not what others think, and should never be something they are advised to do.

 

[RB2004]

Thats fair enough then lol, just the question regarding.. what if it comes to light when you sell your house.. and the solicitor demands certificates for the work that dont exist?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

He can demand all he likes - if they don't exist then they don't exist.

Think of your house purchases to date - by the time you get to the stage of your solicitor asking the seller questions, how prepared are you to chuck it all in and start looking again?

 

[Paul_C]

Thats fair enough then lol, just the question regarding.. what if it comes to light when you sell your house.. and the solicitor demands certificates for the work that dont exist?

The same as if he asks for certificates for something done before the house was yours and for which you were never given any certificates when buying it. As I said, how many people have certificates for every piece of work which has ever been carried out on their property since it was built? There is no law which says you must keep a piece of paper for everything ever done to your house.

Ultimately, the buyer would make a decision about whether he's happy to live with the situation or not, just the same as he did before Part P came along. He could either ask for an inspection to be carried out before proceeding (the same as he might ask for a structural survey), or he might just say go ahead and deal with getting the wiring checked out later for his own peace of mind.

Or he might be somebody like BAS or myself who would have already formed an opinion as to the state of the electrical installation, or who is going to refurbish the house and rewire it anyway, so he's not bothered either way.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Or it will be one more stick he uses to beat down the price. It really doesn't matter what the sticks are, or what reasons a buyer has for offering less than you are asking - you either accept his offer or not.