No wonder many will do it without certification...

[Donkmeister]

I am wondering what the value of Part P is right now... I apologise if this sounds like the typical rant, however I am honestly perplexed.

If I notify BC that I am installing a new window, they will come and check I've put the right lintel in place. They will pore over my calcs and if I've got it wrong they will insist I put a better one in. They will not issue a completion certificate until I do.

But, my local BC office want me to do the testing that proves the work I will do is correct. I appreciate their confidence in my abilities, but TBH I wonder what the point is. How do they know I won't just fiddle the results? How do they know I even tested the circuit at all, let alone correctly?

At £250 BCO fees + £60 to hire the test equipment, the install is still an order of magnitude less than getting a spark to do it, but it feels wrong for them to just trust my assertions, competent or not!!!

On my first call, the bloke at the BCO asked what my credentials were before saying "That sounds competent enough. Part P is just there to stop someone buying a reel of T&E at a shed and thinking he can safely rewire a house on the weekend". I appreciate the honesty and the pragmatism, but surely the system loses its credibility when the guy who does the work is more-or-less free to say "Yes I did it right" without fear of a double-check!

 

[LiamPope]

??

I thought you went to geat lengths to convince them your education and professional experience made you competent enough to do the work, including testing, and issue your own EIC because that's what you wanted to do. Now you're berating them for accepting your argument?? Don't get it

 

[Donkmeister]

Now you're berating them for accepting your argument?? Don't get it

Fee went up, but testing still not included.

It only occurred to me today that they can charge me this much just for me to say "Yeh, it's alright, I promise!", yet if I want to insert a small window they will charge me half the amount but send a bloke round to check I'm not going to make my house fall down.

Any developments with your sign-off?

 

[Chri5]

I trust you have under valued the work content ? Sliding scale of charge means you should de value the work and keep charges down.

Say I do 3 new circuits, a CU and 20 sockets the likely cost would be £1200 (or so- example !) to a client, but there's nothing wrong with you saying materials = £300 and since the labour is your own, the job is £300 worth NOT £1200

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

What makes you think, that once you have documented your results, they will not pick up on, either poor measurements and falsified report.
Then insist the the installation is re-tested, either by them or a third party?

 

[LiamPope]

Fee went up, but testing still not included.

It only occurred to me today that they can charge me this much just for me to say "Yeh, it's alright, I promise!", yet if I want to insert a small window they will charge me half the amount but send a bloke round to check I'm not going to make my house fall down.

Ah it's the fees. Yeah does seem a lot for just rubber stamping when you test and submit the EIC. Still, it's better than paying the same in fees, then paying more on top for them to test/to get a PIR done, right?

Any developments with your sign-off?

Yep - I'm competent .

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1686017#1686017

I trust you have under valued the work content ? Sliding scale of charge means you should de value the work and keep charges down.

Say I do 3 new circuits, a CU and 20 sockets the likely cost would be £1200 (or so- example !) to a client, but there's nothing wrong with you saying materials = £300 and since the labour is your own, the job is £300 worth NOT £1200

Dont work like that - it least in Bedford. For starters, when you submit a building notice, the value of work has to be based on if you were paying a pro to do it - so you can't put in materials only. Secondly, in Bedford, if any electrical work is involved, you must declare a minimum value of about £5k which effectively sets the minimum fee at well over £200. That would have made sense and have been reasonable if it was a way of recovering the costs of providing inspection and testing services, as they were supposed to, but Bedford were one of the LABCs who refused to do this, and you were told to get a PIR done at your own expense instead. As far as I'm aware their policy is still the same despite the new April 2010 rules giving them power to charge extra for testing, and the minimum fee trick is still in place.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Dont work like that - the value of work has to be based on if you were paying a pro to do it

This is true.
That is what all building notices are based on, the estimated price it would cost to be done by a pro-tradesman, not by the price that it would cost a diyer and a few of his mates to do it, thinking the labour costs would be reduced to zero or the price of a few pints.

 

[Gees]

What makes you think, that once you have documented your results, they will not pick up on, either poor measurements and falsified report.
Then insist the the installation is re-tested, either by them or a third party?

Without having the whole lot tested again ( by someone else ) How can they prove that the results are incorrect or fiddled?

 

[Adam_151]

Without having the whole lot tested again ( by someone else ) How can they prove that the results are incorrect or fiddled?

They could have someone on site to witness some of the testing being carried out, similar to what happens on larger projects where the consulting engineer/ designer requests to be on site to witness the testing

 

[ColJack]

if they accept you as competent then it's your bum on the line if the place burns down, not theirs..

as far as I know, you don't have to be a qualified structural engineer to install a window or cut an opening in the side of your house..?

 

[LiamPope]

as far as I know, you don't have to be a qualified structural engineer to install a window or cut an opening in the side of your house..?

You dont, because I'm not, and I did. Notifiable of course, so it was one of the things on my building notice which they inspected.