Registered electrician advice please

[NullCipher]

are we being ripped off here?

If, as per your subject, you used a registered electrician then you are without doubt being ripped off if he's charging you £150 for Building Control notification - that's of the order of 100x what it actually costs him to do, and it's something he has no choice about doing anyway - if he doesn't then he is breaking the law.

For Part P, isn't £150 the cost for that anyway? A number of people have said it's £150 for Part P sign off.

it depends on the whatever your local council charge. i have heard prices from £175 - £400 plus. I think the higher the price the less likely they actually want to get involved with it

Local council charge £150, but I thought that was if I did the work myself and wanted them to come out and inspect it, not for a NICEIC and NAPIT registered sparky to self cert..

 

[bubachuba]

are we being ripped off here?

If, as per your subject, you used a registered electrician then you are without doubt being ripped off if he's charging you £150 for Building Control notification - that's of the order of 100x what it actually costs him to do, and it's something he has no choice about doing anyway - if he doesn't then he is breaking the law.

For Part P, isn't £150 the cost for that anyway? A number of people have said it's £150 for Part P sign off.

it depends on the whatever your local council charge. i have heard prices from £175 - £400 plus. I think the higher the price the less likely they actually want to get involved with it

Local council charge £150, but I thought that was if I did the work myself and wanted them to come out and inspect it, not for a NICEIC and NAPIT registered sparky to self cert..

As BAS has pointed out, its about £1.50 for a registered electrician to notify via his provider.

 

[NullCipher]

Thanks both. Bit of a pain, as like you say, nobody else is going to sign off someone else's work. Not like I can say no either!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

it depends on the whatever your local council charge.

They don't charge anything if the work is done by a self-certifying electrician. That's the whole point.

Local council charge £150, but I thought that was if I did the work myself and wanted them to come out and inspect it, not for a NICEIC and NAPIT registered sparky to self cert..

Quite correct.

Sounds like you may have a multifaceted dispute with your electricians on the way, sad to say.

 

[bubachuba]

it depends on the whatever your local council charge.

They don't charge anything if the work is done by a self-certifying electrician. That's the whole point.

yes, my bad. for some reason i thought building control were involved

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Thanks both. Bit of a pain, as like you say, nobody else is going to sign off someone else's work. Not like I can say no either!

Of course you can.

They have to notify the work through NICEIC/NAPIT/ELECSA/whatever. No choice whatsoever, and they don't even have any say in whether you get the Building Regulations completion certificate or not - that comes from NICEIC/NAPIT/ELECSA/whatever.

Ask them to confirm in writing that if you don't pay the £150 they won't notify the work.

 

[NullCipher]

Thanks both. Bit of a pain, as like you say, nobody else is going to sign off someone else's work. Not like I can say no either!

Of course you can.

They have to notify the work through NICEIC/NAPIT/ELECSA/whatever. No choice whatsoever, and they don't even have any say in whether you get the Building Regulations completion certificate or not - that comes from NICEIC/NAPIT/ELECSA/whatever.

Ask them to confirm in writing that if you don't pay the £150 they won't notify the work.

Interesting, I see what you're saying now i think

By law, they have to notify the work through NICEIC, and NICEIC will send out the completion certificate to the council.

If I don't pay the £150, they still have to notify anyway and I get the Part P sign off anyway.

 

[winston1]

Going back to the CU. If yours is similar to the pic it may be possible to remove the MCB to the right of the RCD and slide it along and put the MCB back to the left.
Or maybe replace the MCB with a RBCO.
Or have an external, RCD in a box underneath.

 

[flameport]

Wasn't there something which came into place this July saying lighting had to be behind an RCD. We had them in for first fix way before that, however had delays which mean't they couldn't do second fix until this month.
Could be why this is happened

No.
The change which required most circuits to have RCDs (mainly due to wiring being concealed in walls rather than what the circuits actually are) was introduced with the 17th edition in 2008.

There really is no excuse for them not to have known this, or not to have looked at the existing consumer unit before quoting for the work.

The lighting can probably be put onto an RCBO, which is a part that typically costs £40 or less. Testing and installation is substantially less than an hour, although if the circuit has other faults elsewhere it will take longer and cost more to rectify.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I wonder...

We've had a bit of work done on our house, and the main part involved a new kitchen.

I wonder if these are actual genuine electricians, or just registered kitchen installers who aren't actually truly competent? That could explain the cock up of missing the CU problem.

But the £150 charge for them to obey the law is outrageous.

 

[NullCipher]

I wonder...

We've had a bit of work done on our house, and the main part involved a new kitchen.

I wonder if these are actual genuine electricians, or just registered kitchen installers who aren't actually truly competent? That could explain the cock up of missing the CU problem.

But the £150 charge for them to obey the law is outrageous.

We fitted our own kitchen, these are electricians only who did our electrics

 

[PBC_1966]

And as it has not yet been mentioned directly, there is no such thing as a "16th edition consumer unit" or a "17th edition consumer unit" as such. The different editions specify different types of protection for various types of wiring, not specifically the type of consumer unit which must be used.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The consumer unit pictured will accept RCBOs, so no need to update the whole board just swap out the circuits containing newly buried cable and newly installed sockets from MCBs to RCBOs, simples!
Do the electricians belong to a scheme provider? If so report them to their scheme. If not, have a word with them and inform them you intend taking them to court over this issue! As they have a legal duty to comply to part p.

 

[NullCipher]

The consumer unit pictured will accept RCBOs, so no need to update the whole board just swap out the circuits containing newly buried cable and newly installed sockets from MCBs to RCBOs, simples!
Do the electricians belong to a scheme provider? If so report them to their scheme. If not, have a word with them and inform them you intend taking them to court over this issue! As they have a legal duty to comply to part p.

They're not, not complying with part p. They're just saying a new board is needed to comply

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Are they notifying the work, are they issuing electrical installation certificates?
If they are not notifying new circuits they are not complying to part p, if they are not protecting by RCD, new sockets and newly buried cable they are not complying to BS7671 (wiring regs) and likely to be contravening part p also and if they are not issuing certs and proving what they have done is safe, again contravening part p. So they are breaking the law!

And you don't need a new board, if what you have pictured is true of your installation, so they are also telling you untruths!