House extension electrical work

With legislation increasingly covering aspects of building work that were traditionally not controlled by the building regulations such as house extension electrical work and replacement windows it potentially became more difficult to rely on building inspectors to inspect all aspects and so some organisations were permitted to allow their members to self certify their work and house extension electrical work is one of them.

This usually requires their members going through some initial checking of their competency plus some on going inspection of samples of their house extension electrical work, they in turn certify that a job has been completed to the required standard and inform the council.

Examples of this process for house extension electrical work are the NICEIC together with a number of other regulators. The Building Regulations applicable to house extension electrical works are managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). Part P is an amendment of the Building Regulations introduced by the government, effective from January 1^st 2005.

The Part P requirement is that “Reasonable provision shall be made in the design and installation of electrical installations in order to protect persons operating, maintaining or altering the installations from fire or injury.”

This means that electrical installations must be safe! Part P applies to fixed electrical installations in dwellings and house extensions and affects many of the typical jobs undertaken by electrical contractors, particularly work carried out in house extension kitchens and bathrooms.

House extension work affected by Part P is subject to notification to, and inspection by, building control bodies. However, calling in a building control officer takes time and costs money. The solution to this problem is self-certification.

Part P Competent Person Schemes like ELECSA were introduced at the same time as Part P to permit firms that had been assessed as sufficiently competent, to self-certify that their work complies with all applicable requirements of the Building Regulations.

For the firm registered with a competent person scheme such as ELECSA, notifying the house extension electrical work to building control is done through their scheme provider. The contractor provides the details of the work done to the scheme provider who then notifies the local building control department and issues a building compliance certificate to the householder.

For smaller works outside of a house extension project, self-certification benefits the householder because by using a Competent Person they don’t have to pay building control fees or submit a building notice. In addition, householders have the important reassurance that by using a Competent Person, they are using a firm that has been independently assessed and certified as competent to carry out the work.