Part P Electricians
1. Available & interested electricians
The first step is to find appropriate electricians for the work in question. It is easy to waste valuable time contacting and describing your job to electricians who are not necessarily available for or interested in your particular job. We make this process quick and easy. Simply post a job ad for free and we will contact electricians in your area of the UK for you. You will receive tenders by email from tradesmen interested in your particular job. You will be able to check the references provided and view feedback left by previous myworkman users.
2. What is Part P?
People carrying out electrical work in homes and gardens in England and Wales should follow the rules set out in Part P of the Building Regulations to ensure that they are complying with the law. These rules are designed to ensure that electrical work is safe. Part P was introduced in order to:
- Reduce the number of deaths, injuries and fires caused by faulty electrical installations
- Make life harder for 'cowboys' to leave electrical installations in an unsafe condition
3. Why should I use Part P certified electrician
A firm registered as part P certified:
- Can deal with all the new rules for you
- Is qualified to carry out electrical work to BS 7671, the national safety standard
- Will give you a certificate to confirm their work follows the new rules
- You do not have to pay Building Control charges
- You have the option of taking out an insurance-backed guarantee for the work
- You have access to a formal complaints procedure if you are not happy with the work
4. Checking the Part P certification
Always check a firm's credentials. You should ask to see a copy of the firm's Part P registration certificate. This will tell you what scheme the firm is registered with and its registration number. You may wish to visit the website of the particular scheme concerned and, using the firm's registration number, check that the name and details that appear there correspond to the those being used by the person in front of you. If you are at all worried, confused or have any misgivings about the work to be carried out, or the firm with which you dealing, contact your local authority Building Control department.
5. Agreeing what is to be done
Don't forget that when employing a part P certified electrician it should be clear exactly what work is to be undertaken for what price etc. For more information on how best to employ tradesmen click here
6. Completion, certification and notification
On completion of the work, there are a number of important tasks that the firm is responsible for carrying out to ensure that the work is properly documented and your local authority Building Control department has the information it requires. This will ensure that in future years you will be able to demonstrate that the work was properly executed and that, should any further electrical work be necessary, it can be carried out safely.
6a - BS 7671 Installation Certificate
This is a technical document that an approved firm should provide as a matter of course. It is needed in order to comply with the Building Regulations and its principal use is to enable the firm that carries out any future electrical work in your property to do so safely. You should keep this certificate somewhere safe.
6b - Building Regulations Compliance Certificate
This document simply states that the work carried out by the firm complies with the Building Regulations. This certificate may be requested, for example, by a purchaser's solicitor when you sell your property. Looking further ahead, it may be required as one of the documents that makes-up your 'Home Information Pack' when it is introduced in 2007. The certificate will usually be posted to you within 30 days of completion of the work. It may be necessary to follow up with the firm if they are slow in providing this information.
6c - Notification to your local authority's Building Control department
The firm's scheme provider must provide information to the relevant local authority concerning the work carried out. This information is then publicly available, for example, as part of the searches carried out during the sale of a property.
Local authorities must have this information within 30 days of the completion of work and, hence, the firm must in turn provide their scheme operators with the required information promptly.