Local council and part P

[oldstudent]

As the new house I've just moved into needs a complete rewire, I thought that I would use this as one of my assesment jobs to join the NIC boys, with a view to becoming self employed.
With my understanding of Part P, I went along to the local town hall and explained what I intended to do and asked what the procedure was and how much did I have to pay them to sign of the work.

I suspect I am the only person in Stockport who has ever tried this route judging by their reaction.
Although their website states that council can check installation for a fee, the procedure it is clearly not a viable option.
After some time waiting at the desk they produced someone from the back office who seemed to understand the process.

I was told that they charge £185, but as no one at the department knew anything about electrics I would also have to employ a part P sparky to actually check the circuit.

I politely asked exactly what the council were actually going to do for their £185. His silence sugested not a lot.
But at least I was following the rules.

This leaves me with a number of questions

How many councils actually have staff capable of checking installations?

Do they have to comply with Part P and registered?

Has anyone had the council out and what did they do?

How do I get another sparky out to check my work?

The sparkys I have contacted so far told me were to go with a few expletives thrown in.


Thanks

 

[acvc]

Oldstudent.

This is a tricky and classic catch22 type scenario. But there is a way round it. I'll PM you.

Cheers acvc.

 

[JamesBrownLive]

Section 1.26 of Part P States....

The building control body may choose to carry out the inspection and testing itself, or to contract out some or all or the work to a specialist body which will then carry out the work on its behalf. Building control bodies will carry out the necessary inspection and test at their expense, not at the householders expense.

As you suspected, sounds like they don't know what they are talking about

So in theory you could pay the £185 and then later if they try and charge you for the testing, just take along a copy of part P and show them the paragraph I mentioned.

I presume the other route that has been alluded to involves a PIR and some denial

Cheers

 

[acat]

LABC dont know what they are talking about. How could you say such a thing. I was told the other day they found one who could read and they sacked him on the spot.


Chris

 

[cornburn]

Just do the work and cert it once you pass your NIC inspection. Can always say it's a work in progress and once the other couple of small jobs are finished you want to cert it all together, doesn't stop you from inspecting and testing and filling out certs so your assessor can see you know what you're doing. Our local council just said go ahead and do it before the assessment if you've done the "Part P Course" lol

 

[jase]

i did a rewire a couple of years ago under the impression that the client had full plans permission as he was gutting and renovating his house and that the wiring would be included in his planning permission, only to find out he didnt have full plans but had only got building notices for the changes he had made structurally and for new windows, this left me in a bit of a situation as i had done the work and he wanted it signed off but BC didnt know anything about it, so i asked him to ask his planning officer if we could apply for regularisation/retrospective whatever, anyway the guy from BC came back and said as long as he got a niceic registerd firm to do a PIR he would sign it off!!!

 

[tombrooker84]

I had the exact same situation more or less. My uncle is converting his garage into a habital space so asked for a new consumer unit to be put in. The LABC officer was visiting to let the builder no what insulation requiremnts e.t.c were needed, so I would then inform him of electrical work being carried out e.t.c. He said the work i was planning to carry out was fine, but when it came to testing they didn't do that and I would have to get in a part p electrician, I then asked in how I was supposed to get an assessed job legally so that I could join a part p scheme. He said that wasn't his problem.

I then phoned elecsa and they basically said that for your assessed job that they don't check whether the LABC had been informed, they just ask you if its has. So basically do the job without proper permission and sign it off after you have been registered.

All seems like a complete joke when the people who are supposed to be checking your work, don't really have a clue.

Would be really interested as to the way round it if you could pm me acvc