Discuss No earth at lights, customer won't change? in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

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Lots of people perpetually restating that the OP messed up isn’t going to help him much though.
I’m sure lots of us could list various mistakes over the years (the time I managed to do a global IR of a wylex board with the fuses still out still haunts me - that was the start of 3 days of pain!)
Anyway subject to the state of the loft it’s not normally too difficult to solve this problem for upstairs lights as a 4mm earth can be provided from another circuit, or the lights fairly easily rewired. Changing to quinetic switching can make things easier.

Downstairs lights are harder and the quickest method I’ve found is usually to provide a new circuit via a large box with quinetic controllers in.
 
Best Practice Guides are not industry standards. BS7671 and E&WR 1989 are industry standards.
This is nothing to to with pigheadiness the OP has made a serious error of judgement it is not the clients problem. You cannot employ Class II protection in a dwelling no matter how many times people suggest it.
For any new installation or circuit then you are 100% correct, there is absolutely no justification for not having a compliant CPC, etc.

However the 'Best Practice Guides' offer guidance on how to deal with less than perfect situations in terms of coding during an EICR and CU changes and they are signed off by everyone who matters in terms of electrical safety (BSI, IET, NAPIT, SELECT, etc) so to me following that guidance is a reasonable and justifiable way of dealing with problematic situations.

Now it is true that the OP has made a mistake in not checking this point before the CU change, but they are now in this position and it is not too different from the position that any spark could find themselves in when faced with an old house needing work. As BPG#1 points out the ideal solution is to fix the lack of CPC but it also recognises that there may be situations where the client is unwilling or unable to do so, and then it offers a least-worst approach in section 10 for this.

Of course any spark could refuse to perform a CU change if the CPC is not going to be correct, and that is quite understandable as it suggests a troublesome (or impoverished) client and poses some risk. But that is likely leave the installation in a less safe situation due to the reason(s) for needing a CU change (lack of RCD protection, damage exposing live parts, etc) than doing the limited corrective work, and so the prospective client is exposed to greater danger due to inaction, or possibly they get Dodgy Dave from the pub to do it who makes matters far worse.

We have not heard back from the OP for the details of this or what action they are going to take to deal with it. In any case they have to either make it fully compliant, or to carefully and fully follow the BPG#1 guidance if that is refused, including any warning labels and written agreement with the client about any compromises.
 

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