Oh I see a problem here, I am competent, that is I possesses sufficient technical knowledge, relevant practical skills and experience for the nature of the electrical work undertaken and is able at all times to prevent danger and, where appropriate, injury to him/herself and others.
However I am not a member of a competent persons scheme, they are two completely different things.
I blame the government for selecting a name which already had a defined meaning in the wiring regulations, had they called it a part P scheme there would have been no confusion.
It is not helped by the scheme providers, NICEIC / Elecsa sell forms, seems daft as FOC download from IET, but the green forms are for use by electrical contractors not enrolled or registered with NICEIC or Elecsa and for Approved Contractors working outside of their scope of enrolment. Careful reading tells you these forms are not issued as part of the competent persons scheme, however it means the whole idea that a non scheme member should not show anything which can lead the home owner into thinking they are a scheme member a little difficult. As it was be it on any paperwork or overalls, or van any reference to NICEIC / Elecsa was seen as trying to con the home owner into thinking they were scheme members.
The LABC when I got caught out were very clear that unless the contractor has some thing to show scheme membership it is up to the home owner to inform them. We made the error in thinking the builder had done that for us. It seems often they do, but it is up to home owner to verify.
Had the same problem with new front door and fensa certificate, lucky less than 50% glazed so got away with it. But I asked for fensa certificate before the job started, so rather peeved to then find not a fensa member.
But I did not even think of getting it in writing, I suspect few do. Here in Wales there is very little an electrician can do without being a scheme member, so basic point if if you work on Domestic you need to be a member of a scheme, however this is not the case in England, and for membership to be worth while you need to do mainly domestic, so some one like me who mainly does commercial it is not financially viable to be a scheme member. Until I retired the membership of IET cost me enough without NICEIC / Elecsa as well.
There have been the odd jobs, when doing work for the disabled the LABC charges are waved, so did work on mothers house and registered the work, as no charge. However when I came to sell her house I mislaid the paperwork, I was shocked to find getting replacements would take 4 months and there is no set charge, it costs how long it takes a council worker to find it. I thought the solicitors would request the copy direct from LABC, that way they know not altered, however looking at the paperwork which I did in the end find, I realised it was not really worth the paper written on as there was no cross reference between the installation certificate and the completion certificate, so I could have raised a new installation certificate with correct date and included anything I wanted, had I marked it copy, it would have been near impossible to show it was not the one submitted to LABC.
It would be interesting to read about the court case, as if the electrician says I thought it was covered with the application made to the LABC hard to show he didn't. What should happen is the LABC issue a permit to work, and until the electricians gets that permit he should do no work requiring registering, however the LABC don't issue a permit to work, and seem to consider issuing of completion certificates as a money tree, and the fact the LABC inspector never visited my mothers house after I submitted the installation certificate but simply sent the completion certificate in the post, seems to support that.
Clearly poor workmanship is another thing, if not up to standard we have always been able to take a tradesman to court for not showing a warranty of skill, that was always the case well before Part P. But to take to court because they were not a scheme member is normally done by the scheme providers, usually for showing their logo when not in the scheme.
So I hope you will keep us updated, look forward to seeing the outcome.
