I was quoting for a lived in rewire the other day and after looking rather shocked with the state of the existing wiring, the old dude whos house it was piped up and asked what the matter was. I explained how whoever had wired his house up had made some very dangerous mistakes and that he was doing the right thing by getting it rewired. It was at this point he said to me "I did all this wiring! and there's nothing wrong with it!" I was a little embarresed if I'm honest but I noticed a load of new accessories in the bathroom including a wall mounted switch, I asked him who did that and he said "Me, why?". I told him about part p of the buildings regulations and his response was "I'm an engineer! I've been all over the world with my job, I've built bridges me! And I know that the building regulations aren't statutory! If I want to do some electrical work in my own house who are you or anyone else to tell me otherwise!?" He was clearly one of these know it all types and was clearly agitated at my earlier comments, so I replied "What about the Electricity At Work Regulations?" thinking specifically of reg 16. I was promptly and swifly shooed from the premises.
