I've GOT to come in on this!
You all NEED to go to the IET website and download a set of 17th edition amendment 1, forms. It's 400Kb in pdf format. AND FREE to use, just need paper and a printer to make them and they are perfectly legal and haven't been 'doctored' by any scheme operators to fit nicely on a page with room for their logo!
Periodic is no longer valid for Part P work, has to be an EICR. It's to replace the periodic AND to use to find the 'condition' of any installation apart from actually where the burried parts of the circuit run. (Periodics can still be used for commercial & industrial work)
But IF you do it thoroughly then it WILL be safe and with a RCD on EVERT circuit that has burried cables then anyone inadvertantly damaging them will be protected.
OFTEN building work is taken on as a complete package INCLUDING being the customers agent for the B.C. so the customer never get to see anything to do with B.C.
Yes often the lowest price is accepted so builders get in cheap subbies and often go bust.
Do the EICR but charge for it as it'll take a day at least on a small property if you've done it right. There are several pages of specific question on the regulations so you will have lied if you tick the box and it doesn't comply.
BUT you can't do it unless your scheme operator has specifically approved you to do them as it does take experience and knowledge to check installations you never put in, (what a periodic was and I bet very few of them have EVER been done properly). Also you should have Proffessional Indemnity Insurance because you ARE giving a proffessional opinion on someone else's work so if after, someone gets hurt or killed then YOUR EICR will be investigated and it could be a very long time in goal for causing death or injury!
Ever since I've been Part P registered I've asked all concerned (had a long running discorse with a guy in the IEE about why they didn't have individual circuit test forms as well as the summary!!) WHERE do you record all the test results that you take IF you test by the regulations???
I have my own forms I use and they don't half help when you go into properties done by cowboys, all your results are neatly tabulated so you can easily see where bridges, bad connection, the CPC's have been used as the third core for two way or the neutral for a heating thermostat upgrade.
Not one person, experienced qualified sparks included, have EVER been able to tell me WHERE they record all the readings they SHOULD take! You'd need to be Mr Memory if you can remember which reading was the worst and at what point for a circuit that will need testing at twenty points or more, (usually a lot more as you have to TEST for circuit continuity and that INCLUDES the CPC and most of those end at a light switch so that has to come off and the CPC recovered as it's usually been cut off out of the way!
ANYONE can sign the form if qualified, Part P or formally qualified electricians but LOADS of both will just sign and hope.
Me, as a Part P'er, would like the continuation of needing fuller qualifications as Part P goes along as that way everyone in the trade will eventually be formally qualified, but the biggest jump will be when they stop anyone but qualified people actually buying the materials like in a lot of other civilised countries. (Gas should be the same).
So you lot, download and read the forms and the guidance notes, all very self explanitory.
I've had a couple of female trainees over the years, great, pick it up quick and like to do it right. (Please don't come back with the usual sexual inuendo's to this.)
