Buildings

 
 

Home electrical safety

From 1st January 2005 all new electrical wiring or electrical components for a house, flat or small commercial premise linked to domestic accommodation must be designed and installed in accordance with the new Part P of the Building Regulations.

Every year on average 10 people die and about 750 are seriously injured in accidents involving unsafe electrical installations in the home.

New electrical works are divided into two different categories:

Non – notifiable work

That is works which are very minor as shown below. These works may be carried out by a competent person who can issue a Minor Works Certificate to the owner upon completion of works or on a DIY basis providing the works are tested upon completion by a competent person and the Minor Works Certificate issued.

Work consisting of:

  • Replacing accessories such as socket outlets, control switches and ceiling roses
  • Replacing the cable for a single circuit only, where damaged, i.e. by fire, rodent or impact
  • Re-fixing or replacing the enclosures of existing installation components
  • providing mechanical protection to existing fixed installations.

Work that is not in a kitchen or special location and does not involve a special installation and consists of:

  • Adding lighting points (light fittings and switches) to an existing circuit
  • Adding socket outlets and fused spurs to an existing ring or radial circuit
  • Installing or upgrading main or supplementary equipotential bonding

Special locations and installations:

  • Locations containing a bath tub or shower basin
  • Swimming pools or paddling pools
  • Hot air saunas
  • Electric floor or ceiling heating systems
  • Garden lighting or power installations
  • Solar photovoltaic (PV) power supply systems
  • Small scale generators such as micro CHP units
  • Extra-low voltage lighting installations, other than pre-assembled, CE-marked lighting sets
Notifiable work

All works except those detailed above are notifiable to us and therefore need to be checked in one of two ways;

Either – arrange for the works to be inspected and tested by a person who is a member of the Competent Person Scheme.

Or – Deposit a Building Regulations Application (Full Plans or Building Notice) our District Surveyors.

When depositing plans with your application, either of the following statements should be added to the drawings:

Where you are not intending to use the Competent Persons Scheme:

  • All wiring and electrical work will be designed, installed, inspected and tested in accordance with the requirements of BS7671, the IEE 16th edition Wiring Guidance and Building Regulation Part P (electrical safety). On completion of the works a copy of the Installer’s Electrical Installation Test Certificate compliant with BS7671 is to be provided to the client and the City of Westminster District Surveyor.

and

  • Prior to covering all wiring/cables and on completion of the work, the applicant is to ensure that the installation is inspected by a competent person. In addition to the Installation Certificate, an additional competent person’s Electrical Installation Test Certificate compliant with BS7671 is to be provided to the client and the City of Westminster District Surveyor.

Alternatively, if intending to use the Competent Persons Scheme

  • All wiring and electrical work will be designed, installed, inspected and tested in accordance with the requirements of BS7671, the IEE 16th edition Wiring Guidance and Building Regulation Part P (electrical safety) by a competent person registered with an electrical self-certification scheme authorised by the Secretary of State.

and

  • The competent person is to send to the local authority a self-certification certificate within 30 days of the electrical works’ completion. The client must receive both a copy of the self-certification certificate and a BS7671 Electrical Installation Test Certificate.
Inspections by the City of Westminster District Surveyor

At commencement of works you should notify us in the normal way and inspections of the installation will be carried out (if part of a building scheme at the same time as other inspections) and at completion of works you will have to provide us with an Electrical Installation Certificate signed by a competent person. Until this certificate is received a Completion Certificate for the whole of the works cannot be issued.

Building Regulations charges

If you are carrying out electrical work which is ancillary to your Building Regulations application (eg provision of sockets to a kitchen extension) the charge is based on the floor area of the extension from Table 2 of the Charges scheme stated above.

If you are carrying out works to install a new circuit (not part of any extension), rewire a property or carry out alterations to fittings or appliances a charge is payable based on the estimated cost of work from Table 3 of the Charges Scheme stated above.