AJJewsbury:
Legally, you don't need anything to go out and work as an electrician - it's not a protected title, unlike say an architect.
Sensibly you should be able to show that you're able to work to the wiring regs and have some insurance - but that's really to protect yourself or to meet customer's requirements rather than any legal obligation. Some customers like the reassurance of some big well known organisation being there to vouch for you - but others are less bothered.
When it comes to building regulations - some work is notifiable (under part P) - which of itself doesn't make a legal difference (anyone can still carry out any electrical work) but economically it makes a lot more sense to be a member of a Competent Persons Scheme and be able to self-notify (and self-certify) for building regs (it's usually a couple quid per job via the scheme) rather than having to notify via the local council (or perhaps a 3rd party building inspector) where the cost is likely to start at over £200 per job even for the smallest job.
Note that part P of the building regs (and all the notification that goes with it) only applies to domestic installations - not to commercial or industrial ones. Some of the Schemes operate differing types of membership as a result - some (predating the building regs) concentrate on a wide range of electrical work and have just tagged on the ability to self-certify for domestics as an extra, other are solely domestic memberships and don't cover you for say commercial or industrial installations. Likewise support for performing periodic inspections and issuing EICRs may or may not be included, You pays your money and you takes your choice.
You correctly identify a snag in that it's tricky to do some notifiable work in order to show it to a scheme before you can become a member. In theory you could get around this by notifying (in advance) through your local building control dept and paying their fee (£200+++). Most recognise that that's a bit unreasonable and as scheme members have the privilege of notifying after the event (by several tens of days) the accepted practice is to go ahead and do the work and then notify retrospectively once you've been accepted as a member. Even if you fail the assessment the first time you should still have time to notify once you have passed (just try not to fail repeatedly...)
- Andy.
Hi Andy - This is fantastic thank you for taking the time to respond, much appreciated. a couple of things im still a little unclear on, is whether building control will be happy with my test results or will they have to send someone else to verify? - is this all included in the application cost or is it a case of speaking to my local council to get verification as im getting the impression different areas run things differently.
Also in your opinion - Instead of notifying the building control, is the other option just to pay a registered electrician to test and sign off with building control themselves?
AJJewsbury:
Legally, you don't need anything to go out and work as an electrician - it's not a protected title, unlike say an architect.
Sensibly you should be able to show that you're able to work to the wiring regs and have some insurance - but that's really to protect yourself or to meet customer's requirements rather than any legal obligation. Some customers like the reassurance of some big well known organisation being there to vouch for you - but others are less bothered.
When it comes to building regulations - some work is notifiable (under part P) - which of itself doesn't make a legal difference (anyone can still carry out any electrical work) but economically it makes a lot more sense to be a member of a Competent Persons Scheme and be able to self-notify (and self-certify) for building regs (it's usually a couple quid per job via the scheme) rather than having to notify via the local council (or perhaps a 3rd party building inspector) where the cost is likely to start at over £200 per job even for the smallest job.
Note that part P of the building regs (and all the notification that goes with it) only applies to domestic installations - not to commercial or industrial ones. Some of the Schemes operate differing types of membership as a result - some (predating the building regs) concentrate on a wide range of electrical work and have just tagged on the ability to self-certify for domestics as an extra, other are solely domestic memberships and don't cover you for say commercial or industrial installations. Likewise support for performing periodic inspections and issuing EICRs may or may not be included, You pays your money and you takes your choice.
You correctly identify a snag in that it's tricky to do some notifiable work in order to show it to a scheme before you can become a member. In theory you could get around this by notifying (in advance) through your local building control dept and paying their fee (£200+++). Most recognise that that's a bit unreasonable and as scheme members have the privilege of notifying after the event (by several tens of days) the accepted practice is to go ahead and do the work and then notify retrospectively once you've been accepted as a member. Even if you fail the assessment the first time you should still have time to notify once you have passed (just try not to fail repeatedly...)
- Andy.
Hi Andy - This is fantastic thank you for taking the time to respond, much appreciated. a couple of things im still a little unclear on, is whether building control will be happy with my test results or will they have to send someone else to verify? - is this all included in the application cost or is it a case of speaking to my local council to get verification as im getting the impression different areas run things differently.
Also in your opinion - Instead of notifying the building control, is the other option just to pay a registered electrician to test and sign off with building control themselves?
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