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Paperwork after rewire?

davidwalker2

I would be grateful if the experts here could tell me what paperwork I should expect having just had a new CU and complete rewire of a house.   At the moment I have a certificate from NICEIC but all it states is “Building Regulations Certificate of Completion”, but nothing else.  Should I expect more?  When I last had this done at a different house I was given a list of works completed with test results, but I do not know what is expected now.

  • 0

    The electronic copies of documents used for archives are not "just PDFs" Graham, they are not editable and have embedded real electronic signatures and various other pieces of data to prevent alteration. You may have seen this with your electronic tax return, once you submit it, it cannot be altered without this being able to be checked. The reason why simple emails with a signature are not satisfactory is obvious, issuing fake certificates in the name of someone else is then trivial. Signature forgery is a serious crime, but proving it is a forgery as an email is probably impossible, or at least very difficult. This is why original documents are needed for important identity sensitive verification, copies not being acceptable. I would hope that any electronic certificate software did the entire electronic security properly, so that the signatures could be verified as coming from the right real people, otherwise such certificates are completely worthless, and in fact a serious risk to all electricians. Certain documents have "certified copies" made, typically by solicitors, as a way to deal with this problem, but the procedure is fully witnessed and controlled.

    There is a court case in progress at the moment where a large number of emails have been sent, allegedly from an individual, but actually from someone else. It is common, you all have them all the time, Keep your own copies of all certificates you issue for your own safety, and if electronic, keep the files safe, not printed copies.

  • 0 in reply to David Stone

    All the NICEIC on-line certificates / reports etc can be emailed with electronic signatures. 

    As to the building regs notification from the OP. It should have the relevant certificate number on it even if it hasn't arrived yet.

    Gary

  • 0 in reply to David Stone

    Why does a legal document require a signature?  The only one I can think of that does is a contract to buy property, which is going to be recorded at the Land Registry.  Many documents aren't signed these days.

    And what makes an EIC a "legal" document anyway?

  • 0
    David Stone said:
    Electronic signatures and verification are very complex Andy, do you understand how they work? They are not a simple picture of a signature!

    Well, a scan of a signature page appended to a PDF may be acceptable in some cases

  • 0
    David Stone said:
    Emailed Certificates without actual signatures are NOT acceptable Andy, you should know that, they are a LEGAL document!

    It's patently untrue the electronic documents cannot be accepted as legal documents.

    BS 10008 covers this, but standards have actually been in place for a very long time, meaning businesses have been able run on electronically-stored information only for all that time.

    There are also conventions in place as to what denotes "signature" or valid transmission source, including e-mails.

    Definitely this is not a legal forum, and we have to be careful where we tread with this sort of advice.

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    Electronic signatures and verification are very complex Andy, do you understand how they work? They are not a simple picture of a signature!

    I might have a basic idea... of course it depends on the level of security required, but even full 'stand up in court' types aren't that necessarily hard to implement - e.g. https://www.adobe.com/uk/sign/electronic-signatures.html (just one example - other providers and systems are available)

       - Andy.

  • 0

    Electronic signatures and verification are very complex Andy, do you understand how they work? They are not a simple picture of a signature!

  • 0

    Thank you for your replies, I thought there should be more but was not sure.  The NICEIC certificate came in the post.  The work was done as a sub-contractor to my builder who was carrying out substantial renovations, so it is possible that the certificate has gone to them.  Now I know what to expect I can chase them.  Many thanks.

    David

  • 0

    Emailed Certificates without actual signatures are NOT acceptable

    644.4.202 and 644.5 seem to suggest that certificates in electronic are acceptable, either 'signed' or 'otherwise authenticated'.

       - Andy.

  • 0

    Emailed Certificates without actual signatures are NOT acceptable Andy, you should know that, they are a LEGAL document!

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