I did an EICR on a large house for a client who had a fire with the source of ignition being a fridge. His insurance company were refusing to pay for extensive damage to the property as he had not complied with the requirements of the policy to keep the electrical installation in good order. He wanted the the EICR to show the condition of the installation was in good order to take the insurance company to court. I did the I&T and as usual the installation had serious non-compliances with BS 7671 resulting in an "unsatisfactory" EICR. 

Who would pay for this proposed register? A recent speech in the House of Lords by a member of the IET (FIET) concerning Grenville Tower about diverted neutral currents  questioned why the records of other buildings on site were not available on line. The electrical certification for Grenville Tower is available on the public enquiry web site and a cursory examination of those documents speaks volumes about the competency and integrity of the electrical installation industry, have a read.

My preference e would be for a register of individual persons qualified and competent to carry out inspection and testing.  Not a competent person scheme as they are not competent person schemes as they register enterprises not people.

I have updated my standard specification for periodic inspection and testing which specifies the requirement for competency of the inspector. It also covers the retention of documents.

If you want a copy email me on info(the symbol for at)astutetechnicalservices.co.uk.

JP

John Peckham said:

Who would pay for this proposed register?

The suppliers, or perhaps one on behalf of all of them. It shouldn't be a particularly challenging project because they already have data on every supply and, presumably, keep it securely. It would simply be a matter of attaching some files to each MPAN number.

Given that your client's insurers required that he keep his electrical installation in good order, it is perhaps surprising that they did not require periodic I&T and sight of the EICRs.

Of course, all insurers could do that, but I think that it would simply hasten the race to the bottom, so perhaps limit to buildings insured for £1M or more?

That HoL speech is here - scroll down about half way to Lord Rooker.

John Peckham said:

Who would pay for this proposed register?

The suppliers, or perhaps one on behalf of all of them. It shouldn't be a particularly challenging project because they already have data on every supply and, presumably, keep it securely. It would simply be a matter of attaching some files to each MPAN number.

Given that your client's insurers required that he keep his electrical installation in good order, it is perhaps surprising that they did not require periodic I&T and sight of the EICRs.

Of course, all insurers could do that, but I think that it would simply hasten the race to the bottom, so perhaps limit to buildings insured for £1M or more?

That HoL speech is here - scroll down about half way to Lord Rooker.

Given that your client's insurers required that he keep his electrical installation in good order, it is perhaps surprising that they did not require periodic I&T and sight of the EICRs.

But then it would be a lot harder to take the premiums but not pay out, and they'd have to do the extra admin of checking the EICRs up front - loose loose from the insurer's point of view.

I'm struggling to see how the condition of the fixed installation had any bearing on the fridge catching fire (apart from possibly a loose N on a 3-phase system which I suspect isn't the case here).

   - Andy.