Electrical Work?

[KJJ1971]

Hi,

I changed jobs half way through my final year of my Electrical Installation course back in 2001. Unfortunately, my new job meant I worked unsociable hours, which meant I wasn't able to qualify as I failed in attendance.

I have however carried out many successful electrical installations from additional lights / sockets, consumer unit changes to complete rewires, all of which passed test & inspection by a qualified electrician.

My question is:
I need to change a consumer unit in a flat I rent out and my tenant is questioning the legality of me doing the work, regardless of being tested by a qualified electrician. Am I allowed to do this?

Thanks, Keith

 

[Vortigern]

The electrician you cite, does he have third party notification competency under the scheme he is with? Assuming he does then I cannot see a problem with that. The requirements are that he specifies the equipment and inspects and tests at various stages of the work and finally issue a third party notice which is usually a little bit different to the normal certificate for this work. The scheme has to be notified and approve the third party notification. If this does not happen you will leave yourself/the electrician open to liability in the event proper procedure has not been followed and any damage/harm results from poor or negligent workmanship or equipment use. It might also be sage to advise your insurers and get their view on the matter to ensure you will not invalidate your insurance.

 

[KJJ1971]

The electrician you cite, does he have third party notification competency under the scheme he is with? Assuming he does then I cannot see a problem with that. The requirements are that he specifies the equipment and inspects and tests at various stages of the work and finally issue a third party notice which is usually a little bit different to the normal certificate for this work. The scheme has to be notified and approve the third party notification. If this does not happen you will leave yourself/the electrician open to liability in the event proper procedure has not been followed and any damage/harm results from poor or negligent workmanship or equipment use. It might also be sage to advise your insurers and get their view on the matter to ensure you will not invalidate your insurance.

Hi Vortigern,

I am confident in my work, so can I change the consumer unit one day and have a qualified electrician test the following day?

 

[SJD]

I am confident in my work, so can I change the consumer unit one day and have a qualified electrician test the following day?

With a consumer unit change, if you are adding RCD protection, you really need to test things like insulation resistance before you connect the circuits to the new unit. Otherwise, how do you know it is not going to cause problematic tripping after you've left?

 

[Dustydazzler]

Yes a qualified (I hate that word) can sign off your work for you so long as this is done straight after you do the job and not 6 years later

 

[Vortigern]

I can see you are confident in your work. I have just outlined what needs to be done by an accredited third party electrician. That is the key part. As I say he would have to specify equipment which may involve SPD and or AFDD as well as RCD and be able to test. I am a third party accredited electrician and the scheme I am with and others I have been with subject this process to very close scrutiny. And as I said, insurers???

 

[Vortigern]

qualified (I hate that word)

but, but but it's in your statement thing below your post?

 

[Deleted account]

The whole installation needs to be tested prior to re energising the board. third party notification gets tricky when doing a board change.

can you leave the board isolated until your sparkies tests the circuits. Probably not.

id say a board change is not possible with third party notification.

basically your sparkies will have to undo all your conductors in the board in order to test. Basically undoing what you have done. I can’t see how that would be financially viable.

if I was your Tennant I’d be concerned if some one who was not registered qualified or skilled in doing the work.

 

[MJPD29]

If I was the tenant i would be saying exactly the same thing. I cant see what you'll gain by fitting this yourself as every single connection will be removed for testing purposes. You could maybe supply the board to save yourself a few quid if your spark agrees, which again I would not unless it was the board i specified. You may be confident in your work and it may be fine, but I cant really see how you'll save any pennies on this venture.

 

[Electrics]

Hi,

I changed jobs half way through my final year of my Electrical Installation course back in 2001. Unfortunately, my new job meant I worked unsociable hours, which meant I wasn't able to qualify as I failed in attendance.

I have however carried out many successful electrical installations from additional lights / sockets, consumer unit changes to complete rewires, all of which passed test & inspection by a qualified electrician.

My question is:
I need to change a consumer unit in a flat I rent out and my tenant is questioning the legality of me doing the work, regardless of being tested by a qualified electrician. Am I allowed to do this?

Thanks, Keith

The law states that anybody can do electrical work of any kind as long as they are competent.

 

[nicebutdim]

The law states that anybody can do electrical work of any kind as long as they are competent.

I think the point here is testing requires that every connection be disconnected, tested and reconnected. As such, the spark who tests this is going to have to re-do 90% of the work involved in the board change.

 

[DPG]

The law states that anybody can do electrical work of any kind as long as they are competent.

Yes, but what about testing, certifying, and notifying?

 

[Electrics]

Yes, but what about testing, certifying, and notifying?

I don't know what the law says about those things (except for notifying which anyone can do) but was just answering his question about legality when installing.

 

[DPG]

I don't know what the law says about those things (except for notifying which anyone can do) but was just answering his question about legality when installing.

The work will need certifying and notifying. Good advice had been given by people already to be honest.

 

[Electrics]

The work will need certifying and notifying. Good advice had been given by people already to be honest.

But there is a prevalent myth that you 'need' XYZ to 'do electrical work' and you don't.

Certifying can be done by notifying building control which can be done by anyone.

You can do the lot with zero qualifications.

I just like to remind people of that because i dislike people coming out with all sorts of baloney when it comes to electrics. My father in law tried to tell me it was 'illegal' to do electrical work unless you're 'fully qualified' and that you cannot sell your house without certificates, all of which is total guff, although it doesn't stop even electricians from peddling it.