Third-party certification

“A person who is registered with a third party certification scheme for electrical installations in dwellings will be able to check domestic electrical work that is undertaken by others and certify that it is compliant with the building regulations.”

Taken from Government guidance on Part-P of the building regulations.

Certain types of electrical work, like the installation of a new circuit, or work carried out in a bathroom, have to be notified to building control. A Part P registered electrician can do this.

But there are many people who are not registered under Part P who may want to carry out notifiable electrical work. For example:

• A competent DIY-er;
• An electrician who does not normally do domestic work;
• An electrician who works for someone else, but is doing private work in his spare time;
• Another tradesman (such as a builder) who does electrical work in the course of a larger project.

In situations like those above, there are two options.

Firstly, the homeowner or person doing the work could make arrangements directly with building control.

The second option is to employ a private inspector who has been approved to sign off work on a third party basis. This is where I can help.

I provide a third-party certification service that will typically work like this:

• I will meet you or your installer before the work starts to agree on how the work will be made compliant;
• I will check the work after the first fix (when the cables are installed but not yet covered up);
• I will carry out a full inspection and test of the work when it is finished;
• I will provide all the required paperwork and arrange for the work to be notified in accordance with Part P.

I can only notify the work where it complies with building regulations, and where I am given the opportunity to check it at the appropriate times.