The P factor

Recent regulations affecting electrical installation work will give peace of mind to home-owners, landlords and tenants, says Menasche Scharf


Those who have had any work done on electrical installations in the home or rental property during the last couple of years will already be familiar with "Part-P" legislation. For the uninitiated, Part-P is a new requirement introduced into the Building Regulations code by the government. It came into force on January 1, 2005 and was subsequently updated in April 2006. Its purpose is to reduce the number of faulty electrical installations present in homes across the UK, and to make it more difficult for "cowboy" installers to fit unsafe electrics into a property. The ultimate aim to is to ensure the reduction of fires, injuries and even fatalities that are caused by unsafe electrical installations. Given that compliance with Part-P is now a legal requirement when undertaking all types of electrical work in a dwelling, the new regulation is one that we should all become familiar with, whether that be as a householder, as a landlord or as both.

What must we do to comply with the Part-P regulation?
Part-P legislation requires that any electrical work carried out in our homes or rental properties must now satisfy one of two criteria:

1 - The electrical work must be performed by a firm or installer registered on a government-approved competent persons scheme. Membership of the scheme is awarded to installers who are proven capable of self-certifying that electrical work carried out for its clients complies with the Building Regulations, specifically Part-P of those regulations. This criterion is the preferred compliance option.

2 - If electrical work is carried out by an installer who is not registered as a "competent person" - as a property owner it is your decision as to whether to use a registered competent person or not - the unregistered installer must arrange for the work to be inspected upon completion by the local authority's building control department.
As owner of the property and recipient of any electrical works performed on it, the onus is on you to ensure that whoever you use to do the job complies with either one of these criteria. Failure to do so is a criminal offence and could result in you and the installer receiving a hefty fine or worse.

Can I carry out electrical DIY work?
The short answer is 'yes'! Anyone can carry out electrical DIY work on their own property. However, the work performed, no matter how minor, must comply with Part-P of the Building Regulations. This means that you either must be registered as a "competent" person yourself, or else notify your local authority's building control department of the work so that they can come and inspect it.

There is, however an exception to this rule. If you are installing extra power points, new lighting switches or making alterations to an existing electrical circuit that is not in the bathroom, kitchen or outdoors, you do not need to advise the building control department about the work. For everything else - including new sockets in the bathroom, kitchen and outdoors - you do need to contact the building control department, or be registered as a competent person to self-certify the work.

A safer world with Part-P
As a report by The Electrical Safety Council at the end of March states: "statistics of deaths by electricity are shocking" - it is, therefore, no wonder that the government is finally clamping down on this sorry state of affairs. Indeed, before the introduction of Part-P every year would see, on average, 10 deaths from faulty electrical installations, around 750 injuries and some 2,000 house fires caused by unsafe electrics. Now, with Part-P in place, those figures are expected to fall dramatically. This is one piece of legislation that really could save lives!