The answer is YES, but, it’s important to be aware…
Home extensions whether up, down or sideways are an increasingly popular way of gaining additional family space that avoids the extreme costs of moving house.
As a qualified electrician with over 15 years experience in the domestic sector, I’ve come across countless clients who have had home extensions or loft conversions completed by builders.
Whether I’m talking to a particular client due to a problem with the electrics undertaken by a builder, or for an unrelated matter, I always ask this quesiton: ‘Just out of interest, did your builder give you an electrical certificate?’ But 9/10 times, the answer is, no!, or ‘no but I didn’t realise I needed one’
FACT: According to the UK electrical regulations (BS7671), any person (even a builder) who modifies or adds one or more new circuits must be registered with a competence body such as NICEIC or NAPIT (amongst others) to be able to sign off their work as compliant with the UK electrical wiring regulations (BS7671), and PART P of the building control regulations.
So the bottom line is, your builder is obliged by law to give you an electrical certificate on completion of the job.
Sage Advice:
a. Prior to signing any contract with a builder, ask for the name and registration number of the person they plan to use for the electrical work. Then check yourself (online at the competence body they claim to be with) that they are who they say they are. If they can’t or won’t provide this detail, this is a red flag! Then verify the identity of the person who shows up to do the electrical work!
b. Agree that you hold back at least £1,000 (recommended) until you receive the electrical installation certificate AND the Part P certificate (issued by your local building control department once notified by the registered electrician). I suggest at least £1,000 should you have to bring in an independent qualified electrician to test, maybe correct, and sign off an installation.
Read my full article on builder engagement here »
Here are a few ‘trade truths’ about builders and electricians that are worth knowing:
1. Builders prefer to take on the whole job rather than sub out specialist areas such as electrics or plumbing/ heating systems, and that’s how they ‘seal the deal’ with a client. Whether they actually employ a registered and qualified electrician needs to be verified (see point a. below).
2. The next matter of fact is that many qualified electricians (including myself) chose not to work with builders, usually due to the risk of being ‘shafted’ at the point of payment. Yes, they’re a cunning bunch to work with! However, I have sometimes agreed to work with a builder only when the homeowner is my client, not the builder. But that arrangement has rarely come up!
3. The biggest problem is that many builders in the UK are East European who have very little awareness or experience with UK electrical regulations and are very likely not to be registered (or competent) to undertake electrical work. I’ve personally witnessed (and had to repair) their work many times.
But their bosses are often cunning sales people who can easily blag their way around the matter of electrical qualifications, so you need to be aware of this!
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