Electrical work at home in Leeds: Part P, certificates and who may do it

What Part P requires

Part P of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010 says reasonable provision shall be made in the design and installation of electrical installations in order to protect persons operating, maintaining or altering the installations from fire or injury. It applies to low-voltage installations in or attached to a dwelling, in the common parts of a building with dwellings, and in a garden or on land associated with a dwelling. Approved Document P, published by the government, is the statutory guidance on meeting it, and gov.uk says the current edition explains when notification of work is required.

The Planning Portal says that if you are carrying out electrical installation work in your home or garden in England and Wales you must comply with the Building Regulations, and its advice is to use an installer registered with a competent person scheme, who can self-certify compliance. It also says the Building Regulations do not restrict who may carry out electrical installation work, that all electrical work should follow the safety standards in BS 7671, the wiring regulations, and that planning permission is not generally required for installing or replacing electrical circuits.

Notifiable work, and minor works

In England, the Planning Portal says, regulation 12(6A) of the Building Regulations 2010 identifies notifiable work as the installation of a new or replacement consumer unit (the fuse box), the installation of a complete new circuit connected to the consumer unit, for example a ring or lighting circuit or a new circuit for a cooker, shower or immersion heater, and alteration work in and around a bath or shower. A rewire installs new circuits, so it is notifiable work.

Most repairs, replacements and maintenance jobs, and alterations or additions to existing circuits outside the spaces around baths and showers, are not notifiable. gov.uk lists new power and lighting points, or changes to existing circuits (except around baths and showers), among work that does not need approval. Non-notifiable work must still meet the safety standards: the Planning Portal says it should be designed, installed, inspected, tested and certificated to BS 7671, and that a qualified electrician should give you a Minor Works Certificate for it.

Three ways notifiable work is checked, and the certificates

The Planning Portal sets out three routes. Whichever is used, the body involved must be notified before work starts unless the electrician is a registered competent person.

• A registered competent person. An electrician registered with a competent person scheme authorised by the Secretary of State self-certifies that the work is safe and complies, and you do not need to notify building control. The Planning Portal says the electrician arranges for you to receive a Building Regulations compliance certificate within 30 days and for the council to be notified for its records, and should also give you a completed Electrical Installation Certificate to show the work was tested for safety. If the certificate does not arrive, contact the electrician’s registration body.
• Building control. If the electrician is not registered, or you do the work yourself, notifiable work must be inspected, approved and certificated by a building control body: your local authority, in Leeds the council’s Building Control team, or a private registered building control approver. Contact them before the work starts; a fee is charged.
• A registered third-party certifier. In England only, since April 2014, an electrician registered with an authorised third-party certification scheme can certify notifiable work without a building control body being involved.

Which schemes, and the register

gov.uk lists the schemes authorised for electrical installations in dwellings: BESCA, Blue Flame Certification, Certsure (trading as NICEIC), NAPIT and OFTEC, with APHC also covering electrical work done as part of other work. gov.uk says anyone joining an electrical scheme is included in the Electrical Competent Person Register, a single place for householders to find registered electricians, and both gov.uk and the Planning Portal point to it for checking one. The Planning Portal’s advice is to ask the electrician which scheme they belong to and their membership number, then check the register.

Where a business on Gablevale says on its own website that it belongs to NICEIC, NAPIT or another scheme, that appears in its listing as the business’s own statement. The register is the check.

Electricians by area

Every electrician listed on Gablevale, by the area it names, with the features its own website states: emergency call-outs, landlord work, insurance stated, a guarantee offered. A business that names no part of Leeds is listed across Leeds.

Published prices: call-outs and inspections

The lowest price each electrician publishes on its own website and what it is for. Some price a call-out first, some a fault-finding visit, some an Electrical Installation Condition Report for a landlord; read what each covers and whether it includes VAT. Where a business publishes none, the listing says to ask for a quote.

Emergency call-outs

Electricians whose websites say they take emergency call-outs or answer 24 hours a day, in their own words. Their published hours, where they give any, are on each listing.

If you rent: the five-year inspection

gov.uk’s guidance on the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, extended to social landlords by 2025 regulations, says landlords must have the electrical installations in their properties inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every 5 years and obtain a report, usually an Electrical Installation Condition Report (an EICR), which sets the date of the next inspection. They must give a copy to the existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection, to a new tenant before they occupy the premises, and to the council within 7 days of a request, and complete any remedial or investigative work the report requires within 28 days. gov.uk also says newly built or completely rewired premises should have an Electrical Installation Certificate, after which no further report is needed for 5 years.

Electricians whose websites say they work for landlords, with the lowest price each publishes and what it is for; some price the landlord inspection report first.

Before you pay

Gablevale checks that every business listed is an active company on the Companies House register, and shows its number; it doesn’t check the work. Our guide to what to check before paying a tradesperson covers the company record, insurance, written quotes, the 14-day right to cancel a contract agreed in your home, and the register anyone taking waste away must be on. In short:

• Look the company up on the Companies House register, linked from every listing. gov.uk says the record gives the registered address, date of incorporation, current and resigned officers, previous names and any insolvency information, free.
• Ask for the quote in writing, saying what it covers. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says every contract to supply a service includes a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill.
• Ask to see the insurance certificate, and check its dates. A listing says “Insurance stated” only where the business’s own website says it is insured.