17/05/2020 8:04 pm
Imported here from a comment on the electrical regs article:
I am struggling to understand the legal basis for the guidance issued by various trade bodies on this [new electrical regulations]…
All departures from the standard (being used for the inspection and test) should be recorded (BS, NICEIC, ElectricalSafety1st etc.)
From 1. it seems logical that all observations recorded in the report are departures from the standard.Can someone please point me to the precise part of the new legislation that allows landlords to choose which departures from the standard they will address?
3 Comments
17/05/2020 8:13 pm
We agree, if the report contains any recommendations or works required, they must be completed within 28 days of the report.
It will be down to the individual electrician to decide what works may be required but we’re not sure what guidance would be used. We’re going to do a couple and see what develops and work from there.
We’ve just starting to prepare for this and have given a new electrician explicit instructions that if we are to employ him, he must not issue any report with any works or recommendations on it. He needs to attend, determine what works will be required (even if that involves a brief test), do the works and only then issue a report. This has been agreed.
From our conversation this weekend, the electrician basically says all properties will need a metal consumer unit, surge protection, good earth and reasonable test results on the wiring (checking for deterioration). Otherwise, everything should be fine for a safety report being issued under the new regs because it will be “safe for continued use”.
We’ve also insisted that the report must be for 5 years (unlike as we understand some are doing 3 year reports). It should be noted, in response to that requirement, the electrician did say that on rare occasion a shorter than 5 years may be provided if for example test results showed a possible problem which may need comparing in 12 months time. Fair enough!
guildy
@guildy
It’s a chicken and egg situation – until a sparky inspects and tests the electrical installation they cannot observe and verify what the departures are and it is almost certainly written into wiring regs that ‘all’ verified departures MUST be recorded in a report. Re metal consumer units, when regulation 421.1.201 came out (17th edition add-on) we contacted NICEIC and asked for clarification and they basically said it is at the discretion of the engineer whether they attribute a relevant classification code depending on the location of a combustible consumer unit but 18th edition may have moved this on to MUST.
By JungleProperty 01/06/2020 10:24 am
We should know more in a couple of weeks as we’re starting our first ones under the new regs on Wednesday. From what our electrician is saying, basically, all metal consumer units, surge protection and acceptable test results for wiring and earth. That should hopefully be sufficient.
By guildy 01/06/2020 11:28 am