Homeowners often ask what they are allowed to do themselves. The more useful question is what you are not allowed to do without certification, and what happens to the paperwork trail if that work is never signed off.
This guide covers the rules in England. Part P does not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and Wales publishes its own approved document with a wider notification list. If your property is outside England, check with your local building control body.
What Part P Covers
Part P of the Building Regulations came into force on 1 January 2005 and deals with electrical safety in dwellings. The current Approved Document P has applied in England since 6 April 2013.
Part P divides electrical work into two categories:
- Notifiable work: Must be certified by a registered competent person or notified to building control before it starts.
- Non-notifiable work: Does not require notification, but must still comply with BS 7671.
Both categories must meet the same safety standard. The difference is the paperwork, and the paperwork is what a solicitor, a lender or an insurer will ask to see.
The Three Types of Work You Cannot Certify Yourself
In England, the notifiable list is short. Only three categories apply:
- Installing a New Circuit: Any new circuit run from the consumer unit, including supplies to an extension, a loft conversion, a garden office, an EV charger or electric underfloor heating.
- Replacing or Upgrading the Consumer Unit: Replacing a fuse board is notifiable in every case, whether or not new circuits are added.
- Additions or Alterations in a Special Location: A room containing a bath or shower, a swimming pool, or a sauna. Approved Document P sets out the zones that define the special location.
If your project falls into one of these three categories, it must be carried out by an electrician registered with a competent person scheme, or notified to your local authority building control before work begins. There is no third option.
Why So Much Advice Online Is Out of Date
Before April 2013, the notifiable list in England was much longer. It included all electrical work in kitchens and all outdoor work.
That changed. Kitchens and outdoor work were removed from the list in England. Adding a socket to an existing kitchen ring, or spurring an outdoor light from an existing circuit, is no longer notifiable in itself. Running a new circuit to supply a garden office or a bank of outdoor lighting still is.
A great deal of published guidance still repeats the pre-2013 list. If you are relying on an article, a forum post or a merchant’s guide, check the date. The rules for Wales did not change in the same way, which is one reason the older wording persists.
What Missing Certification Costs You at Sale
This is where uncertified work usually surfaces, often years later.
When you sell, your conveyancing solicitor asks you to complete the Law Society’s TA6 Property Information Form. It asks whether the property has been rewired or had any electrical installation work carried out since 1 January 2005. If the answer is yes, you are asked to supply the certificate: an Electrical Installation Certificate, a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate, or a completion certificate from building control.
If you cannot produce one, the buyer’s solicitor will raise it as an enquiry. From there the usual outcomes are:
- Delay: The sale stalls while the paperwork is chased, the original installer is traced, or a report is commissioned.
- Retrospective Approval: You apply to the local authority for a regularisation certificate, which may involve opening up work for inspection.
- Indemnity Policy: Common, but it covers the consequences of enforcement rather than the condition of the installation. Buyers and lenders increasingly want more.
- Price Reduction: A buyer who cannot see certification may ask for remedial work or a reduction to cover it.
None of these are expensive problems on their own. Together, at the point of exchange, they are the reason chains slip.
What It Costs You as a Landlord
If you let the property, the position is stricter. Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations, landlords must have the installation inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every five years, obtain a report and provide it to tenants and to the council on request.
Local councils can impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000 for a breach of those duties.
Uncertified alterations tend to show up on the resulting inspection report as coded observations, which then require remedial work before the report can be recorded as satisfactory. Work done properly the first time avoids that cycle.
What Building Control Can Require
Where notifiable work has been carried out without certification, the local authority can require it to be removed or altered.
Since 1 October 2023, that enforcement window runs for up to ten years from completion of the work, extended from the previous twelve months. Contravening the Building Regulations is a criminal offence, and the penalty on conviction is an unlimited fine and up to two years’ imprisonment.
Prosecution of a homeowner is rare. The practical risk is the notice, the cost of putting the work right, and the effect on a sale that is already under way.
Insurance
Most home insurance policies expect fixed electrical work to have been carried out and certified competently.
An insurer is unlikely to refuse a claim simply because paperwork is missing. Where a fire or a fault is traced back to an uncertified installation, the claim can be queried, and the burden falls on you to show the work met the standard. Without a certificate, that is difficult to do.
Work That Is Not Notifiable Still Has to Comply
Removing a job from the notifiable list does not remove it from the standard. Repairs, like-for-like replacements and additions to existing circuits outside a special location all still have to meet BS 7671.
Two points are widely misunderstood:
- RCD protection is a requirement of BS 7671 rather than a statutory duty in its own right. It is the standard your installation is judged against, and modern consumer units are designed around it.
- Testing means measured results from calibrated instruments: continuity, insulation resistance, earth fault loop impedance and RCD operating times. A plug-in socket tester is a rough indicator only. It cannot detect a range of dangerous conditions, including reversed live and neutral at some sockets, poor earth quality or undersized cable.
If work cannot be verified by testing, it cannot be certified. That is the line between a repair and a compliant installation.
How Certification Works With Lumiel
Lumiel is an NICEIC-approved contractor and a member of a competent person scheme, which means we can self-certify notifiable work directly.
- No Building Control Application: We notify on your behalf. You do not need to contact the council or arrange an inspection.
- Certificates Issued on Completion: An Electrical Installation Certificate for the work carried out, plus a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate where the work is notifiable.
- Records You Can Produce Later: The documents a solicitor, letting agent or insurer will ask for, held against the property.
- Fully Insured and Tested: Every circuit inspected and tested before we hand it back.
If you’re a Builder, Contractor or a Facilities Manager, find out more about Lumiel’s services tailored to your needs.
Book an Electrical Assessment
If you are planning work that involves a new circuit, a fuse board replacement or anything in a bathroom, the certification route is worth considering before the job starts rather than after.
Lumiel is an NICEIC-approved contractor, fully insured, working across Sutton, South London and Surrey. Every installation is tested and certified, and quoted at a fixed price with no hidden fees.
Call Lumiel to arrange an assessment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not in itself. Non-notifiable work is not prohibited, although it must still comply with BS 7671. Notifiable work is different. It must be certified by a registered competent person or notified to building control before it starts, and carrying it out without either is a breach of the Building Regulations.
Three: installing a new circuit, replacing or upgrading the consumer unit, and any addition or alteration to a circuit in a special location such as a room containing a bath or shower, a swimming pool or a sauna.
Not since April 2013 in England, unless it involves a new circuit. Older guidance often says otherwise because kitchens were on the list before that date. The rules in Wales differ.
The obligation follows the property rather than the person. If you cannot find a certificate, options include asking the local authority building control department for a copy, applying for a regularisation certificate, or commissioning an inspection to establish the condition of the installation.
An electrician cannot certify work they did not carry out or cannot verify. What we can do is inspect and test the installation, report on its condition and put right what needs putting right. For notifiable work, the retrospective route to Building Regulations sign off is a regularisation application to the local authority.
