by ericmark »
Wed Aug 25, 2010 2:34 am
Part P is not a qualification it is part of the building regulations. There are two ways to satisfy Part P the first is to pay the LABC a fee and they inspect the second is to become a member of one of the scheme operators who check your work and then if you are to standard allow you to self certify work and you send them the installation certificates and they issue the completion certificate to both the customer and council.
The problem with latter is you need to do a fair bit of work for the money paid to the scheme operator to be worth while.
First to become a member you have to have done some work under LABC for them to inspect. Second you have to own a load of books, Third to need to have passed some exams, Forth you pay annual fee, Fifth you pay small fee for every job.
Since Part P only needs notification for Bathrooms, Kitchens, Consumer Units, and Outside you need to be a full time domestic electrician for it to be worth all the money you need to fork out.
The Part P fees vary throughout the country in Wales there is a fixed fee £100 plus vat for first £1000 worth of work but in England some councils charge less for qualified electricians and more where they need to do the testing so as to if worth while also depends on where you are working.
The different scheme operators have varying requirements and there are some limited schemes like run by Corgi that were cheap but had restrictions as to what you could do.
There is also a problem as to what scheme operators your customers will accept and some councils for example have insisted you are a member of just one operator and will not give work to people who are members of other schemes. Some will even allow non qualified people to do the work under Part P if inspected by another qualified person.
It is a big scam with silly fees being charged where the council charge double for inspecting as the electrician charges for the job. And as a result I will not do domestic work.
There are a series of exams that depending on which scheme operator are required for example C&G 2391, or 2392 and C&G 2382 but there is no legal requirement and you would need to look at what the operator offers and wants and select the best one to suit you.
