Starting my own business

[torquayspark]

Hi,

I have been thinking about starting up on my own for a while now. I am fully qualified and have done all kinds of electrical work over the years. My question is - is it a legal requirement to join NIC/Elecsa/napit/etc??

I know quite a few sparkies that run there own business and are not registered with anyone

 

[green-hornet]

Providing you do not carry out any Part P notifiable jobs then no you do not need to register. If you do a few Part P notifiable jobs then you would have to go through building control and notify the work before you start and pay the appropriate fees.

 

[torquayspark]

Thanks. I will be looking at joining a scheme myself, but wondered how other people get away without signing up and not notifying building control? For example one guy I know does a lot of domestic work, when he has finished, one cert to customer and thats it! What would the consequences be if caught carrying out domestic notifiable work when not signed up to a scheme and/or not notifying building control?

 

[Manator]

Very heavy penalties for the homeowner, and possible prosecution under H&S for the electrician, plus the risk of compensation claims. At the moment the scheme providers and the government are assessing the Part P notification process, and changes are due. One of the changes could be the removal of the blame from the homeowner and placed at the feet of the electrician who should be fully conversant with all the legislation.

 

[Evans Electric]

Torquay , thousands of domestic jobs are done by non registered sparks and indeed non sparks . Many of them not tested and no certs issued because Part P is not policed.

It only becomes a problem when building control are involved which is basically extensions and new builds, so rewires , kitchen refurbs, bathroom refurbs, feed to shed,extra plugs , lights, new shower can be done by anyone . None of it gets notified , Part P is just an overhead that members have to put up with . No one has heard of it , I did 17th last year, no one on the course had any understanding of it TBH I was the only one registered with a scheme.

If you're doing domestic it would be best to enlist with one of the schemes , if you are 100% industrial/commercial I would'nt bother TBH.

And welcome to the Forum, there are many threads on here of interest to anyone starting out on their own.

As Manator says , there are penalties but I've never heard of them being imposed , after the initial three cases at the start of the scheme which received a lot of publicity.

 

[torquayspark]

Thanks for all your replies, very informative

 

[Evans Electric]

Providing you do not carry out any Part P notifiable jobs then no you do not need to register. If you do a few Part P notifiable jobs then you would have to go through building control and notify the work before you start and pay the appropriate fees.

Hey Greeny!! How yer doin' ?

 

[Manator]

I have done a quick check and can only find prosecutions up to 2008, thats very sad for the industry in my opinion.

 

[davetheglitz]

Thanks for that Manator.

Makes you wonder what the point of Part P is - it seems to make compliant firms pay for unwanted information to make them more expensive and uncompetitive.

I've yet to discover how the scant information received from the scam providers benefits the records kept by building control.