What is a registered electrician and does it matter?

What being “Registered” actually means

In the UK, any “competent person" can carry out electrical work. There is  no licence required in the way there is for gas work, which surprises a lot of homeowners. However, what being registered does is a Third-party ensure’s you have met strict requirements as an electrician and as a business by checking your insurances, competency, knowledge and quality of work.

There are a few schemes that do this. The two most common are NAPIT and NICEIC. Both are approved by the government under Part P of the Building Regulations, which covers electrical work in domestic settings. Being on one of these schemes means the electrician has been assessed, their work has been checked, and they're required to keep up to date with regulation changes.

At Oval Electrical we are registered with NAPIT. This is something you should always ask if you are looking for an electrician

What Is Part P and Why Should You Care?

Part P is the section of the Building Regulations that covers electrical safety in homes. It came into force in 2005 and ensures that electrical work in domestic properties are either carried out by a registered electrician or notified to your local building control authority.

The types of work that fall under Part P include full rewires, new circuits, and consumer unit replacements, basically anything beyond like-for-like replacements of sockets and switches.

Being a registered electrician means we can self-certify our work under Part P and notify building control on your behalf. If you were to use an unregistered electrician for notifiable work, the responsibility for arranging building control inspection would then fall to you and if it never gets notified then it can create issues later down the line should you want to sell for example.

What happens if you use an unregistered electrician?

The risks fall into a few categories:

Safety. Electrical work that hasn't been tested and certified may have faults that aren't immediately obvious. A registered electrician is required to always test their work and issue a certificate

Insurance. Some home insurance policies may not pay-out If work was done by an unregistered electrician as they will ask for copies of certification should any issues cause damage to your home

Selling your home. Solicitors routinely ask for electrical certificates as part of conveyancing. If notifiable work was done without proper certification, you'll either need to provide the certification or potentially reduce your sale price.

The work itself. In our experience, the electricians who don't bother with registration tend to be the same ones who don't bother with neat, careful work. We constantly go to jobs where the previous electrician wasn't registered and the quality of work was extremely poor.

How to check if an electrician is registered

Both NAPIT and NICEIC have an online register where you can search up a company name to see if that company is registered. 
Often companies will display the logos on their website, Vans, paperwork and workwear so always keep an eye out!

Does it matter for smaller jobs?

For minor works such as swapping a socket, replacing a light fitting like-for-like registration is less critical from a legal standpoint. That said, it's still a reasonable indicator of someone who takes their work seriously and that you can trust will do a good job

Summary

A registered electrician is someone who belongs to a Governing body (such as NAPIT or NICEIC), has had their work regularly assessed, and can self-certify under Part P of the Building Regulations. It means you can be sure that the work you are getting done will be carried out to a higher standard following the latest wiring regulations.

At Oval Electrical, we are NAPIT registered and handle all certification and building control notifications as standard on every job. 
If you are looking for a qualified electrician you can trust please get in touch today!