Fraud Blocker Part P notification: what homeowners and landlords must know
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Part P notification: what homeowners and landlords must know

Three types of domestic electrical work trigger a Part P notification in England and Wales: installing a new circuit, replacing a consumer unit, and making additions or alterations to existing circuits in a special location (bathrooms, shower rooms, swimming pools, and saunas). If your job falls into any of these categories, you have two options: hire an electrician registered with a Competent Person Scheme such as NICEIC or NAPIT, who can self-certify the work, or notify your Local Authority Building Control before work starts.

Pro Tip: Adding a socket to an existing ring circuit in a lounge is usually not notifiable. The moment that same job is in a bathroom or shower room, it is. Location changes everything.

Table of Contents

Part P is the section of the Building Regulations for England and Wales that covers electrical safety in and around dwellings. Its purpose is straightforward: protect people from fire and electric shock caused by faulty electrical installations. Approved Document P is the statutory guidance document that explains when notification is required and how compliance is demonstrated.

Compliance is almost always shown by following BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations, which sets the technical standard for electrical installations in the UK. Meeting BS 7671 does not automatically mean you have complied with Part P, but it is the recognised route to showing you have.

“All electrical installation work should be inspected and tested in accordance with BS 7671 and installers should give the appropriate electrical certificate to the person ordering the work and notify the building control body or provide the compliance certificate within 30 days.”
— Approved Document P, GOV.UK

Three routes exist to demonstrate compliance:

The duty to comply rests with the person carrying out the work. Competent Person Schemes reduce the administrative burden but do not remove the legal obligation for the work itself to meet the technical standard.

Which jobs are formally notifiable under Part P?

Infographic comparing notifiable and non-notifiable electrical jobs

Regulation 12(6A) defines notifiable work precisely. There are three categories:

What counts as a special location?

A special location is defined by proximity to water or heat sources that increase the risk of electric shock:

Pro Tip: Fixed equipment connected via a 13A plug can still fall within the scope of Part P if it involves fixed wiring or alters a circuit. The fact that something plugs in does not automatically exempt it from the regulations.

Common jobs: notifiable or not?

Here is a plain-language guide to typical domestic jobs. These are general indicators; always confirm with a registered electrician if you are unsure.

Regardless of whether work is notifiable, every installation must be safe and meet BS 7671. Non-notifiable does not mean unregulated.

Electrician fitting socket in lounge ring circuit

How to comply: self-certify or notify building control?

You have two clear routes. The first is almost always faster and cheaper.

Route 1: Hire a Competent Person (self-certification)

  1. Find an electrician registered with a recognised Competent Person Scheme such as NICEIC, NAPIT, or TrustMark.
  2. The electrician carries out and tests the work to BS 7671.
  3. They self-certify the work and notify the relevant authority on your behalf, usually within 30 days of completion.
  4. You receive an Electrical Installation Certificate and a Building Regulations compliance certificate.

This route typically means no separate building control fee and no inspector visit to arrange.

Route 2: Notify Local Authority Building Control yourself

  1. Contact your local council’s building control department before work starts.
  2. Submit a Building Notice or Full Plans application.
  3. An inspector visits to check the work meets the regulations.
  4. If satisfied, they issue a completion certificate.

This route costs more and takes longer. Where a homeowner or unregistered installer performs notifiable work, they must notify Building Control before work starts; the inspector will visit and issue a completion certificate if the work meets the regulations.

Before you hire, ask these questions:

England versus Wales: the 2013 changes still matter

The rules diverged in 2013 and the gap is still significant.

The IET guidance on Part P explains the jurisdictional differences clearly. The 2013 changes were designed to focus enforcement on the highest-risk work: new circuits, consumer unit changes, and special locations. The intent was proportionate regulation, not a relaxation of safety standards.

“England narrowed the scope of notifiable work in 2013; Wales retains a broader list that can include kitchen and outdoor circuit alterations which are not notifiable in England.”
— IET guidance on BS 7671 and Building Regulations

Pro Tip: When in doubt, treat the job as notifiable. The cost of hiring a registered competent person is almost always less than the cost of enforcement action or remedial work ordered by Building Control.

Who is responsible and what happens if work is not notified?

Legal responsibility sits with the person carrying out the work. If that is a homeowner doing their own electrical work, the responsibility is theirs. If it is a contractor, the contractor carries primary responsibility, but the building owner can also face consequences.

What Building Control can do:

If notifiable work is carried out without notification, the homeowner or installer can face enforcement action and may have to pay inspection and remedial costs. Building Control can also inspect non-notifiable work if it appears unsafe.

“Building Control departments remind homeowners that non-notifiable work is still covered by Building Regulations and can be subject to enforcement if found unsafe — so correct certification and testing remain essential regardless of notification status.”
— Building Control Partnership

The property sale and insurance risk is real. Homeowners and landlords are legally responsible for proving compliance when selling or letting a property. Missing certificates can delay transactions and affect insurance cover. Solicitors routinely ask for electrical certificates during conveyancing, and an absence of paperwork for notifiable work is a red flag that can stall or kill a sale.

Landlords have additional obligations. An Electrical Installation Condition Report is required every five years for rental properties in England, and any notifiable work carried out during a tenancy must be properly certified.

How to find and verify a registered electrician

The fastest check is the public register. NICEIC, NAPIT, and TrustMark all maintain searchable online databases of registered contractors. A few minutes on those sites before you book can save significant trouble later.

Verification checklist:

Centralec-electrical is NICEIC approved, which means every job is carried out to the standard required for self-certification under Part P.

Questions to ask at quote stage:

  1. Will this work be notifiable, and which route will you use to certify it?
  2. What certificates will I receive, and when?
  3. Is an insurance-backed guarantee available?
  4. What is the expected timeline from start to paperwork?

The certificates you should receive and keep

Every piece of notifiable work should generate paperwork. Keep all of it indefinitely and pass it to new owners or tenants.

If certificates are missing after work has been completed, contact the installer first. If they are registered with a scheme, the scheme body may hold a copy. As a last resort, you can commission a new EICR to assess the current condition of the installation, though this does not retrospectively certify the original work.

Typical costs and timelines for notifiable work

Costs vary by job type, location, and whether you use a Competent Person or notify Building Control directly.

Timeline expectations:

Always confirm in writing who is responsible for paying any building control fees before work begins.

How Centralec-electrical handles Part P compliance for you

Centralec-electrical is an NICEIC-approved electrical contractor based in the South West, with many years of experience carrying out notifiable domestic electrical work. Every job is carried out by a fully insured, scheme-registered electrician who can self-certify under Part P, so you avoid separate building control fees and inspections.

Services directly relevant to Part P compliance include:

Centralec-electrical

Pricing is fixed and upfront with no hidden costs, and a satisfaction guarantee applies to all completed work. To get a quote or confirm whether your job is notifiable, contact Centralec-electrical directly through the website.

Key takeaways

Part P notification is legally required for new circuits, consumer unit replacements, and any electrical work in special locations such as bathrooms; the simplest route to compliance is hiring an NICEIC or NAPIT-registered electrician who self-certifies on your behalf.

Point Details
Three notifiable job types New circuits, consumer unit replacements, and additions in special locations (bathrooms, pools, saunas) always require notification.
Self-certification is the faster route A Competent Person Scheme member (NICEIC, NAPIT, TrustMark) notifies on your behalf and typically avoids a separate building control fee.
England and Wales differ Wales retains broader notifiability for kitchen and outdoor circuits; England narrowed the scope in 2013.
Keep all certificates indefinitely EIC, MEIWC, Building Regulations compliance certificate, and EICR are required for property sales, lettings, and insurance claims.
Centralec-electrical NICEIC-approved, South West-based, experienced self-certifying notifiable domestic work and issuing all required certificates.

A working electrician’s honest view on Part P

The paperwork side of Part P gets a bad reputation, usually from people who have had to chase certificates after the fact. The process itself is not complicated when a registered electrician handles it from the start. The problems almost always trace back to one of two situations: a homeowner who hired someone cheap and unregistered, or a DIYer who did not realise the job was notifiable until they tried to sell the house.

What I see on site more than anything else is the consumer unit replacement that was done without notification. It looks fine. It might even be wired correctly. But there is no certificate, no record of inspection, and no way to prove to a buyer’s solicitor that the work was ever checked. At that point, the options are expensive: commission a full EICR, potentially open up walls, and hope the work passes. Sometimes it does not.

The England versus Wales distinction catches people out too. A landlord with properties on both sides of the border sometimes assumes the same rules apply everywhere. They do not. If you are in Wales and you have had kitchen or outdoor circuit work done since 2013 without checking whether it was notifiable under Welsh rules, it is worth reviewing.

One practical check worth doing before any electrical work: ask the electrician to confirm in writing whether the job is notifiable and which route they will use to certify it. That single question, asked before work starts, prevents almost every certificate problem I have seen.

Authoritative sources and further reading

Get your Part P compliance sorted without the guesswork

Notifiable electrical work handled by a non-registered installer creates a paper trail problem that follows a property for years. Centralec-electrical offers a straightforward alternative: NICEIC-approved electricians who carry out the work, self-certify under Part P, and hand you every required certificate on completion, with fixed upfront pricing and no hidden costs.

Whether you need a consumer unit upgrade, a new circuit for an EV charger, bathroom electrical work, or a landlord EICR, the process is the same: one call, one quote, one set of certificates. For landlords specifically, the EV charger installation for landlords service covers both the new circuit notification and the compliance paperwork in a single visit.

Contact Centralec-electrical through the website to confirm whether your job is notifiable and to get a fixed quote from a registered competent person.

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