Choosing a tradesperson

Back in April I posted about a training day I’d attended, and the importance of electricians keeping up to date with regulations and being members of certification schemes such as Napit or NICEIC. Since then, I’ve had my annual inspection and it went without a hitch. So I’m pleased to say that I have proven my competency, knowledge and adherence to regulations, and as such am able to self-certify work for another year. Below I just expand on the schemes a little bit and relate it to choosing an electrician or any trades person in the future.

When choosing anyone to do work on your home, it is important to be confident in their abilities in the field that they intend to do work. For example, I may know a superb carpenter who has a rudimentary knowledge of plumbing, but I would always choose a plumber to sort any plumbing issues over the carpenter, and vice versa. One of these reasons for this is that the specialist in the trade will know the ins and outs of it, as well as any legislation that covers the work they are doing. In addition to this, they will be well practised over many years, have the correct tools for the job and really importantly, should have the correct public liability insurance to cover the work should anything go wrong.

As an electrician who predominantly works with domestic clients, much of the work I do is notifiable to the local authority building control (LABC). This means that they must be informed of certain works that take place on your electrical installation. As a qualified electrician, I am a member of a self certification scheme (in my case NAPIT certification). This means that I am able to notify LABC of the work directly, without having to pay them a fee to come out and inspect the work themselves at various points during the design and installation process. It also means that work carried out won’t raise any questions should you come to sell the house as you have the correct paperwork, and the local authority have the correct information for your property.

Every year a NAPIT inspector comes out to spend a few hours inspecting my business. This involves checking all documentation and paperwork is up to date, such as relevant insurance, calibration certificates for my test equipment, risk assessments, copies of the latest regulations and legislation pertaining to my work and much more. They also inspect a significant job that has been completed recently. They look to see that all of the work is compliant, check the certification of the work and also get me to demonstrate some of the testing of the installation (I’m assuming this is more to check that the results acquired match those on the certification to show that the work has been tested correctly and figures on the result sheets haven’t been made up!) They also ask a set of questions to test knowledge of the wiring regulations and also relevant building regulations.

So it’s quite a rigorous process, as it should be. This should ensure that if you choose an electrician signed up to one of the schemes, you should be getting a tradesman that is competent, has the correct and up to date knowledge, and are covered should anything go wrong as well.

Here is a link explaining what NAPIT do and how these schemes can help you as a consumer.