Most building work in England and Wales must meet the Building Regulations 2010, and somebody must certify that it does. Either the installer is registered with a government-authorised competent person scheme and self-certifies their own work, or you notify local authority building control before work starts and they inspect it.
What are the Building Regulations, and who do they bind?
The Building Regulations 2010 are made under the Building Act 1984 and set the standards building work must meet — structure, fire safety, ventilation, drainage, energy efficiency, electrical safety and more. They are separate from planning permission, which is about whether you may build a thing at all rather than how it must be built. The Planning Portal is the government-backed source for both, and a project can easily need one, the other, both or neither.
Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own systems — Scotland uses building warrants — so what follows describes England and Wales.
The point people most often miss: the duty sits with the building owner, not with the tradesperson. If your electrician does not notify anyone and nobody signs the work off, it is your property that has unauthorised work in it, not theirs.
What is a competent person scheme?
A scheme authorised by government whose registered members may self-certify that their own work complies with the Building Regulations, instead of the work being notified in advance to local authority building control and inspected by them.
GOV.UK publishes the list of currently authorised schemes and exactly which types of work each one covers, and that page — rather than any individual scheme’s marketing — is the authority, because schemes are added, merged and renamed over time. The schemes named on it span electrical work, heating and hot water, plumbing, windows and doors, insulation, roofing and renewable energy, and include operators such as NICEIC, NAPIT, BESCA, Gas Safe Register, FENSA, CERTASS, HETAS, OFTEC and CompetentRoofer.
A scheme member’s registration is limited to the work types their scheme covers. A registration for windows does not let someone self-certify a consumer unit.
Part P, and electrical work specifically
Part P of the Building Regulations covers electrical safety in dwellings. Certain electrical work in a home is notifiable, which means somebody must tell building control about it — and that is where the two routes diverge.
If the electrician is a scheme member, they self-certify the work, issue the appropriate electrical certificate, and notify the local authority through the scheme. You should receive a Building Regulations compliance certificate afterwards, usually from the scheme rather than the electrician personally.
If the electrician is not a scheme member, they cannot self-certify. You must notify local authority building control before the work starts, and the council will inspect and charge a fee for doing so.
That is a real cost difference and a real timing difference, and it is worth asking about before you accept a price. A quote from an unregistered electrician that looks cheaper may not be, once building control fees are added — and if the question is never asked, the likely outcome is that nobody notifies anybody at all.
What should you receive at the end?
For self-certified work, the paperwork usually comes in two parts, and both matter:
- The trade certificate — for electrical work, an installation certificate or minor works certificate describing what was done and confirming it was tested.
- The Building Regulations compliance certificate, confirming the work has been notified and certified as compliant.
For work done under local authority building control, you should receive a completion certificate from the council.
Store all of it with the deeds. These documents are what a buyer’s conveyancer asks for years later, and reproducing them after the fact is far harder than filing them now.
What if the work was never signed off?
It happens constantly, usually discovered during a sale when the buyer’s solicitor asks a question nobody can answer. The options generally are:
- Regularisation. You apply to the local authority for retrospective approval. They will want to inspect, which can mean opening up finished work, and there is a fee. It is the route that produces a real certificate.
- Indemnity insurance. Common in conveyancing. It covers the financial consequence of enforcement action — it does not make the work compliant and it does not make it safe. Note that approaching the council about regularisation can invalidate the availability of an indemnity policy, so take advice on the order of steps before you do either.
- Do nothing. The risk does not expire in any way that helps you: unsafe work is unsafe regardless, and the question reappears at every future sale.
The Building Act 1984 provides enforcement powers to local authorities in relation to work that contravenes the Regulations. But the realistic consequence for most householders is not enforcement — it is a stalled sale, a renegotiated price, and a bill.
Which jobs typically need this?
Rather than trusting a list from memory, check the Planning Portal for your specific job before work starts, because thresholds change and the details matter. In broad terms, notifiable work commonly includes new circuits and consumer unit replacements, structural alterations such as removing a load-bearing wall, new drainage, replacement windows and external doors, controlled fittings and services, some roofing work, loft and garage conversions, and extensions.
The question worth asking every trader you get a price from is short: does this work need building regulations approval, are you registered to self-certify it, and if not, who notifies the council? A trader who cannot answer that clearly has told you something useful.
What to do next
Ask that question before you accept any quote, and get the answer in writing alongside the price, so that a later dispute is about a document rather than a memory.
If you are hiring an electrician, our guide to checking a UK trader is registered explains how competent person scheme registration works and how to verify it. The electricians category page on this directory states what Part P requires and what to ask for — worth reading before you make contact.