Yes, the Building Regulations apply to all electrical work in dwellings. Electrical work involving fixed wiring and fixed appliances should be acceptably safe whoever undertakes it. This can be achieved by following the recommendations for design, installation, inspection, testing and certification in BS 7671: 2001 'Requirements for Electrical Installations - IEE Wiring Regulations' (see 'sources of information' for further details).
You only need involve Building Control for certain riskier 'notifiable' jobs, but if you employ a registered installer with the relevant competencies to carry out the work, such involvement will not be necessary (see 'sources of information' for schemes of registered installers). Notifiable works include new circuits back to the consumer unit and additions or alterations to existing circuits in kitchens, bathrooms and outdoors.Works that are not notifiable include repairs, replacements and maintenance; and additions or alterations to existing circuits outside of kitchens and bathrooms. If you are not sure whether work is notifiable, you should check with us.
If you use a registered installer for notifiable work, the registration scheme operator will send you a Building Regulations compliance certificate when the work is complete. If you use a qualified but unregistered installer for notifiable work, or do the work yourself, Building Control will inspect the work to check that it complies with the Building Regulations before issuing a completion certificate. A qualified installer, regardless of whether he or she is registered or not, should give you a signed BS 7671 electrical safety certificate for all types of electrical work. The registration scheme operators can advise you whether an installer is registered for the work you wish them to do, or you may be able to check that information on their website (see 'sources of information' for further details).
In addition, you should note that your contract with the electricity distribution company has conditions about safety which must not be broken. In particular, you should not interfere with the distribution company's equipment which includes the cables to your consumer unit or the cables up to and including the separate main isolator switch, if provided.
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