Reply to post: Re: Actually its the Gubberment.

Re: Actually its the Gubberment.

I note that you have not understood the regulation or my post.

The wire was in a stupid place and so was damaged by a drill when her husband drilled into the wall.

- Yes I did forget that it was her partner who had screwed into the wire. Doesn't make much difference, the cause was the same - DIYer drilled into a wire that was in a stupid place.

I explicitly avoided giving names because that feels like victim blaming - and both were victims. I'm paranoid about wires in walls, most people are not.

I do not blame her parent either. They were distraught! Of course they would demand the Something Be Done! It's the Government of the day who did the foolish thing.

Labour were in power. Labour were the ones who wrote and passed a very bad regulation as a kneejerk overreaction to a tragedy.

The lib dems were not in power, they did not pass it.

Part P is terrible - even by their own figures it was hoped to prevent one incident a year. It probably hasn't come close to that, though that can't be proven as it's such a low rate to begin with. UK electrical safety is and was extremely good.

It has not solved the problem because it's simply created a spate of cowboys with Part P "certification" who have no understanding of electricity, they're doing it by rote.

And worse, those who do the work anyway and either issue a fake cert. or none, leaving homeowners in real trouble several years later.

As to the idea that you can do what you like - afraid not.

If you cannot get buildings insurance, you cannot get a mortgage, and the bank can even foreclose you.

If you cannot sell or rent out a property, the property has zero value.

Thus Part P does prevent you, in the same way that very large fines do. Same as the other buildings regs in fact, most of which are very sensible - even the very prescriptive ones.

Yes, lots of people ignore it. Lots of people ignore speed limits as well, and it's rare to get caught either way - but the penalties if you are caught are very severe.

They only tend to end up in trouble when trying to sell, and suddenly have a large cost dumped on them to get it "fixed" rapidly - even though the actual installation is usually perfectly fine, just the paperwork is missing or incomplete.

Yours, a former specialist industrial electrician, who has seen rather too many shoddy installations in their time.