THIS SAFETY CERTIFICATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE DOCUMENT WHICH SHOULD BE RETAINED FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
This safety certificate has been issued to confirm that the electrical installation work to which it relates has been designed, constructed, inspected, tested and verified in accordance with the national standard for the safety of electrical installations, British Standard 7671 (as amended) – Requirements for Electrical Installations.
Where, as will often be the case, the installation incorporates a residual current device (RCD), there should be a notice at or near the main switchboard or consumer unit stating that the device should be tested at quarterly intervals. For safety reasons, it is important that you carry out the test regularly.
Also for safety reasons, the complete electrical installation will need to be inspected and tested at appropriate intervals by a skilled person or persons competent in such work. NICEIC* recommends that you engage the services of an Approved Contractor for this purpose. The maximum interval recommended before the next inspection is stated on Page 2 under Next Inspection. There should be a notice at or near the main switchboard or consumer unit indicating when the inspection of the installation is next due.
Only an NICEIC Approved Contractor or Conforming Body responsible for the construction of the electrical installation is authorised to issue this NICEIC Electrical Installation Certificate.
The certificate consists of at least six numbered pages. The certificate is invalid if any of the six pages are missing. The certificate has a printed seven-digit serial number which is traceable to the Approved Contractor to which it was supplied by NICEIC.
For installations having more than one distribution board or more circuits than can be recorded on pages 5 and 6, one or more additional Schedules of Circuit Details for the Installation, and Schedules of Test Results for the Installation (pages 7 and 8 onwards) should form part of the certificate.
This certificate is intended to be issued only for a new electrical installation or for new work associated with an alteration or addition to an existing installation. It should not have been issued for the inspection of an existing electrical installation. An ‘Electrical Installation Condition Report’ or, where appropriate, a Domestic Electrical Installation Condition Report should be issued for such a periodic inspection.
This certificate should not have been issued for electrical work in a potentially explosive atmosphere (hazardous area) unless the Approved Contractor holds an appropriate extension to NICEIC enrolment for such work.
You should have received the certificate marked ‘Original’ and the Approved Contractor should have retained the certificate marked ‘Duplicate’.
If you were the person ordering the work, but not the user of the installation, you should pass this certificate, or a full copy of it including these notes, the schedules and additional pages (if any), immediately to the user.
The ‘Original’ certificate should be retained in a safe place and shown to any skilled person inspecting or undertaking further work on the electrical installation in the future. If you later vacate the property, this certificate will demonstrate to the new user that the electrical installation complied with the requirements of the national electrical safety standard at the time the certificate was issued.
Page 1 of this certificate provides details of the electrical installation, together with the name(s) and signature(s) of the person(s) certifying the three elements of installation work: design, construction and inspection and testing. Page 2 identifies the organisation(s) responsible for the work certified by their representative(s).
Certification for inspection and testing provides an assurance that the electrical installation work has been fully inspected and tested, and that the electrical work has been carried out in accordance with the requirements of BS 7671 (except for any departures sanctioned by the designer) and recorded in the appropriate box(es) of the certificate.
Where responsibility for the design, the construction and the inspection and testing of the electrical work is divided between the Approved Contractor and one or more other bodies, the division of responsibility should have been established and agreed before commencement of the work. In such a case, NICEIC considers that the absence of certification for the construction, or the inspection and testing elements of the work would render the certificate invalid. If the design section of the certificate has not been completed, NICEIC recommends that you question why those responsible for the design have not certified that this important element of the work is in accordance with the national electrical safety standard.
Where the electrical work to which this certificate relates includes the installation of a fire alarm system and/or an emergency lighting system (or a part of such systems) in accordance with British Standards BS 5839 and BS 5266 respectively, this electrical safety certificate should be accompanied by a separate certificate or certificates as prescribed by those standards.
Where the installation can be supplied by more than one source, such as the public supply and a standby generator, the number of sources should have been recorded in the box entitled Number of Sources, under the general heading Supply Characteristics and Earthing Arrangements on page 2 of the certificate, and the Schedule of Test Results compiled accordingly. Where a number of sources are available to supply the installation, and where the data given for the primary source may differ from other sources, an additional page should have been provided which gives the relevant information relating to each additional source, and to the associated earthing arrangements and main switchgear.
Should the person ordering the work (e.g. the client, as identified on Page 1 of this certificate), have reason to believe that any element of the work for which the Approved Contractor has accepted responsibility (as indicated by the signatures on this certificate) does not comply with the requirements of the national electrical safety standard (BS 7671), the client should in the first instance raise the specific concerns in writing with the Approved Contractor. If the concerns remain unresolved, the client may make a formal complaint to NICEIC, for which purpose a standard complaint form is available on request.
The complaints procedure offered by NICEIC is subject to certain terms and conditions, full details of which are available upon application. NICEIC does not investigate complaints relating to the operational performance of electrical installations (such as lighting levels), or to contractual or commercial issues (such as time or cost).
Published by Certsure LLP, Certsure LLP operates the ELECSA & NICEIC brands ©Copy right Certsure LLP (January 2015)