THIS DOMESTIC ELECTRICAL INSTALLATION CONDITION REPORT IS AN IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE DOCUMENT WHICH SHOULD BE RETAINED FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
This safety certificate has been issued to confirm that the minor electrical installation work to which it relates has been designed, constructed,inspected, tested and verified in accordance with then national standard for the safety of electrical installations,British Standard 7671 (as amended) – Requirements for Electrical Installations (the IET Wiring Regulations).
Where, as will often be the case, the existing 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 including the minor electrical installation works which is the subject of this certificate 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. There should be a notice at or near the origin of the existing installation (such as at the consumer unit or main switchboard) which indicates when the inspection of the complete installation is next due.
Only the NICEIC Approved Contractor or Conforming Body responsible for the work is authorised to issue this NICEIC certificate. The certificate has a printed seven digit serial number which is traceable to the Approved Contractor to which it was supplied by NICEIC.
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 owner or user of the installation,you should pass this certificate, or a full copy of it including these notes, immediately to the owner or user of the installation.
The ‘Original’ certificate should be retained in a safe place and shown to any 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 minor electrical installation works complied with the requirements of the national electrical safety standard at the time the certificate was issued.
The Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate is intended to be used only for an addition or alteration to an existing circuit that does not extend to the provision of a new circuit. Examples include the addition of a socket-outlet or a lighting point to an existing circuit, or the replacement or relocation of a light switch. This certificate may also be used for the replacement of equipment such as accessories or luminaries, but not for the replacement of distribution boards, consumer units or similar items. This certificate would be considered by NICEIC to be invalid if you requested the contractor to undertake more extensive work, for which an Electrical Installation Certificate or, if appropriate, a Domestic Electrical Installation Certificate should have been issued. A separate certificate should have been received for each existing circuit on which minor works has been carried out.
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.
Part 3 of the certificate is intended to facilitate the recording of information associated with the inspection and testing of the modified circuit, and the related parts of the existing installation on which the modified circuit depends for its safety. Generally, each box should have been completed to confirm the results of a particular inspection or test by a ‘Yes’ or a ‘ ’, or by the insertion of a measured value. Where a particular inspection or test was not applicable, this should have been indicated by ‘N/A’, meaning ‘Not Applicable’. Where an inspection or a test was not practicable, the entry should read ‘LIM’, meaning ‘Limitation’, acknowledging that the particular circumstances prevented the particular inspection or test procedure from being carried out. In such a case, each limitation should have been recorded in the box entitled ‘Agreed limitations, if any, on the inspection and testing’, together with the reason for each limitation.
Should the person ordering the work (e.g. the client, as identified on this certificate), have reason to believe that any element of the work for which the Approved Contractor has accepted responsibility (as indicated by the signature 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).
If wiring alterations or additions are made to an installation such that wiring colours to two versions of BS 7671 exist, a warning notice should have been affixed at or near the appropriate consumer unit/distribution board.
*NICEIC is operated by Certsure LLP, a partnership between the Electrical Contractors’ Association and the charity,Electrical Safety First. NICEIC maintains and publishes registers of electrical contractors that it has assessed against particular scheme requirements (including the technical standard of electrical work).