Electrical legal requirements? Any advice is appreciated

[december2020]

Hi,

We've just had a new consumer unit installed which is great.

It then went through the certification checks. However one of the outcomes was that the electricity running to the shed has failed the certification test. This is due to the house being old (built 1970s) and it being the wrong type of cable to modern standards.

The electrician mentioned because of this they need to disconnect the electricity to the garage, even though it's very unlikely anything would happen. Is this a legal requirement? Or can we decide if/when we'd like to fix this?

It's our own house, so not landlords.

Totally understand the safety aspect being important, just want to understand if we are legally allowed to have it connected until we can save up to upgrade it. I've been trying to find my answer on Google but probably not using the right keywords.

Any help would be much appreciated.

What you do in your own home is at your own risk. The only two difficulties I can see are if you had a fire or other electrical issue your insurers may blame the electrics to the garage and not pay out. Similarly if someone visiting had an accident you may be liable.

@Izzidigne this helps a lot thank you.

I figured if course that the liability would be with us.
It's just the way the electrician said it so "matter of fact" that it needs to be disconnected, I wasn't sure if this was a legal requirement or if we had a say.

We'd need electricity there and the risk (confirmed by electrician and fire safety professionals) is very very minimal. However we'd just not have the funds to fix this right now and would need to wait till next year.

The electrician will not be able to issue a certificate for the CU work if it is non-compliant.

The outdoor circuit is non-compliant.

Therefore he cannot both (1) connect the shed and (2) issue the certificate.

So who is going to reconnect the shed, and what to?

@PigletJohn this is really helpful thank you!
He didn't mention any of this (and I was on a client call so wasn't able to ask questions).
It finally gives me the context of why!

Regarding your other questions, I don't have an answer. I just wanted to understand the 'process' and I guess what the legal requirement was. My understanding is that the new CU is so much more sensitive that while the shed electricity isn't unsafe, it's not safe enough/compliant to the new CU's standard.

Am I right in saying, he can't say he's completed the work until he can issue the certificate? Which he can't do unless the CU is compliant.

he can issue a certificate with the shed not connected.

You could ask him to provide an external socket near the back door for the lawn mower.

Some people plug extension leads into them.

If you only have one RCD, you'll need a separate, RCBO-protected circuit so you don't lose multiple circuits in the event of a trip.

I will comment that electricians usually do an inspection and test of existing circuits before they start work, since any that have faults will have to be rectified before connection, and the customer ought to be warned in advance of the cost of rectification.

@PigletJohn so helpful as always! Thank you
I'm guessing that's why they want to disconnect the shed as they need to issue the certificate to complete the job? With no certificate it stays an "open job"?

Sadly they didn't do any rectification cost estimates, hence a bit of a headache I hadn't prepared for (and rectification work I need to budget for from somewhere now).

To update the thread with a resolution - spoke to the electrician today - all super clear (and he's a super sound reasonable guy).

We're going to carry out the compliance work to the garage as it's actually a much more minor job than I imagined, we can pull the armoured cable "above ground" compliantly but still stylishly and then we can always earth it at a later date if we want to.

Means no hassle with liability and all paperwork will be in order and everything will be compliant.