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Part P of the Building Regulations covers electrical safety in dwellings in England, and Approved Document P is the guidance that goes with it, dealing with the design, installation, inspection and testing of electrical work and explaining when notification is required. The current edition, which took effect in 2013, reduced the range of electrical installation work that is notifiable, so many smaller jobs no longer are, while work such as a new circuit still is.

There are three routes for notifiable work. An installer registered with a competent person scheme can self-certify it; the work can be notified to the local authority building control body before it starts; or an installer who is not registered can use a registered third-party certifier to certify the work instead. Government publishes the list of authorised schemes, which includes NICEIC and NAPIT for electrical installation work, alongside schemes covering heating, plumbing, windows, insulation and other trades.

The devolved picture matters, and this is where a lot of online advice goes wrong. Part P and Approved Document P apply to England. Scotland works under the Building (Scotland) Act 2003, where the local authority acts as verifier, grants building warrants and issues completion certificates, with technical handbooks in place of approved documents. In Northern Ireland the building regulations are the responsibility of the Department of Finance and building control is handled by district councils. Ask a local electrician how the work is certified where you live rather than assuming the English route applies.

An EICR is part inspection and part testing. The electrician examines the consumer unit, the earthing and bonding, accessible cabling, sockets, switches and fittings, then carries out tests that need the power off for periods, so expect the supply to be interrupted while the work is done. Circuits are identified and labelled, and anything that could not be reached or inspected is recorded as a limitation rather than quietly passed over.

The report states whether the installation is satisfactory or unsatisfactory, lists the observations behind that verdict, and gives the date by which the next inspection should take place. An unsatisfactory result is not a sales tactic: it means something found needs putting right before the installation can be called safe. Ask for the remedial work to be quoted separately from the inspection, so you can see exactly what you are being asked to pay for and why.

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 turned what used to be good practice into a hard rule. Landlords must ensure the electrical safety standards are met throughout a tenancy, and the regulations define those standards as the standards for electrical installations in the eighteenth edition of the Wiring Regulations, published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the British Standards Institution as BS 7671: 2018.

The duties are specific. The installation must be inspected and tested at intervals of no more than five years, or sooner where the report requires it, by a qualified person, which the regulations define as someone competent to carry out the inspection and testing and any further investigative or remedial work to those standards. The landlord must obtain a report giving the results and the date of the next inspection, supply it to existing tenants within 28 days, give it to a new tenant before they occupy the property, provide it to the local housing authority within seven days of a request, and to a prospective tenant within 28 days of a written request. Where remedial work is needed, it must be completed within 28 days or any shorter period the report specifies, with written confirmation afterwards.

These regulations apply to England, and were amended in 2025 to extend the requirements to the social rented sector. If you let property elsewhere in the UK, check the rules that apply there rather than assuming these do.

A residual current device trips because it has detected current leaking to earth, which is precisely what you want it to do. Nuisance tripping is usually a fault somewhere, not a fault in the RCD, so the useful response is to find what is leaking rather than to keep resetting it.

Almost all of the variation is in the building rather than in the electrics. The same new circuit is a morning's work in a house with a loft and floorboards, and a much longer job in a flat with solid walls and a concrete floor.