"BigWallop" wrote in message
...

"Kevin Chambers" wrote in message
om...
I've been (mostly) reading this group for over a year whilst
renovating my house and during that time have got some usefull
information from it.

snipped (for space saving purposes)

required which they could charge £500 a day for (plus overcharging for
the parts obviously) and that I couldn't legally do anything unless I
found someone to do the gas and certification.

The trades are setting new standards all the time, and equipment suppliers
and
manufacturers are constantly changing designs and styles to comply with
these new
standards. But the DIYer is not changing with the times as fast as the
trades are, so
problems are now starting to arise from this gap in knowledge. Any
reputable
tradesperson will be constantly updating their techniques to allow for new
things
coming to the market and, in most cases, this is long before the DIYer is
even aware
of what is happening. So new found dangers and changes to the codes of
practice can
arise due to faults that were found with older techniques and newer
methods must then
be introduced to compensate for them.

The average DIYer still has the "That'll do it for me" way of thinking
when they carry
out an unfamiliar job. Fact. But, if the work they are carrying out can
be dangerous
to people and / or even the environment, then the work is deemed, and
rightly so, to
be unsuitable for safe use. This is where new certification schemes would
come into
play.


You've stated this before. Do you have any evidence to back this assertion
up? Is, on average, DIY work statistically better or worse than the broad
spectrum of work carried out by tradesmen (qualified or not?).

In the ODPM's "justification" for BRegs Part P ISTR that the number of fatal
electrocutions in the UK is tiny (in 10s rather than 100s or 1000s), and the
stats don't distinguish between fixed and portable appliances, nor
unqualified as opposed to qualified installations.

Where do we stop with this obsession with qualifications and certification?
Should DIY/unqualified car maintenance be banned on the grounds that you
might not spot a problem with the brakes if you happen to be changing the
oil filter?


Scenario 1;

The work carried out on a service installation by the DIYer in their own
home isn't
perfectly done. The house is then sold on, but still has the defect in
the work
carried out by the last DIY owner. The new occupier is lying in bed one
night and
suddenly BLAM !!! the cooker pipework, or the shower wiring have burst
into flames due
to the defect left by the last owner.

Who's at fault ? The new occupier because he didn't check everything ?
But he works
as an accountant and doesn't know anything about DIY at all.

Caveat Emptor. It's stunning that we don't commission electrical surveys
and gas safety checks more frequently as part of the house buying process.

Of course an electrical check even on work properly and competently carried
out by a fully qualified sparky 10 years ago might come back as
"installation does not meet current wiring regs". What does that mean? Is
it dangerous? I'd hazard a guess that the vast majority of uk housing stock
doesn't meet current standards, and accident (electrocution/fire/etc) rates
are not out of control.


Is it the previous owners fault ? But he had no regulations to prevent
him from doing
that type of work, so is he fully responsible ? He felt confident enough
in doing the
job to his own standard.


There are probably adequate remedies at law for dangerously shoddy work,
criminal negligence probably being at the top of the tree.

And if they want to feel confidently isolated from potential claims after a
house sale they could always commission gas/'electric safety checks and give
the buyers the reports...

snip

We have turned into a society obsessed with fear of insurance companies, the
cult of the "professional", rules and regulations, and the fear of something
going wrong no matter how small the risk.


--
Richard Sampson

email me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk