Building Control Notification: A 2026 Guide for Electricians
A practical guide to which electrical jobs need building control notification, how the 30-day scheme deadline works, and how to stop it slipping through the cracks.
Building control notification trips up more electricians than it should. You do the work, test it, hand over a certificate, and move on to the next job, then forget the paperwork that actually keeps you legal under Part P. Get it wrong and it's not just an admin headache. It can mean fines, comeback when the customer sells the house, and certificates that don't hold up when someone checks them later.
This guide covers what's notifiable, what isn't, how to notify through your competent person scheme, and how to stop missing the 30-day window.
What Part P actually covers
Part P of the Building Regulations applies to electrical work in dwellings in England and Wales. It splits work into notifiable and non-notifiable categories, and the line between them catches out even experienced sparks because it's not always obvious.
Notifiable work generally includes:
• New circuits (a new circuit from the consumer unit, even for something small like an outdoor socket)
• Consumer unit replacements or new consumer unit installations
• Rewires, full or partial, where new circuits are involved
• Electric vehicle charge point installations
• Work in special locations like bathrooms and swimming pools that involves new circuits
• Any work in kitchens that includes new circuits (the same rule applies here as in any other room: a new circuit is notifiable)
Non-notifiable work usually covers:
• Like-for-like replacements (swapping a socket, a switch, a light fitting)
• Adding a socket or light to an existing circuit, in most rooms
• Repairs and maintenance that don't touch a consumer unit or add a circuit
The genuinely tricky bit is that "notifiable" isn't always about the size of the job. A single new circuit for a shed light is notifiable. A full rewire of every room except one that reuses existing circuit paths might not need notification for every element. If you're ever unsure, treat it as notifiable and notify. It costs you nothing extra through your scheme and it protects you.
How notification actually works
If you're registered with a competent person scheme (NICEIC, NAPIT, STROMA, and others), you don't notify the local authority building control department directly. You notify through your scheme, who pass the information on. This is the whole point of being scheme-registered: it lets you self-certify notifiable work without a separate building control application and inspection.
The process in practice:
• Complete the job and test it properly.
• Issue the correct certificate, an EIC (Electrical Installation Certificate) for new circuits, consumer unit changes and EV chargers, or a Minor Works Certificate where that's the correct document for the scope.
• Log the notification with your scheme, usually through their online portal, within 30 days of completing the work.
• Your scheme submits the notification to the relevant local authority on your behalf and issues a Building Regulations compliance certificate to the customer.
That last document matters more than most electricians give it credit for. When a house is sold, conveyancers ask for proof that electrical work was notified. No compliance certificate means the seller can be forced to get retrospective building control sign-off, which is expensive, slow, and embarrassing for everyone involved, including you if your name's on the original certificate.
The 30-day deadline and what happens if you miss it
Your scheme sets the notification window at 30 days from completion of the work, not from when you get round to the paperwork. Miss it and you're in a grey area that ranges from mildly annoying to genuinely costly:
• Late notification fees. Some schemes charge extra for notifications submitted outside the window, or require additional justification.
• Invalid self-certification. If it's notified too late, or not at all, the work technically hasn't been through Building Regulations compliance. That's a live risk for the customer, not just you, but it's your name on the job.
• Comeback on sale. As above, this is where it bites hardest. A missed notification surfaces years later during a house sale, and the homeowner gets stuck with retrospective building control inspection costs, which can be costly and slow to put right.
• Scheme assessment risk. Persistent late or missed notifications get flagged during your scheme's annual assessment. It's the kind of thing that jeopardises your registration if it becomes a pattern.
None of this is complicated to avoid. The problem is almost always forgetting, not not knowing. You finish a job, invoice it, and the notification slips because there's no prompt sitting in front of you.
Before you close out a notifiable job
• Confirm which certificate applies (EIC, Minor Works, or EV charge point cert)
• Complete testing and fill in the certificate fully
• Log the notification with your scheme within 30 days
• Keep proof of the notification submission
• Give the customer their compliance certificate once it's issued
• Note the notification date somewhere you'll actually see it again
How Zappy Pro Tools handles this for you
This is exactly the kind of thing that's easy to know in theory and forget in practice, especially when you're juggling five jobs a week and the notification for job two is due while you're halfway through job four.
Zappy now builds the reminder straight into the certificate. Issue an EIC or an EV charge point certificate through /pro-tools and Zappy flags the notification requirement automatically, with the 30-day deadline shown on the certificate itself and in your home screen list of things needing attention. Tick it off once you've logged it with your scheme, or mark the work as not notifiable if that's the correct call. For a Minor Works Certificate that does need notifying, you can turn the same reminder on from the certificate's menu.
It doesn't submit the notification for you, that still goes through your scheme, but it stops the deadline disappearing into a pile of finished jobs you've moved on from. Combined with the home screen's "Needs you" list, which already surfaces unbilled jobs and unquoted site visits, it means the admin side of a job doesn't get lost once the tools are packed away.
Notifiable or not: a quick decision guide
Does this job need building control notification?
• Are you adding a new circuit from the consumer unit?
• Are you replacing or installing a new consumer unit?
• Is it an EV charge point installation?
• Is it a like-for-like replacement or an addition to an existing circuit?
• This is notifiable work. Issue the correct certificate (EIC or EV charge point cert) and notify through your competent person scheme within 30 days.
• This is normally non-notifiable, but check the room type and scope with your scheme if it's in a kitchen or special location, or if you're at all unsure.
• This falls into a grey area. Check with your scheme or a senior electrician before deciding, and if in doubt, notify.
Getting the certificate right first time
None of the notification process works if the underlying certificate is wrong or incomplete. Schemes reject or query notifications with missing test results, vague descriptions of the work, or unclear circuit details, and that just adds delay on top of whatever time you've already lost.
Zappy's certificate tools are built to stop that happening before you send. Fields that still need filling in are outlined in red with a note on what's missing, and you're taken straight to the first gap even if it's on another step. If you've written test results on paper, the scan test sheet feature reads your sheet and fills in circuits and readings for you to check, rather than you retyping everything. And if you're struggling to word the reason for an EICR or the description on an EIC or Minor Works cert, typing roughly what you mean and tapping Improve with AI turns it into proper certificate wording without adding anything you didn't say.
Get the certificate right, and the notification is just a formality you tick off inside the 30-day window rather than a scramble to remember what you actually did on a job three weeks ago.
If you're also looking for more work to fill the gaps between admin, /for-electricians covers how Zappy connects you with local homeowners posting jobs across South Yorkshire.
FAQ
Do I need to notify building control for a socket added to an existing circuit? Usually not, this counts as non-notifiable work in most rooms. It's a different story if you're adding a new circuit rather than extending an existing one, or if the work is in a kitchen or special location, so check with your scheme if there's any doubt.
What certificate do I need for an EV charger installation? An EV charge point installation is notifiable work and typically needs an EIC or the specific EV charge point certificate, depending on your scheme's requirements. It should always be notified through your competent person scheme within 30 days.
Can I notify building control directly instead of through my scheme? Yes, that's the alternative route if you're not scheme-registered, applying directly to your local authority building control department before starting notifiable work. Most electricians find scheme self-certification faster and cheaper because it doesn't require a separate inspection.
What happens if I've already missed the 30-day deadline? Contact your scheme as soon as you realise. Late notifications are usually still possible, sometimes with an extra fee, but the longer you leave it the harder it becomes to reconstruct accurate details of the job.
Does Zappy submit the notification to my scheme for me? No, Zappy tracks the deadline and reminds you it's due, but the actual submission still goes through your competent person scheme's own portal. It's there to stop the deadline slipping past unnoticed, not to replace the scheme process.
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