Regulations That Apply to Rewiring a House in the UK
Updated: 12 minutes ago
A rewire in England has to meet two sets of rules: the Building Regulations (Part P, which decides whether the work must be notified to building control) and BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations, which sets how the installation is designed, installed and tested. A full rewire is always notifiable, because it involves new circuits and a new consumer unit. Landlords and employers carry extra legal duties on top.
Do you need a permit to rewire a house in the UK?
No. There is no "permit" in the American sense. What you need instead is for notifiable electrical work to be either self-certified by a registered competent person or approved by building control, and in both cases you end up with a Building Regulations certificate for the work.
The rules below are for England. Wales has its own version of the Building Regulations and its own notification rules, so check with your local authority there.
Is a rewire notifiable under Part P?
Yes. Regulation 12(6A) of the Building Regulations 2010 makes three kinds of electrical work notifiable: installing a new circuit, replacing a consumer unit, and any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a special location (the zones around a bath or shower, or a room with a swimming pool or sauna heater). A full rewire means new circuits and, in almost every case, a new consumer unit, so it is notifiable every time.
A partial rewire depends on its scope. A new circuit, a board change or anything in a bathroom's zones makes it notifiable. Kitchens are not special locations, so kitchen work is only notifiable if it adds a circuit (a new cooker circuit, for example) or changes the board. Approved Document P treats replacements, repairs and maintenance as non-notifiable anywhere, so replacing damaged cable or like-for-like accessories on an existing circuit is not notifiable, though it must still be done and tested to BS 7671. The same Part P building regulations govern smaller jobs a homeowner may do without notifying anyone, and phased projects need planning so each stage is certified, which is why a partial rewire should be scoped as one project from the start.
How is a rewire certified? The three routes
Approved Document P sets out three ways to certify notifiable work:
Registered competent person. The electrician is registered with a Competent Person Scheme and self-certifies. Within 30 days of completion, the installer or their scheme must give you a Building Regulations compliance certificate and tell building control. You deal with no one else.
Registered third-party certifier. An installer who is not registered appoints a registered third-party certifier before work starts, who inspects and tests the work.
Building control. The installer notifies a building control body before work begins. Building control decides what inspection and testing it needs, charges a fee, and issues a completion certificate once satisfied.
The law does not say only an electrician may do notifiable work. It says the work must be certified by one of these routes. In practice, a whole-house rewire done any way other than route 1 is slow and expensive, which is why nearly every rewire goes through a registered electrician who can self-certify the work under Part P. For house rewiring across Shropshire and the West Midlands, we handle the notification ourselves.
BS 7671: the IET Wiring Regulations
BS 7671 is the British Standard for electrical installations, published by the IET and BSI. The current version is BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, the 18th Edition with Amendment 4, published in April 2026. The previous version (Amendment 3:2024) stays valid until 15 October 2026, and until then installers may work to either. BS 7671 is not itself a law, but meeting it is the usual way to show that electrical work satisfies Part P and, in workplaces, the Electricity at Work Regulations.
For a rewire, BS 7671 governs things like:
Cable type and size for each circuit, and how cables are routed (including the safe zones for cables buried less than 50 mm deep in walls).
Circuit protection with MCBs, RCDs or RCBOs, including 30 mA RCD protection for most socket outlets up to 32 A and for cables buried less than 50 mm deep in walls unless they are mechanically protected.
Earthing and protective bonding.
Inspection and testing before the installation is put into service.
BS 7671 is not retrospective. An older installation wired to an earlier edition is not illegal just because it does not match today's rules, but it may earn improvement codes on an inspection.
Which certificates should you get after a rewire?
You should receive two separate electrical certificates:
An Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC). Issued by the electrician under BS 7671, with the test results and a schedule of every circuit.
A Building Regulations compliance certificate. Issued through the electrician's Competent Person Scheme (or a completion certificate from building control), confirming the notifiable work met Part P.
Keep both. A buyer's solicitor will ask for them, and so may your insurer after an electrical incident. If notifiable work was never certified, building control can take enforcement action and a sale can stall until the work is regularised.
Rewiring a rented property: landlord duties
Private landlords in England (and, since the 2025 amendment, social landlords) have specific duties under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. The electrical installation must be inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every 5 years, a copy of the report must go to tenants within 28 days, and any remedial work or further investigation the report requires must be done within 28 days (or sooner if the report says so). Councils can impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000 for a breach.
A report coded C1 or C2 does not automatically mean a rewire. It means those faults must be put right. Where the report shows the installation is at the end of its life, though, a rewire is often the cheapest way to clear the codes for good. We can carry out the EICR first so the decision is based on test results.
Commercial rewiring: the Electricity at Work Regulations
In workplaces, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 apply. Regulation 4 requires electrical systems to be constructed and maintained so as to prevent danger, and regulation 16 requires that people doing electrical work are competent to prevent danger, or properly supervised. The HSE enforces these duties.
A commercial rewire often touches other systems with their own British Standards: fire detection and alarm systems (BS 5839) and emergency lighting (BS 5266). Those need designing in from the start, not bolted on afterwards.
With over 20 years of experience, SM Electrical designs, installs, tests and self-certifies rewires from our base in Shifnal. If you want to know exactly which rules apply to your property before you commit, get in touch and we'll walk through it with you.
Rewiring regulations questions, answered
Can I rewire my own house?
The law allows it, provided you notify building control before you start and the work passes their inspection and testing. You also need the skills to test the installation to BS 7671. For most homeowners, the cost of building control plus the risk of failing inspection makes a registered electrician the simpler route.
How do I check an electrician is registered?
Ask which Competent Person Scheme they belong to and for their registration number, then check it on the government-authorised Competent Person Register. Ask to see an example EIC as well; skipping these checks is one of the common mistakes people make when hiring an electrician to rewire.
Do I need planning permission to rewire?
No. Rewiring is a Building Regulations matter, not a planning one. The exception is a listed building, where chasing walls or lifting historic floors can need listed building consent.
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