NEVER interfere with your hard wired electrical system, unless you’re a qualified and certified electrician.
A couple things here, you only need to be a competent person, not necessarily a qualified electrician (or certified).
You could find your insurance invalid if anything occurs as a result.
Have you any case studies to show this is the case? It's a bit like people saying their car insurance wont pay out if theyre driving illegally, how many speeding drivers have not been paid?
Plus the fact it’s illegal.
No it isnt:
The IEE Wiring Regulations, aka BS 7671
Surprisingly, perhaps, Part P does not alter the status of the Wiring Regulations. They are still non-statutory, and there is still no legal requirement to adhere to them in domestic installations. This is a source of great discomfort to many electricians, and some of them will jump through hoops to try and prove that they are mandatory, but the fact remains that they are not.
HOWEVER, adherence to them is a very good way of ensuring that you meet the technical requirements of Part P, and you would need a very good reason, and a very good understanding of what you were doing, to decide to not adhere to them.
Local Authority Building Control Issues
As mentioned above,
some LABCs are spreading misinformation, either by accident or design, about the status and acceptability of electrical work done by DIYers or other non-registered people.
These include:
1) Stating that such persons simply cannot carry out notifiable work, and that it must be done by registered electricians. The legislation referenced above makes it quite clear that this is not the case. LABCs are not allowed to refuse to process Building Notices submitted by non-registered people.
2) Stating that work carried out by a non-registered person must be inspected and tested by someone who is registered, or who they regard as qualified. Again, there is no mention of this requirement in the statutory instrument.
However they are allowed (indeed must) charge people if they choose to subcontract inspection & testing, and this might mean a charge per visit.
See
The Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010 - particularly 7(3):
Where the local authority consider it necessary to engage and incur the costs of a consultant to provide specialist advice or services in relation to a particular aspect of building work those costs shall also be included in the determination referred to in paragraph (1).
but how to work it out for night charging?
