Electrical subcontractor Rights:

[Bivvysenior]

My friend is a electrical subcontractor to a kitchen fitter who inturn installs KItchens for a National Kitchen Sales Organisation as a contractor. What rights has he got to recover his products and accessories should the main Kitchen sales Company default if they went into administration and not pay the Kitchen Installation contractor.. This is a hypothetical scenario at the moment .. but would like to know any options available.

all the electrical work has to be Part P compliant and registered Can he recover his electrical fittings and not issue certification for the work in the event of non payment

[buildersmate]

I've known of situations where people have tried this. The way to do it legally is to put a clause in your contract that title to the goods supplied as part of the installation does not transfer to the customer (the kitchen fitter) until fully paid for. There's the problem, of course - the goods are installed in the end customer's property - not with the kitchen fitter. And 95% of such contracts aren't written - they are verbal deals between mates.

Frankly the better bet is to simply refuse to issue the Part P certificate - that's a real gotcha because any self-certifiying electrician is likely to refuse to certify another's work - especially when it is all covered over. Since the value of the fittings is (by and large) pretty small is relation to the value of the labour, it is not such a bad 'gotcha'. Far better than the equivalent 'gotcha' a plumber might expect.

[Bivvysenior]

Many thanks for your reply Buildersmate,
As it so happens the invoice given to the Kitchen Fitter states "All Wiring and accessories are property of Electric Ltd until balance paid in full
By the way the Organisation is MFI and just been put into administration today so my friend will be pretty low on the creditors list.