Who is allowed to install my kitchen appliance, and what can I do myself?

Three different regimes apply in one kitchen, and they do not share a boundary. Gas is governed by the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations and is absolute. Fixed electrical work is governed by Part P of the Building Regulations and turns on whether a circuit is new or altered. Everything on a plug is unregulated. Knowing which regime a job falls under is most of the answer.

Safety

Step by step

1. Start by asking how the appliance connects.A plug into a socket, a fixed connection to a cooker circuit, or a gas connection. That single question routes the job into one of the three regimes and everything else follows.
2. Treat every gas job as Gas Safe registered work.Connecting a gas cooker to an existing bayonet point, changing a hob, converting between natural gas and LPG, moving a gas point. All of it. There is no minor gas job you may do yourself, and the engineer's ID card carries the specific categories they are qualified for — check the back of it.
3. Work out whether an electrical job is notifiable.In England and Wales, installing a new circuit, altering an existing one, or any work in a special location is notifiable under Part P. Replacing a like-for-like accessory on an existing circuit generally is not. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own equivalent regimes with the same practical effect.
4. Recognise that a cooker circuit is almost always the notifiable case.Fitting a new oven or hob onto an existing, adequately rated cooker circuit and connection unit is a swap. Running a new cooker circuit, upgrading one for a more powerful hob, or fitting a new cooker connection unit is a new or altered circuit, and it is notifiable.
5. Know what you may do with a plug-in appliance.Unpack it, plug it in, use it. That covers kettles, toasters, air fryers, slow cookers, blenders, food processors, most microwaves, and a good number of compact single ovens under 3kW that come fitted with a plug. Check the rating plate rather than assuming.
6. Check the socket is up to the job before assuming plug-in is fine.A 13A socket supports about 3kW. Two high-draw countertop appliances on one double socket via an extension lead is a genuine overload risk, and it is the one plug-in case that goes wrong.
7. Get and keep the certificate.Notifiable electrical work produces an electrical installation certificate and a building control notification. Gas work produces a Gas Safe record. Both belong in the house file — they are what a buyer's solicitor asks for, and reconstructing them years later is expensive.
8. Check who is doing the work before delivery day.Retailer installation services vary enormously in what they will and will not connect. Ask specifically whether they will make a fixed electrical connection or a gas connection, or whether they will only deliver and unbox.

Tips

• Check a gas engineer on the Gas Safe Register before they start, and look at the categories on the back of their card — cookers and hobs are a separate qualification from boilers.
• An electrician registered with a competent person scheme can self-certify Part P work. An unregistered electrician means a building control application, which costs more and takes longer, so ask before you book.
• If you are replacing a hob with a more powerful one, get the circuit assessed first. An induction hob on a circuit sized for an old ceramic one is a common and avoidable problem.
• Keep the appliance's own installation instructions. Manufacturers specify clearances, ventilation gaps and cable types, and an installer working to them is what keeps the warranty intact.

Common mistakes

• Treating a gas cooker connection as a plumbing job — It is gas work regardless of how simple the bayonet fitting looks. Doing it yourself is illegal, uninsurable, and the failure mode is carbon monoxide or an explosion rather than a leak you can see.
• Assuming a swap is never notifiable — A like-for-like swap on an adequate circuit is not. An upgrade that needs a bigger circuit, or a new connection unit, is — and the difference is easy to miss when the appliance simply looks similar.
• Losing the certificates — They are the only evidence the work was done properly. Their absence turns up during a sale, and regularising undocumented work after the event costs far more than the original notification.

Questions people ask