How to Hire an Electrician

What makes hiring an electrician different

Electrical work is one of the few domestic trades where the law specifies who may do what and what must be recorded, and where the consequences of getting it wrong are safety rather than aesthetics.

It is also unverifiable by eye. A consumer unit can look immaculate and be wired badly. A socket can work perfectly and be connected in a way that is dangerous under fault conditions. You have no way of assessing this, which is why the registration and the certificate carry the weight that your own judgement cannot.

Registration and what is notifiable

In England and Wales, certain domestic electrical work is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations. Electricians registered with a competent person scheme, NICEIC, NAPIT, ELECSA and others, can self-certify. Otherwise the work must be notified to building control before it starts, which costs money and takes time.

Notifiable: any new circuit, replacing the consumer unit, and any fixed electrical work in a special location, bathrooms, shower rooms, saunas and swimming pools, including minor additions and alterations there.

Not notifiable: like-for-like replacements, and adding a socket or switch to an existing circuit outside those special locations. It still has to comply with BS 7671; it just does not have to be notified.

England and Wales publish separate guidance and the rules are not identical, so check for the nation where the work is done. Scotland and Northern Ireland have entirely different frameworks.

Verify registration on the scheme's own register using the company name. Confirm the registration covers domestic installation work.

The certificate is part of what you are buying

This is the point most homeowners miss.

For notifiable work you should receive certification confirming the installation complies. Keep it. It is requested during conveyancing, and its absence can hold up a sale or require retrospective inspection at your cost.

For smaller work you should still receive a minor works certificate. Ask for it before final payment, not afterwards, that is the only leverage point that reliably produces it.

What a good electrical quote looks like

• Exactly what is being installed, moved or replaced
• Whether the work is notifiable, and who is certifying it
• Whether any building control fee is included
• Whether making good, chasing, plastering, decorating, is included, and to what standard
• Consumer unit work: whether an upgrade is needed and why
• Testing and certification, explicitly listed

The making-good point causes recurring disputes. Chasing cables into walls creates damage that has to be repaired, and many electricians quote for the electrical work only. Establish who is filling, plastering and decorating.

Deposits and payment stages

Materials are a smaller proportion here than in most trades, roughly a fifth to a quarter of the job, so large deposits are not justified. Around 10% is reasonable, and on smaller work none at all.

On a rewire, sensible stages are: first fix complete, plastering, second fix, then testing and certification. Hold the final 10% until the certificate is in your hands, not until the sockets work.

That single sentence is the most useful thing on this page. Certification is the part most often delayed indefinitely, and the final payment is what prevents that.

What usually goes wrong

• Certificates never issued, discovered years later during a sale
• Notifiable work carried out unregistered and unnotified
• Making good excluded, leaving chased walls to be dealt with
• Consumer unit upgrades sold unnecessarily
• Additional work "found" mid-job in a way the homeowner cannot assess

Questions to ask an electrician

• What is your scheme registration number, and does it cover domestic work?
• Is this work notifiable, and who is certifying it?
• What certificate will I receive, and when?
• Is making good included, and to what standard?
• Does the consumer unit need work, and can you show me why?
• Will you test the existing installation as part of this?