What to ask an electrician before they start

Ask about their certification body, ask for a written quote, and ask for the electrical installation certificate at the end. If any of those throw them, ring the next one.

Electrical work is one of the few trades where bad work is genuinely dangerous and often invisible. You can’t see a dodgy joint behind a plaster wall until something goes wrong. There are electricians listed across the directory, and the gap between the good ones and the chancers is wider than almost any other trade. The questions below are how you tell them apart.

Know what Part P actually means

In England and Wales, most electrical work in homes falls under Part P of the Building Regulations. That doesn’t just mean “do a good job” – it means the work has to be notified to Building Control, either by the electrician (if they’re on a registered competent person scheme) or by you paying your council to inspect it.

The short version: hiring a registered electrician is cheaper and easier. They self-certify, they issue the certificate, you get the paperwork for your records. The main schemes to look for:

• NICEIC – the most recognised. Their logo is on vans all over the country.
• NAPIT – equally valid, slightly smaller presence.
• ELECSA, Stroma, Certsure – also approved competent person schemes.

If they’re not on any of them, they’re not wrong or illegal – but you’ll either need to pay Building Control separately or hope nothing goes wrong when you come to sell the house. Easier to just hire someone registered in the first place.

Six questions to ask before they start

1. Which competent person scheme are you registered with? You want a scheme name and ideally a registration number. Check it on the scheme’s online register – they all have one.
2. Will you issue an Electrical Installation Certificate when the job’s done? For any notifiable work, yes. If they say no, they can’t self-certify, which means Building Control, which means faff and money for you.
3. Can I get an itemised written quote? Labour, materials, timings, VAT if applicable. Vague “about a grand” quotes over the phone mean nothing when the bill lands.
4. Do you have public liability insurance? Any decent sparky has it. Ask for the cover amount – £2 million is standard, £5 million for bigger outfits.
5. Will you need to test the existing installation first? For anything beyond a simple swap, the honest answer is usually yes. An electrician who dives in without checking what they’re wiring into is guessing.
6. Who’s doing the actual work? If it’s a bigger firm, you might get an apprentice on the day. That’s fine – as long as there’s a qualified person signing off the work, and you’ve been told.

What the paperwork should look like at the end

For a lot of jobs – new circuits, consumer unit swaps, bathroom wiring, outbuilding supplies – you should end up with one or both of these:

• Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) – issued for new circuits or substantial alterations. Keep it with your house paperwork. You’ll need it when you sell.
• Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate (MEIWC) – for smaller jobs like adding a socket to an existing circuit.
• Building Control notification – for notifiable work, the scheme sends you this automatically. Arrives in the post a few weeks after the job.

No paperwork isn’t an option for notifiable work. If they finish the job and don’t mention it, ask. If they tell you it’s fine without one, it isn’t.

Red flags worth listening for

• “I don’t bother with all that certification stuff.” Run.
• Quoting wildly below the others. On a rewire or consumer unit swap, a quote that’s half everyone else’s usually means corners getting cut somewhere.
• No mention of testing the existing installation. For anything touching the consumer unit or a new circuit, testing isn’t optional.
• “I’ll sort the certificate later.” They won’t.

Finding one near you

The electricians directory on WotsItCalled lists sparkies across every city we cover. Start with the city-specific pages: electricians in Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Liverpool. Pick a few, ring round, and use the questions above.

What the final bill should include

For anything bigger than a socket swap, the invoice at the end should match the quote at the start. Any variation should have been agreed in writing before the extra work happened – not sprung on you at the till. A proper invoice lists:

• Labour hours at the agreed rate. For a day’s work, you should see a day’s hours. Not four days for a six-hour job.
• Itemised materials. Consumer unit brand, cable runs, sockets, fittings. You can cross-reference if you want to.
• VAT. Included or excluded, clearly marked.
• Certificate reference. The Electrical Installation Certificate serial number on the invoice itself. Ties the paperwork together.
• Warranty on their labour. 12 months is standard. Scheme-backed warranties last longer – 6 years through some registered schemes.

Store the certificates with your house paperwork. You’ll need them at sale, at remortgage, and any time a future electrician needs to know what’s in the walls.

The short version

• Hire an electrician registered with NICEIC, NAPIT, or another competent person scheme – it handles Part P for you.
• Ask for a written quote, proof of insurance, and confirmation they’ll issue certification at the end.
• Notifiable work needs either an Electrical Installation Certificate or a Building Control notice. Not both is fine. Neither is a problem.
• If they brush off the paperwork question, ring the next one.
• Check the scheme’s online register to confirm they’re actually on it.

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