7 Common Mistakes When Hiring an Electrician to Rewire Your Property

The most common mistakes when hiring an electrician to rewire are not checking they can self-certify the work under Part P, choosing on price without comparing scope, and not agreeing who makes good the walls and what certificates you will get. Each one is easy to avoid with a few questions before you sign. Here are the seven we see most often, and what to ask instead.

1. Not confirming the electrician's registration

Not every electrician can sign off a rewire. A full or partial rewire involves new circuits and usually a new consumer unit, which makes it notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations. It must either be done by a registered electrician who can self-certify the work, or notified to building control before work starts, which adds a fee and an inspection.

Before hiring anyone, check:

• Are they registered with a Competent Person Scheme, so they can self-certify the work under Part P?

• Will they notify the work and send you the Building Regulations compliance certificate?

• Will they issue an Electrical Installation Certificate when the job is tested?

Without the right paperwork you can hit problems when selling, insuring or letting the property later. If you are in Hertfordshire, SL Electrics are NICEIC approved electricians in Watford.

2. Not being clear about what you want

A rewire is the one chance to put sockets, switches and lights where you actually need them, so vague instructions are costly. If you do not say it, it may not be in the design.

Common examples include:

• Not mentioning plans to change a room's use, such as a bedroom becoming a home office

• Not marking where you want sockets, switches and lights in each room

• Not mentioning future upgrades such as EV chargers or electric heating, which need their own circuits

• Assuming USB sockets, dimmers, outside lights or data points are included

Walk through each room before the survey and think about how you use it. Adding a point at first fix is simple; adding it after plastering means chasing new walls.

3. Choosing on price alone

The cheapest quote is often the one with the least in it. Rewiring takes time, skill and testing, and a quote that looks unusually low may mean:

• Fewer sockets and light points than the others have priced

• No Part P notification or certificates

• A basic consumer unit instead of RCBO protection

• No allowance for smoke alarms, making good or testing time

Get detailed written quotes and compare them line by line against the typical UK ranges for how much it costs to rewire a house, checking what each one leaves out.

4. Not agreeing what will be disrupted and who makes good

Rewiring is disruptive. It usually involves:

• Chasing walls to bury new cables

• Lifting floorboards and working in the loft

• Removing old fittings and fixing new ones

A frequent mistake is assuming the electrician will leave walls, decoration and flooring as they found them. Most rewire quotes cover filling chases and refitting floorboards, not plastering or redecorating.

Before the job begins, clarify:

• Who fills the chases and who plasters?

• Will carpets need lifting, and who refits them?

• Can the work be done in stages if you are living in the property?

5. Forgetting about certificates

Every rewire should be tested and certified when it is finished. Many customers do not know which documents to expect, and without them the work may not be recognised by building control, insurers or future buyers.

You should receive:

• An Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) confirming the work was designed, installed and tested to BS 7671

• A Building Regulations compliance certificate, issued through the electrician's scheme, confirming the notifiable work was notified

Agree before the job that both are included, since both are part of the regulations that apply to rewiring, and hold back the final payment until you have them.

6. Underestimating the timeline

Rewiring is never a one-day job. Even a small flat takes several days, and a larger or occupied house can take two weeks or more depending on access and layout. The mistake is fitting the rewire into a renovation schedule without allowing for first fix, plastering and second fix in the right order.

Before the job starts, make sure:

• You know how many days the work is expected to take

• You have discussed whether to move out for part of it

• You know which rooms will be without power, and when

7. Not asking about aftercare

Once the job is done you should know what happens if something is not right.

Ask before you agree:

• Will you be shown how the new consumer unit works and how to test the RCDs?

• Who do you contact if a circuit trips or something stops working?

• What warranty or guarantee applies to the workmanship and the materials?

Clear answers to these questions tell you a lot about how the electrician works.

Hiring the right electrician for your rewire

Checking registration, agreeing scope in writing, sorting out making good and insisting on the certificates avoids nearly every problem we are called in to fix. We carry out full and partial rewires for homes and businesses from our base in Shifnal across Wolverhampton, Telford, Shropshire and Staffordshire, and we self-certify the work under Part P.