How to find a good electrician in London (and avoid the cowboys)

Bad electricians don't kill you. Their work does — months or years later, when the loose neutral they "fixed" arcs and starts a fire while you're asleep. Here's how to find the ones who actually know what they're doing.

1. Check accreditation — and verify it

The minimum bar in the UK is registration with one of these schemes:

• NICEIC (National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting) — the most widely recognised
• NAPIT (National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers)
• ELECSA
• STROMA

Anyone can say they're "NICEIC approved". Verify it: every accreditation body has a public online register where you type the company name and see their status.

Key tip: ask for their enrolment number, then check it on niceic.com (or the relevant body's site). It takes 30 seconds. If they get cagey when you ask — walk away.

2. Check Part P registration

For any "notifiable" work (consumer-unit replacement, new circuits, kitchen / bathroom rewires), the work must be certified under Part P of the Building Regulations. This means either:

• Your electrician is registered as a Competent Person and self-certifies
• Or you pay your local council for Building Control to inspect (£200+, slow)

If your electrician isn't Part P registered, they can do the work but you'll need separate Building Control sign-off. When selling your house, the buyer's solicitor will ask for the certificate. No certificate = problems at exchange.

3. Check insurance

Minimum £2,000,000 public liability. Ask to see the certificate. A real electrician won't blink at this. A cowboy will say "yeah it's all sorted" and not produce paperwork.

4. The price test

Going rates in London 2026:

• Standard hourly: £75-£95
• Out-of-hours: £100-£150
• Emergency call-out: £130-£200 minimum
• EICR (1-2 bed flat): £150-£250
• Consumer unit replacement: £600-£900

Quoted way under these rates? Either they're cutting corners or they don't have the certifications they claim. The cheapest electrician on Bark is rarely the right choice. Cowboys aim low to win the job, then add "extras" once they're on site.

Quoted way over? Probably a corporate franchise paying their dispatcher £30k to send you a £25/hr engineer. You're paying for the marketing, not the skill.

5. The conversation test

A good electrician will:

• Ask questions before quoting (age of the property, last EICR, what's tripped)
• Explain what they'd do, in plain English
• Mention safety considerations you didn't ask about
• Be willing to walk away if the job's not right for them

A cowboy will:

• Quote on the phone in 30 seconds without asking anything
• Push for cash payment
• Make you feel rushed
• Not mention certificates

What about platforms like Bark, Checkatrade, MyBuilder?

Mixed bag. Verified reviews are useful, but those platforms don't enforce minimum certification standards. Always still verify accreditation directly with NICEIC / NAPIT / etc, regardless of how many good Bark reviews someone has.

What about word-of-mouth?

Best signal there is — but only if the recommender actually had a real, complex job done well. "My cousin's mate is good" isn't enough. "My cousin had her fuse box replaced and the engineer noticed a hidden junction box and re-routed it without charging extra" — that's the recommendation worth listening to.

Quick recap

1. Verify NICEIC / NAPIT accreditation directly on the public register
2. Confirm Part P registration if work is notifiable
3. £2M public liability insurance, with paperwork
4. Price within market range — neither rock-bottom nor inflated
5. Ask questions, listens, willing to walk away

SwiftVolt ticks every box on this list. 020 3355 7549 · Free Priority Club · swiftvolt.co.uk.

Common questions