Guide
How to find a good electrician
Start from who is genuinely local, check one number, ask for the job they least want to do, and treat availability as information rather than as an obstacle.
Start local, and mean it
A business with an address in your town turns up for the follow up visit, and that matters more than anything on a website, because the second visit is the one nobody prices in. A firm covering six counties from a single van is telling you where it would like to work rather than where it is.
Non geographic numbers are worth noticing. A national number with no local address usually belongs to a company that passes the job to somebody local and takes a share, which adds a layer between you and whoever is holding the screwdriver.
Check the one number
Ask for the scheme and the registration number and check it on that scheme's own search. It takes a minute, it is free, and it is the only check on this page that cannot be talked around.
If the work is not notifiable and the person is not registered, that is not a disqualification. Ask instead about qualifications, ask about insurance and the amount, and ask which certificate you will be given at the end.
Availability is information
A busy one van electrician in most towns is booked two to four weeks out for anything that is not an emergency. Somebody who can come tomorrow for a full day either has had a cancellation or does not have a full order book, and both are possible.
It is not a rule and it is a signal. Ask when they could start, then ask what they are working on at the moment. The answer to the second question tells you more than the answer to the first.
Ask for the job nobody wants
Fault finding is the job that separates people. It is hourly, it is uncertain, and it needs instruments and method rather than speed. An electrician who takes fault finding work and can describe how they approach it is telling you something real about how they work.
The same is true of anyone who asks you questions before quoting. A price given without asking what the floor is made of, where the board is, or what is above the ceiling is a price that will change.
What to do after the work
Keep the certificate somewhere you will find it in ten years, because that is when it is asked for. Photograph the consumer unit with the door open and the labels visible. Write the year on any alarm that was fitted.
And if the work was good, the useful thing is not a review. It is being the person who says yes when they ask whether you know anyone else who needs something doing. That is how the good ones stay busy, and it is why they are worth keeping.
Common questions
How many electricians should I ask?
Three for a large job. For a small one, the travel is most of the cost and three visits to quote is more disruption than it saves.
Is the cheapest quote ever the right one?
Often, once the scopes have been lined up and all three include the certificate. The problem is almost never the price; it is that the three quotes are for three different jobs.
What if I am unhappy with the work?
Raise it with the business first and in writing. Where they are scheme registered, the scheme has a complaints route and, for notifiable work, a warranty position, which is one of the practical reasons registration is worth asking about.