Questions worth asking before work starts

Before any job

Which scheme are you registered with, and what is the number? Write it down and check it later rather than nodding at a logo. What is your minimum charge, and how many hours does it cover? Is the certificate included in the price, and which certificate will it be?

Those three take a minute on the phone and they settle most of what goes wrong later. The fourth is worth asking in the room rather than on the phone: is this job notifiable, and if so how is it being notified?

On a small job

Is this a spur or a new circuit? The answer decides whether the job is notifiable and it changes the price. Will making good be included, and does that mean plaster or paint? What would a second and third point cost on the same visit, because that is nearly always where a list becomes worth writing.

And for anything in a bathroom or a kitchen, ask which nation's rules they are working to, because the answer differs between England and Wales for exactly these jobs.

On a board change, a rewire or an EICR

What happens if an existing circuit fails its tests, and what is the hourly rate for putting it right? Getting that answer before work starts is the difference between an agreed variation and an argument on a landing.

On a rewire, ask how many sockets and lighting points the price covers, what each extra one costs, and which rooms lose power on which days. On an EICR, ask how many circuits will be tested rather than sampled. On a board change, ask whether it is individual devices per circuit or a split load board, and whether surge protection is in the price.

On a project

For solar, an EV charger or a battery, ask who applies to the distribution network operator and whether that is in the price. Ask what the design assumes about your existing supply, because the main fuse rating is the constraint that stops more of these jobs than any other.

For anything with a grant attached, ask whether they are authorised to claim it, because on the chargepoint grant only an authorised installer can. For commercial work with a category or a grade attached, ask which one the quote is for.

Two answers that should end the conversation

A refusal to give a registration number, or a promise to sort the paperwork out afterwards on work that is notifiable. Neither is a red flag about competence exactly. Both are a red flag about what you will be holding when the work is done and the van has gone.

The third is a price given over the phone for a job nobody has looked at, offered as a fixed figure rather than an estimate. It will change, and the moment it changes will be the moment the floor is up.