Why these questions matter

Commercial electrical work is not a like-for-like commodity. Two contractors quoting the same price can differ enormously in how they will handle the job: who certifies the work, what paperwork lands on your file, how they coordinate around your operation, and what they do when something goes wrong on site.

These are the eight questions a facilities manager, landlord or main contractor should ask before signing — the questions that separate a competent commercial contractor from a domestic electrician taking commercial work.

1. What accreditations do you hold?

The single most important question. The baseline you should expect:

NICEIC Approved Contractor (or equivalent ELECSA / NAPIT for installation work). Annually audited installation competence.
CHAS certified (or SafeContractor, Achilles, Constructionline) for health and safety pre-qualification.
TrustMark registration — government-endorsed quality scheme.
Part P registration where any domestic-element work is in scope.

Ask for scheme membership numbers and verify them on the awarding body’s website. The numbers tell you the scheme is current; the website confirms the contractor has not lapsed.

2. What public liability insurance do you carry?

Standard for commercial electrical work is £5,000,000 public liability. Larger contractors will carry £10m. For multi-site landlord portfolios or industrial-site work, £5m is the floor — anything less is a red flag.

Ask for the certificate of insurance, not just a verbal statement. The certificate shows the insurer, the policy number, the expiry date and the cover limit. We provide ours unprompted with every quote.

3. Who actually signs off the work?

This is the question most quotes don’t answer. Many electrical contractors sub-contract the certification — the engineer who turns up is one party, the qualified person who signs the EIC is another, often working under a different scheme.

The right answer: the engineer who delivers the work also signs the certificate, under the contractor’s own accreditation. If the answer is anything else, ask why.

4. What paperwork do I get on completion?

A complete electrical handover pack includes:

BS 7671 Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) for new circuits, or Minor Works Certificate for partial scope
Distribution board schedules (printed at the board and PDF copy)
As-fitted drawings updated to reflect the actual install
BS 5266 commissioning certificate for any new emergency lighting
O&M pack with product data sheets, warranties and contact details for equipment manufacturers
EICR for the existing installation if requested before tying in

Ask for a sample handover pack from a recent job before signing. A contractor who can produce one in 24 hours has the systems in place; one who cannot may not.

5. How do you handle out-of-hours work?

For commercial premises the answer determines whether the contractor understands your operation. Retail clients cannot close to let an electrician in; office clients have noise-sensitive occupied floors; industrial sites have production-shutdown windows.

Ask:

Is out-of-hours work itemised separately on the quote, or included? (For retail fit-outs, included as standard is the better answer.)
What is the surcharge for evening / overnight / weekend work for in-hours sectors?
What is the lead time to schedule out-of-hours work?
Do you have engineers on the rota for 24/7 emergency callouts?

The right contractor has clear answers. A contractor who quotes only in-hours and treats out-of-hours as an afterthought is set up for residential work, not commercial.

6. What is your response SLA for faults?

If you are running ongoing electrical maintenance (PPM), reactive response is half the value of the contract. Ask:

Same-day response in working hours?
Engineer on site within 4 hours for production-critical faults?
24/7 emergency callout line, or weekdays-only?
What faults are inside the contract, what is chargeable extra?

For multi-site landlords and 24/7 operators, the response SLA is what justifies the contract over a pay-as-you-go arrangement.

7. Can you coordinate across multiple sites?

For portfolio landlords, multi-store retailers, multi-academy trusts and FM operators, the operational question is: can one contractor cover everything we have?

The right answers include:

A named contract manager for the whole portfolio
A single annual compliance report consolidating EICRs, emergency-lighting tests, PAT records across all sites
Engineers deployed from the nearest base to minimise travel
One consolidated invoice format at agreed intervals
A portfolio-level compliance dashboard for your own audit purposes

Contractors who treat each site as a separate job and re-onboard at every interaction are not set up for portfolio work.

8. Have you worked in my sector before?

Sector experience matters more than you might expect. Each commercial sector has its own working norms:

Retail — out-of-hours fit-outs, fast turnaround, head-office specifications across branches
Office fit-out — Cat A vs Cat B scope, M&E consultant coordination, programme-driven delivery
Industrial / warehouses — three-phase, machine wiring, production-shutdown calendars, permit-to-work systems
Schools — holiday-window scheduling, safeguarding-cleared engineers, CIBSE LG5 classroom lighting standards
Landlords — void EICRs between tenancies, certificate management across a portfolio
Healthcare — infection control, fire compartmentation, regulatory inspection regimes

Ask for a named reference in your sector. A contractor with depth in the sector will arrange a 10-minute call with a current client. A contractor without will deflect.

What good answers look like

For everyone reading this article: ours are:

Accreditations: NICEIC Approved Contractor, CHAS, TrustMark, Part P
Insurance: £5,000,000 public liability, certificate provided with every quote
Sign-off: every certificate signed by a Martin Day engineer
Paperwork: EIC + board schedules + as-fitted drawings + O&M pack, within 48 hours of completion
Out-of-hours: included as standard for retail; itemised separately for other sectors with rates published before the job
Response SLA: same-day weekday response; 24/7 callout under PPM contract
Multi-site: named contract manager, annual compliance report, portfolio dashboard
Sector experience: 30+ years across offices, retail, industrial, education, landlords and main-contractor sub-contract work in Leeds and West Yorkshire

If any of those answers would be useful, call us on 0800 211 8990 or request a quote.

Choosing a commercial electrician: 8 questions to ask before signing