How to hire an electrician: what to ask on the phone, what to check at the door, and what a fair quote looks like

The difference between a good electrician and a bad one is not price. It is whether the work is still safe in five years. Here is how to tell, before the work starts, and how to keep the price honest without being difficult.

On the phone: five questions that sort the professionals

1. "Is the visit charge waived if I go ahead?" The answer should be yes. The ₹300 visit charge exists for diagnosis-only calls; anyone who insists on it on top of the job is padding.
2. "How do you price this?" You want to hear per point, per fan, per job, per square foot. A single round number for a list of jobs means nothing was counted. The TheHire estimator breaks it down this way, and a professional will recognise the list.
3. "What wire and what brand of switch do you use?" The answer should include a wire brand and a switch series without prompting: Polycab or Finolex, Anchor or Havells or Legrand. "Whatever is available" is the wrong answer.
4. "Will you show me the material bill?" Yes, without hesitation.
5. "Do you check the earthing and the RCCB on every visit?" A professional does, even for a fan. It takes two minutes and it is how they find the dangerous houses.

If you are posting on TheHire, the request already asks what the job is and when; adding a photo of the board or the fault gets you sharper replies from the up to three verified electricians who call back.

At the door: what to look for

• A tester and a meter, not only a screwdriver. The tester proves a point is dead before they touch it. The meter is for the earth and for finding a loose neutral.
• The main switch goes off first. Anyone who opens a switchboard live, with the power on, has told you everything.
• They ask, before starting, what else is on the circuit and where the board is. That is diagnosis; the alternative is guessing.
• They say no to the wrong fix. Ask, as a test, whether a bigger MCB would stop the tripping. The right answer is a clear no with a reason.

Red flags

• A quote given without seeing the board or the point, for anything beyond a fan or a switch.
• "Copper wire" at a price that is below the copper price. It is copper-clad aluminium.
• An offer to bypass the RCCB "because it keeps tripping". The RCCB is tripping because something is leaking.
• Materials bought from a shop you cannot see a bill for.
• A reluctance to label the board, or to say what each MCB feeds, at the end.
• No reviews, no ID, no way to call back a week later. On TheHire every electrician is ID and phone verified and reviewed after each job, which is the part you cannot check in person.

What a fair quote looks like

A fair quote is a list, not a number. For a typical set of small jobs it reads like this:

Three things to notice. Every line has a unit and a quantity. Materials are separate and tied to a bill. And the visit charge is written down as waived, so there is no surprise at the end. In a metro city add about 30 percent to the rates; for a same-day call add about 20 percent; for a night emergency the ₹500 surcharge is fair, and anything above it is not.

For bigger jobs the structure is the same but the unit changes. Rewiring is ₹40 per square foot of labour with wire on the bill; a new flat's fit-out, points and boards, is ₹30 per square foot. For these, agree the wire brand and the switch series in writing before an advance changes hands, and agree that the advance is for materials against the bill, not labour.

What to agree before work starts

• Scope. The list of jobs, with any extras the electrician spotted on the visit added as their own lines.
• Materials. Who buys, which brands, and that you see the bill.
• Timing. A fan is an hour; a point in a finished wall is a morning; a rewire is days, and the house will be without power in sections. Ask which rooms, and when.
• Mess. Chasing a wall makes dust. Who patches the plaster, and is paint included? Usually not; the painter is a separate trade.
• Payment. Repairs after the work; projects as materials advance plus labour at the end.
• The board at the end. Labelled, with the RCCB tested in front of you.

After the work

Test what was done while the electrician is still there. Switch each new point on and off. For an RCCB, press its test button and watch it trip. For a socket, plug something in. Take a photo of the open board with the new labels; it is useful the next time anything goes wrong.

Then write the review. On TheHire it is public, it is what the next customer reads, and it is what keeps the good electricians at the top of the list in your city.

When you need more than an electrician

Some jobs sit between trades, and it saves a wasted visit to know which one to call first.

• A geyser: electrician for the point and the earthing, plumber for the pipes. Call the plumber first if the geyser is new; the electrician's part is quick once it is on the wall.
• An AC: electrician for the dedicated line and the MCB at ₹1,400, the AC technician for the unit. Get the line in before the technician comes, or the technician will run a cable along the skirting that you will regret.
• Solar: the solar installer for the panels and inverter, an electrician for the connection at the board and the net meter at ₹4,500.
• A new kitchen: the electrician for the points before the cabinets go in. Points added after a modular kitchen is fitted cost twice as much and look it.