Questions & answers
The things people ask.
In roughly the order people ask them — who Rick is, what he is qualified to do and what he is careful not to claim, how booking a one-man firm actually works, and the detail on EICRs, boards and emergency lighting.
Who you're dealing with
01Who is Able Electricians?
One electrician: Richard Braddock — Rick — working from Boardman Street in Eccles. He quotes, tests, installs and signs the certificates himself. There is no office team and no second van, which is the point: the person who answers the phone is the person who will be stood at your consumer unit.
What qualifications does Rick hold?
He states City & Guilds 2351-52 Inspection & Testing and 18th Edition (BS 7671). Those are his own words and City & Guilds has no public register for anyone to check them against, so ask to see the certificates before he starts — and ask every other electrician who quotes you for theirs too.
What certification can I ask to see?
His City & Guilds inspection and testing certificate, his 18th Edition certificate and his insurance — sent over on request before work starts. This site does not display trade badges it cannot evidence, which is a deliberate choice: a logo on a website proves nothing, and the paperwork in your inbox proves quite a lot.
How long has Rick been doing this?
He puts it at 15+ years, and his own figures across that time are 1,134 condition reports, 426 consumer units and 277 flats rewired. They are his numbers rather than anything an outside body has audited — but they are at least specific.
Booking, hours and how it works
02What are the hours?
The Google listing shows open 24 hours Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday. That is one mobile — 07749 730033 — not a rota. Ring during the working day for anything that can wait; out of hours is for things that genuinely cannot.
How far ahead do I need to book?
Further than you would with a firm that has six vans. A one-man business cannot be in two flats at once, so a dated certificate deadline is worth mentioning on the first call — it decides whether the job can be taken on at all.
Do you work in occupied properties?
Regularly. Testing means the power goes off in stages, so tenants need telling in advance and access needs arranging to the board, the loft and anywhere else circuits terminate. For blocks that conversation happens with the managing agent before the visit is booked.
How are quotes handled?
Describe the property and the job on the phone. Small, well-defined work can be priced there and then; rewires, boards in awkward positions and anything communal get looked at first. Nothing on this site quotes a figure, because a figure quoted before seeing the installation is a guess.
Landlord EICRs
03How often does a rented property need an EICR?
At least every five years in the private rented sector in England, and at the start of a new tenancy if the existing report is older than that or the inspector has specified a shorter interval. The report interval is set in the document itself — it is not automatically five years for every property.
What do I have to do with the report once I have it?
Give a copy to existing tenants within 28 days of the inspection, to any new tenant before they move in, to a prospective tenant within 28 days of a request, and to the local authority within seven days if they ask for it. Keep it — the next inspector will want the previous one.
What happens if the report comes back unsatisfactory?
C1, C2 or FI observations mean remedial work, and the rules give you 28 days from the report — or sooner if the report says so — to get it done and obtain written confirmation. C3 is an improvement recommendation and does not on its own make the report unsatisfactory.
Do you find things that need doing on every job?
No, and that is deliberate. Coding an old but safe installation as a C2 to manufacture remedial work is the oldest trick in this trade. If the installation is satisfactory you are told it is satisfactory, and the report says so.
Boards, rewires and emergency lighting
04How do I know if my consumer unit needs replacing?
Rewireable fuses or a plastic enclosure on a shared staircase are the obvious ones. Beyond that: a single RCD taking out half the house when one appliance faults, no space for another circuit, or a condition report flagging inadequate protection. There is a fuller explanation on the consumer unit page.
Can we live in the house during a rewire?
Usually, yes — it is done in sections with the power back on at the end of each day wherever possible. That method came out of doing 277 occupied flats in two Salford blocks, where emptying the building was never an option.
How often does emergency lighting need testing?
A short function test every month to confirm each fitting strikes when the supply is cut, and a full three-hour duration test once a year. Both need logging. Fittings that fail the duration test get replaced — a battery that lasts twenty minutes is not emergency lighting.
Do you do EV charge points, CCTV and alarms?
They are on Rick's specialist services list, alongside home automation and access control. Scope varies enormously between a house and a managed block, so ring and describe the property rather than expecting a package price.