Odd question...

[Zikki Malambo]

Someone up thread suggested getting a qualified sparky to check the work for £50 - £60.

If you can't get people to come out to quote for decent ammounts of work at £30.00/hour, how does anyone get sparkies out to inspect and test at these prices?

Is there a breed of sparky out these that prefers to inspect & test others work rather than doing it? (it does sound less messy on the face of it).

Or is it the case that they just look around, take one or two fittings off and write the certificate?

I know when we sold our last house, the Estate agent said she purchasor wanted to send someone round to check the electric meter. We thought this odd but agreed. What we got was a little man who proceeded to dismantle every socket, fcu etc. Something we'd never have agreed to had we known (just because we could have done without a whole days disruption). I presume this cost the purchasor rather more than £50 - £60 though (London).

[Stefek Zaba]

It's a simpler "fill-in-the-working-day" job, rarely unpredictable as to time - somewhere between an hour and two. The sparky's working to fill in a form, doing a few well-specified tests, and such further visual inspection as their experience tells them is appropriate.

In the majority of cases, they'll look, assess the overall "feel" of the installation, do some basic tests on several "representative" points, and write a cert. If it starts to smell wrong - evidence of bodgery, aging installation - they'll be a bit more thorough. Most outfits price a periodic inspection like this at a fixed rate (50-60 quid out here in the sticks, maybe a whole 80 in the Smoke!) so that on average they're in pocket.

Sounds like the combination of a dumb estate agent (practially axiomatic) who wouldn't know the difference between a meter, metre, installation, arse, or elbow; and an unusually picky electrician (maybe acting under instructions to be picky?)