Was i too expensive????

[rmaynard]

got asked to quote for an EICR on a 4 bed property, its neede as they are selling it and when it was re-wired a few years ago they used a non-registered spark, as said its a 4 bed house with garage, it has 7 circuits plus a sub mains for the garage with another 4 circuits so 11 in total, i quoted £180 and that was for a full day which i felt it needed, got a phone call later in the evening to say thanks but no thanks as another company could do it in 3-4 hours and quoted £100, i was quite shocked, are people realy doing a proper job in that time and at that cost????

Rob

 

[Octopus]

I wouldn't do a decent EICR on a house of that size for £100.00

It would be interesting to see the EICR once its done.

 

[Engineer54]

Obviously, they will be doing a 10% or whatever testing procedure!! It probably won't be a company either, but rather an inexperienced DI sole trader, who see's this as easy money for his sky-rocket. (Pocket...lol!!)

These home owners only get what they pay for, and all this owner wants, is a bit of paper saying it's all tickerty boo for the buyers mortgage/insurance company!!

 

[rmaynard]

was my quote reasonable for the property then?

 

[Octopus]

was my quote reasonable for the property then?

IMHO yes.

Maybe you should work on your explaination to potential customers of what you would do/cover, how long it will take on site and how long at home. I always give a verbal indication when I visit to gauge their reaction before I leave.

 

[Richard Burns]

I would say that was a reasonable price, I had a four bed house with garage that took me two days!! (it was a right mess).
£180 for one day is quite reasonable.
I would take one day to do that inspection correctly.

 

[spark 68]

IMO you were reasonable with your pricing, and £180 is not bad for a day rate, depending on your location in the country.

There are two types of customer who need (not want) an EICR,

Type 1, Landlords and sellers, these are not particularly bothered if you do a thorough job or not, in fact the less thorough the better as far as they are concerned, and this type of client just want, as E54 said, a piece of paper saying all is 'tickety boo', and price is probably the most important factor for something they don't want, but need, and see as a neccessary evil.

Type 2, the buyer, most sensible clients of this type will want a very thorough job doing, as after all it is their investment, and the price being of secondary importance, in fact the more thorough the better, as anything you 'flag up' can be used as a bargaining chip to get a price reduction etc.

As Electricians, we are faced with the same paperwork, and what should be (but often isn't) an impartial and professional assessment on the condition of the electrical installation, against two diametrically opposed reasons for the report.

Sadly in any industry there will always be an element of fast buck merchants, who will cut corners and (not always) prices, and who will bow to the clients agenda.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

There are inspectors (I use the term loosely) who will test, note unsatisfactory readings, but will fail to identify the faults.
I've even seen reports where circuits have not been identified, with a recommendation that a further inspection be conducted to identify the unknown circuits?

 

[telectrix]

so, half the job for half the price then.

 

[highspark]

Anywhere outside London I'd say your price is too high. I'd do a 4 bedroom + Garage EICR for about £120. I do 3 beds at £100. Takes me between 4 - 6 hours and thats all tests on an average 8 way board

 

[oldtimer]

I think you were reasonable but remember you have to sell the point that you will do a proper job plus remember if you get a "well I am not sure if this guy did a good job so could you have a look at it for me" speech just do not get involved its bad enough they took the cheap option but getting you to try and either police it or sort it out is a no no. I am always polite and show respect and very apologetic but I always decline.

 

[needasparks]

I bet you would have got it if they were buying rather than selling, shame that people still treat us like they are getting something of ebay and go with the cheapest quote with no idea what standard they are buying into.
Perhaps Tesco's will start doing EICR soon.......

 

[Octopus]

Anywhere outside London I'd say your price is too high. I'd do a 4 bedroom + Garage EICR for about £120. I do 3 beds at £100. Takes me between 4 - 6 hours and thats all tests on an average 8 way board

I think you should charge a bit more. £100 for 6 hours - thats £16.66 per hour which isn't enough to live on - assuming you have PLI, registration, and declare your income

 

[highspark]

I think you should charge a bit more. £100 for 6 hours - thats £16.66 per hour which isn't enough to live on - assuming you have PLI, registration, and declare your income

I always aim to get £25 per hour on EICR's. The average 3 bed semi, takes 4 hours. Thats starting at 8 am and out the door for 12 noon. For me it all goes on the amount of circuits. I have all of the above you mention and live a decent life. I'm up north should I add. Anyone in my area doing EICR's at £180 would not get work.

 

[High Tower]

£100 is about the maximum that you can get for a 3 bed EICR around this way too

 

[Dave 85]

I'd only charge that much on a house with very old wiring. I wouldn't expect to take more than half a day on anything wired in the past 30yrs. I dont do a lot of EICR's and will openly admit I dont go tearing the house apart looking for problems. I visually check a few sockets/switches and test everything and check for all the obvious but as far as im concerned the client is more interested in the cert than knowing if there is a socket spurred off a spur, which, lets face it, isn't exactly the end of the world.

 

[wildgoose]

Probably one of those outfits that also charge 70p per item to do PAT testing. They need to do well over 100 items per day to break-even. They don't do the tests they just stick labels on (ching-ching another 75p).

On 3/4 hours to complete the EICR, they can get 2 properties in every day.
Maybe they are extremely well prepared and have most of the boxes filled in before they arrive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[oldtimer]

The thing is you charge what you think is a fair price and what you can live on there will always be companies who will play the Ltd company bit ie set up Testing Hooses Ltd take on some guys who have just qualified and need the experience so will work for just above Tesco shelf stacker rates then there is the insurance company and Local Authority / Letting Agent that know they are not getting the right service but as far as they are concerned its not their signature on the paperwork so dont be shocked this it is not people with scrupples who run these companies and its not about right or wrong its about greed and public perception and one prime example would be say a big employment company who gets a government contract .............................Well you know the rest. Because with these companies its not about being responsable or taking pride in their job no thats left to the little fish like us for them its about hitting sales targets not getting caught and if you do how quickly can you fold the firm to start it back up again under a new name. A bit like the banks actually or maybe they to will have their crash one day

 

[Jel]

IMO you were reasonable with your pricing, and £180 is not bad for a day rate, depending on your location in the country.

There are two types of customer who need (not want) an EICR,

Type 1, Landlords and sellers, these are not particularly bothered if you do a thorough job or not, in fact the less thorough the better as far as they are concerned, and this type of client just want, as E54 said, a piece of paper saying all is 'tickety boo', and price is probably the most important factor for something they don't want, but need, and see as a neccessary evil.

Type 2, the buyer, most sensible clients of this type will want a very thorough job doing, as after all it is their investment, and the price being of secondary importance, in fact the more thorough the better, as anything you 'flag up' can be used as a bargaining chip to get a price reduction etc.

As Electricians, we are faced with the same paperwork, and what should be (but often isn't) an impartial and professional assessment on the condition of the electrical installation, against two diametrically opposed reasons for the report.

Sadly in any industry there will always be an element of fast buck merchants, who will cut corners and (not always) prices, and who will bow to the clients agenda.

Type 3: Customer who has had a work done to house i.e extension and apparently they have "fallen out" out with the electrician and did not get a certificate for the work and want to know if you can issue certificate. (Obviously the only way round this is to issue EICR.)
Really what they has really happened the builder has said he will use his own so called electrician in, who probably does not even speak English, to do a the electrics (normally to a poor standard, and so he can squeeze every last penny out the job) and then get a real electrician in to issue cert!

 

[RISElectrical]

I would say £180 is a fair price, at a guessed my price would have been £200 - £220. I have quoted a fair number of EICR lately and not got a sniff as i am £50+ over the next quote. But as you said, for the property you describe i would allow a day, £200 for a full day (8 hours) is what i would say is going rate, that equates to £25 an hour and would cover a wage, milage, insurance, scheme etc etc.

Doing it for £100 in my eyes would compromise on the extent of the testing, decrease in the sampling or simply running round like a blue arsed fly to get it all done, all of which i am not too keen on.

 

[albi]

So let me see if I have this right. You are all saying is £25per hour and you are doing it by the book. So it takes all 8 hours, when I do aEICR I always take a print out of a cert so I can write down all my findingsand results, then back to the office copy them on to the pc another 2hrs then print them off so they lookmore professional.
£100 or 180 does not justify the amount of work. The averageprice for a 3 bed with attached garage for me is £220 2up 2 down street house£180. So I for a 4 bed with detached garage I would be saying £250 - 260.
Most of my customers do specify they need a NICEIC cert

 

[bugsy]

£ 150.00 3 bed , £ 200.00 4 bed minimum , but I always consider the purchase price of the property their buying / intending to buy
If your going to spend £ 250,00 on a house and the rewire is going to cost 3/4K then the EICR is worth it as a bagaining tool

 

[DHES]

I work on £30-£35 per circuit depending on the state of the house. I take the laptop with me and fill it in as I go that way I am not doing the job twice and I can email it straight to the client once I'm done along with the invoice then I'm done


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Guitarist]

A good, conscientious, skilled and qualified sole-trader who needs to cover costs, loans, PLI, scheme membership etc, will never compete with a firm who hires someone on £7 an hour who feels lucky to have a job.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Obviously, they will be doing a 10% or whatever testing procedure!! It probably won't be a company either, but rather an inexperienced DI sole trader, who see's this as easy money for his sky-rocket. (Pocket...lol!!)

These home owners only get what they pay for, and all this owner wants, is a bit of paper saying it's all tickerty boo for the buyers mortgage/insurance company!!

well your right about em not being a company...but i doubt a sole trader either.....now then,....a p**s artist at the end of the bar........

 

[oldtimer]

well your right about em not being a company...but i doubt a sole trader either.....now then,....a p**s artist at the end of the bar........

And that artist is usally a builder or a joiner who has an opinion but wishes he was a spark

 

[Spoon]

So let me see if I have this right. You are all saying is £25per hour and you are doing it by the book. So it takes all 8 hours, when I do aEICR I always take a print out of a cert so I can write down all my findingsand results, then back to the office copy them on to the pc another 2hrs then print them off so they lookmore professional.
£100 or 180 does not justify the amount of work. The averageprice for a 3 bed with attached garage for me is £220 2up 2 down street house£180. So I for a 4 bed with detached garage I would be saying £250 - 260.
Most of my customers do specify they need a NICEIC cert

Am I reading this right? You charge customers 2 hours (about £60) to have certs that look "more professional"?
I would rather have the marked up certs with you signature on and keep the £60

 

[telectrix]

at the end of the day, client gets what he pays for ( hopefully ) . if he's paying peanuts, he gets monkeys ( or monkey certs. ) . a £60 report is a quicki gander around and maybe Ze and a couple of random Zs readings. For £200 he should get a thorough , accurate assessment of the installation ( average house, reasonably sound installation ).

 

[rmaynard]

the other company is booked in to do it today so will try and get my hands on the paperwork when they finish

 

[RISElectrical]

Am I reading this right? You charge customers 2 hours (about £60) to have certs that look "more professional"?
I would rather have the marked up certs with you signature on and keep the £60

I charge for the cert times yes. I jot everything down onsite and the do the certs on computer. This has a few reasons, firstly all my certs are on a computer so won't be lost damaged etc and copies can at anytime be recalled (for example mr nic will want to see). Secondly the customer gets a nice easy to read printed cert and lastly I can add reg numbers against the non conformities easier in the office, not sat in the customers house or more often than not a quite cold and or damp rental property.

Therefore I am only charging for my time and a job done thoroughly

 

[morph]

too many busy idiots working for £100 a day for 5 days aweek
i prefere £200 a day for 3 days a week

 

[Dave 85]

Looks like Im a bit too cheap on EICR I've been doing them £12.50 a cct or £100 min charge, mind you EICR is the one job that I tend to be a bit too fast on. I guess if the client was a seller I'd charge less and not look quite as hard than if the client was a buyer who wanted a cert full of noncoms.
Im all about giving the clients what they want, it keeps em coming back for more.

 

[Guitarist]

I charge for the cert times yes. I jot everything down onsite and the do the certs on computer. This has a few reasons, firstly all my certs are on a computer so won't be lost damaged etc and copies can at anytime be recalled (for example mr nic will want to see). Secondly the customer gets a nice easy to read printed cert and lastly I can add reg numbers against the non conformities easier in the office, not sat in the customers house or more often than not a quite cold and or damp rental property.

Therefore I am only charging for my time and a job done thoroughly

Good for you. Why shouldn't we charge for a professional service? We train for years, spend thousands on instruments, calibration, public liability, assessment etc., then people expect us to charge a pittance. I never rip anyone off, but I expect to be paid properly for a professional job, not beg for what the customer thinks is adequate.

 

[Victorcrane]

I'm in Essex and for me you're bang on the money for the size of property, it's going to take time to do properly. I usually charge 100 for a flat with no more than 4 circuits.

 

[sparkysey]

Hi guys. One of my first few posts. This topic seems to be very varied in opinion so probably not one one of the best to get involved in when you re a newbie to a forum but, £260.00 for a inspection cert? Are you kidding me?

Im happy to do that same job properly, thoroughly and honestly for a £100.00 less. Its a days work! C'mon, yeah you have to go up and down stairs a few times but I really cant see how the work amounts to quarter of a grand!

people seem to be thinking "Well I do an honest job so I can charge more" well in my opinion if you do not do an honest job you are not worthy of an electrician at all, it doesnt give you anymore right to up your price by £100+!

 

[Guitarist]

Hi guys. One of my first few posts. This topic seems to be very varied in opinion so probably not one one of the best to get involved in when you re a newbie to a forum but, £260.00 for a inspection cert? Are you kidding me?

Im happy to do that same job properly, thoroughly and honestly for a £100.00 less. Its a days work! C'mon, yeah you have to go up and down stairs a few times but I really cant see how the work amounts to quarter of a grand!

people seem to be thinking "Well I do an honest job so I can charge more" well in my opinion if you do not do an honest job you are not worthy of an electrician at all, it doesnt give you anymore right to up your price by £100+!

Of course you charge what you feel is right, and what the market in your area dictates. All I am saying is don't sell the profession short. I don't know about you, but I have spent years learning the skills I have and a tremendous amount of money, as did the company that apprenticed me. Why should we get paid no more than someone unskilled or semi-skilled? Ask a lawyer why they charge £30 just to send out a letter plus £150 per hour just to talk to you, and they will tell you it's because of their skills and knowledge.

 

[RISElectrical]

If you did an honest days work for 100 then you would have to do that job everyday, day in day out without a break to get 500 in a week. Deduct your van, scheme payments, PL insurance, PI insurance, business banking charges, allow for possible non payment by a customer, cost of ink, paper, computer etc etc and I think 100 is far less than what you need.

If you were employed cards In and then were getting 100 a day take home then I agree that this is a good day rate as that would be circa £32k pa

I think the problem without causing offence with today's world are people like you that would charge a 100 for a days work, can i ask also, will you be paying tax out of that 100 as well as all other deductions I mentioned.

Im sorry but doing a days work for 100 a day can make any business sense at all.

Like I said I didn't mean to cause offence

 

[Octopus]

Hi guys. One of my first few posts. This topic seems to be very varied in opinion so probably not one one of the best to get involved in when you re a newbie to a forum but, £260.00 for a inspection cert? Are you kidding me?

Im happy to do that same job properly, thoroughly and honestly for a £100.00 less. Its a days work! C'mon, yeah you have to go up and down stairs a few times but I really cant see how the work amounts to quarter of a grand!

people seem to be thinking "Well I do an honest job so I can charge more" well in my opinion if you do not do an honest job you are not worthy of an electrician at all, it doesnt give you anymore right to up your price by £100+!

How can you tell what an inspection will or should cost?

The only way IMHO is to visit the property to view and give a price. I went to see a job recently and the conversation on the phone revealed 6 circuits. On visting yes it was 6 circuits, but in a house that was 200+ years old, with at least 3 extensions PLUS outbuildings. What a mess and that was what I could see. I quoted my day rate and explained what they would get and how long it would take, including the writing up of the report.

I didn't get the job, and to be frank I didn't care, as I they wanted to rent the place out and the vibs I got is all they wanted was a £100 "satisfactory" EICR and not have to pay for remedials.

 

[highspark]

This all depends on the amount of work you are taking on. I'd say those who charge over the odds are either scratching their hairy one for work or they are so busy they take a punt with a high price. What I do know is a EICR can be done properly in a short period of time. Lets say for example an 8 way board with 8 circuits. All tests can be performed in a couple of hours if the spark gets his head down and backside up. I know this because I have done it properly. Add another hour for inspection and filling in forms. You can be in and out in 4 hours and thats where my figures comes from. 4 hours = £100.00 for me. All this talk of you can't operate on 100.00 EICR's if you have overheads like Part P, calibration, Public Liability, Private indemnity etc. Is a load of rubbish. For all of the mentioned you are looking at about £1000.00 per annum.

 

[albi]

Well you must be carrying out your EICR on fairy new builds with no added circuits. so yes I would say you can but when you have a house full of gear DB with circuits doubled up no legend I bet your £100 does not cover it