Emergency Electrician London: What to Do in an Electrical Emergency

If there is fire, smoke or anyone has had a shock, call 999 first. If you have lost all power, ring UK Power Networks on 105 before you ring an electrician — it is free, and about one call in five we take turns out to be their fault, not yours. Everything else: turn off the circuit at the consumer unit, leave it off, and ring us on 07407 627542 (or 07500 721453).

F&A Electrical is an NICEIC-approved, Part P registered contractor based in Tottenham N15. We take emergency and same-day fault calls across north and east London — Haringey, Hackney, Islington, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Camden, Barnet, Newham and Tower Hamlets, plus the EC and W1 end of the centre. We do not quote you a response time in minutes before we know where you are and what the traffic is doing. We will tell you, on the phone, whether we can be with you today and roughly when, and if we cannot we will say so rather than leave you waiting.

First: is the fault even yours?

This is the single most useful thing on this page, because it can save you a call-out charge entirely.

The cut-out, the main fuse and the meter tails on the supply side are the distribution network operator’s equipment, not yours. In London that is UK Power Networks, and 105 is free, from any phone, around the clock. A blown main fuse looks exactly like a catastrophic fault inside the house: everything dead, nothing tripped on the board, no obvious cause. It is their job and it costs you nothing.

If you are not sure which side of the line your problem falls on, ring us and describe it. We will tell you if it is a 105 call, for nothing, over the phone. More detail here: who is responsible for the main fuse, cut-out and meter tails.

Make it safe right now, in this order

1. If there is fire, smoke, or someone has had a shock, call 999. Do not go back for anything. Do not throw water on an electrical fire.
2. If you can reach the consumer unit safely, turn off the affected circuit. If you cannot work out which one it is, turn off the main switch and the whole installation is dead.
3. Do not reach for a consumer unit that is wet, scorched or that you have to stand in water to get at. If water has come through a ceiling, stay out of the room and ring us.
4. Leave it off. If a breaker or RCD trips, you may reset it once. If it goes again, stop. Repeatedly resetting a device onto a live fault is how a nuisance trip becomes a fire.
5. Do not pull a plug out of a socket that is sparking. Kill the circuit at the board first, then remove it.
6. Unplug what you can safely unplug on the dead circuit — it helps us a great deal if you can tell us the trip stops when a particular appliance is out.
7. Do not open the consumer unit, change a breaker, or pull covers off accessories. There are live parts in there that stay live with the main switch off.

If the property is a let and you are the tenant, make it safe and tell your landlord or agent at the same time as ringing. If it is a C1 — immediate danger — the landlord’s duty is to act straight away, not within 28 days.

What counts as an emergency, and what can wait until morning

We would rather tell you honestly that something will keep until tomorrow than charge you out-of-hours money for it.

Get someone out now

Burning smell, scorching or discolouration at a socket, switch, light fitting or the consumer unit · anything sparking or arcing · a shock from a tap, pipe, appliance or switch · exposed or damaged live cable anywhere reachable · water into fittings, a board or a ceiling rose · a board or accessory that is hot or buzzing · an RCD that will not stay in with everything unplugged · loss of power to a property with a vulnerable occupant, medical equipment or a business that cannot trade without it.

Same day is usually fine

One circuit dead with nothing scorched · a single light or socket not working · an immersion or shower that has stopped · a cooker circuit out · an outside light or garden circuit tripping in the rain · an intercom or door release down.

This will keep until a booked visit

A light fitting you want changed · a socket you want moved · a board that works but is old and you have been told to replace it · an EICR you need for a letting · anything that has been like that for weeks. Booking these in normal hours costs you a great deal less than an out-of-hours call, and we will always say so.

What an emergency call-out actually costs

No call-out fee on top, no joining fee, and nothing is priced below our minimum charge. Prices are labour and certification only; materials are itemised separately, and we will tell you the cost of a part before we fit it.

Item	Price
Minimum charge — first hour, normal hours	£90 + VAT = £108 inc VAT
Standard labour after the first hour	£90 per hour + VAT
Out of hours (evenings, weekends, bank holidays)	£60 + VAT per half hour
Fault-finding and make-safe, typical visit	£108–£270 inc VAT depending on how long it takes to trace
Replacing a failed socket, switch or light fitting during the visit	labour within the hour, part itemised
Consumer unit replacement, 6-way / 10-way / 12-way+	from £550 / £650 / £750
Main earthing and protective bonding alongside a board change	£108
Main protective bonding, both services, on its own	from £180
EICR after a fault, studio or one-bed through to large property	£140 / £170 / £200 / £250 / £300–£400
Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate for the repair	included

The first hour comes off the job if we go on to do the work the same visit. Most faults are found and made safe inside it. The ones that are not are usually in a house that has been divided into flats, where the problem is working out which board feeds what before anything can be isolated — that is hourly work and we will tell you when we are into it rather than afterwards.

What we do when we get there

An emergency visit is not a guess-and-swap job. In order:

1. Make safe. Isolate, prove dead, and get the property to a state where nothing is going to get worse while we work.
2. Find out what actually happened, which usually means dividing the installation down — circuit by circuit, then accessory by accessory — with an insulation resistance test rather than by eye. A scorched socket is often a symptom, not the cause.
3. Repair it, or make it safe and tell you straight what the real fix is. Sometimes a socket is a socket. Sometimes the socket is scorched because a circuit never had an earth, or because a board has been running a load it was never sized for, and swapping the accessory would just move the problem along the wall.
4. Test and certify what we did. A repair or alteration to an existing circuit gets a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate with the test results for that circuit on the face of it. A new circuit or a board change gets an Electrical Installation Certificate and is notified through our scheme. You should not be handed a page with a logo, a job description and no numbers anywhere on it — see what paperwork you should have after electrical work.
5. Tell you what we found but did not fix, and what it would cost, in writing, with no pressure to decide on the doorstep.

Our vans carry the common accessories, breakers, RCBOs and cable, so most single-fault calls are finished on the first visit. A board change or a sub-main is ordered and booked properly.

The faults we get called out to most

• A fuse board that keeps tripping. The commonest emergency call we take, and most of it is diagnosable before we arrive — see why your fuse box keeps tripping and the twelve usual causes.
• A burning smell from a socket or switch. Always treat this as live until proven otherwise: what to do right now.
• Water in. A leak into a ceiling rose, a bathroom extract or a flat roof light. Everything gets isolated, dried and tested before it goes back on; nothing gets energised because it looks dry.
• Shower and immersion failures, usually the element or the pull-cord switch, occasionally a cable that was never sized for the shower that replaced the original one.
• Dead circuits in converted houses. Borrowed neutrals between flats, a landing light fed off one flat’s board, no proper per-flat isolation. Half the job is tracing and labelling, and it is the most useful thing anyone has done to the building in years.
• Boards and accessories at the end of their life — a cracked case, a pitted main switch, an old rewireable fuse carrier that has been bridged. See signs of dangerous wiring, five signs your fuse board needs replacing and electrical fire hazards in London homes.
• No main earth. Found during a fault call more often than people expect, especially in older north London houses on aged lead-sheathed supplies: what “no main earth” means and main bonding costs.

After the emergency, the sensible next step in most of these houses is a proper inspection rather than another call-out: EICR testing, consumer unit upgrades, house rewiring, or the consumer unit upgrade guide.

Where we come out to

Our patch is north and east London, from the N15 base. Being honest about that is the point: a firm that claims every borough is either sending someone from an hour away or sending a subcontractor.

Haringey · Hackney · Islington · Enfield · Waltham Forest · Camden · Barnet · Newham · Tower Hamlets

By area: north London · east London · central London — EC, WC and W1. Every area page is listed on our service areas page, and our written guides are indexed at electrical guides. If you are just outside the patch, ring and ask — if we are already that way we will take it, and if we are not we will say so instead of booking you in and letting you down.

Frequently asked questions

How fast can you get here?

It depends entirely on where you are, what time it is and what the roads are doing, so we will tell you on the phone and not before. Same day is usually realistic within the patch; within the hour often happens and is never something we promise. Anybody who guarantees you a fixed number of minutes across London has not driven the North Circular at five o’clock.

Are you available at night and at weekends?

We take out-of-hours calls, charged at £60 + VAT per half hour. We are a working contractor, not a 24-hour switchboard, so if we genuinely cannot get to you we will tell you straight away so you can ring somebody else rather than sit and wait.

What will it cost before I commit to anything?

£108 including VAT for the first hour in normal hours, which comes off the job if we carry on and do the work. We will tell you on the phone if we think the job is bigger than that, and we will tell you the price of a part before it goes in.

The whole flat is dead and nothing has tripped. What is that?

Most often a blown main fuse at the cut-out, which is UK Power Networks’ equipment. Ring 105 — it is free. If they attend and find the fault is on your side, then it is ours and we will come.

Can I just reset the trip and leave it?

Reset it once. If it holds, note what was running at the time and get it looked at when convenient. If it goes again, leave it off. A device that will not stay in is telling you there is a live fault on that circuit, and resetting onto it repeatedly is how a fault becomes a fire.

I am a landlord and my tenant has reported a C1. How long have I got?

A C1 means danger present and the answer is immediately, not 28 days. The 28-day clock in the regulations is the outer limit for remedial work, or sooner if the report specifies it — and a C1 is the definition of sooner. When the work is done you need written confirmation from the electrician that it is complete and the installation meets the standard, going to the tenant and to the council. We issue that as standard. See EICR costs and the landlord duties and, for HMOs, HMO EICRs.

Will one visit fix it?

Usually, for a single fault — the vans carry the common parts. What one visit will always do is make the installation safe and tell you the truth about what is wrong, even when the honest answer is that the board needs replacing or a circuit needs rewiring rather than a socket needs swapping.

F&A Electrical is NICEIC-approved and Part P registered, certifies to BS 7671, and is fully insured. We are rated 9.32 out of 10 from 242 Checkatrade reviews. Minimum charge £90 + VAT (£108 inc VAT) for the first hour, which comes off the job if we carry on. Out of hours £60 + VAT per half hour. Prices are labour and certification; materials itemised separately.