Short answer: PAT testing in London with F & A Electrical costs £5 per appliance, with a minimum visit charge of £108 (£90 + VAT), labour-only. The minimum covers the first 21 items, so a small office, a furnished flat or a shop with a handful of appliances pays £108 flat; a 50-item office is £250 and a 100-item office is £500, with labels, an asset register and a certificate issued on the day. NICEIC registered, 9.32/10 from 242 reviews, covering North and East London from Tottenham N15. Call 07407 627542 or WhatsApp a rough appliance count and we will give you a fixed figure.
PAT testing prices in London 2026 — fixed, labour-only
| Number of appliances | Price | Typical premises |
|---|---|---|
| 1–21 items | £108 (minimum visit charge) | Furnished flat, small shop, home office, single HMO room set |
| 22–50 items | £5 per item (e.g. 30 items = £150, 50 items = £250) | Café, salon, 4–6 bed HMO, small office |
| 51–100 items | £5 per item (e.g. 75 items = £375, 100 items = £500) | Office of 10–25 desks, restaurant kitchen, GP or dental surgery |
| 101–200 items | £5 per item (e.g. 150 items = £750) | Larger office, school department, hotel floor |
| 200+ items or multi-site | fixed quote per site | Multi-floor offices, chains, managing agents with several blocks |
| Repair of a failed item on the day (new plug, fuse, lead) | from £10 per item + parts | Any premises |
| Out-of-hours visit (evenings, weekends, so a shop or office stays open) | +25% | Retail, hospitality, healthcare |
All prices are labour-only and include the pass/fail labels, the asset register and the certificate — nothing is added for paperwork. There is no per-floor or per-room charge, and no charge for items that are found to be exempt on inspection (fixed appliances that are covered by the EICR instead). If you also need an EICR for the fixed wiring, we do both in one visit and the PAT minimum is waived when the EICR is booked at the same time.
How the £5 per item compares
London PAT prices in 2026 run from about £1.50 per item for large-volume contracts with a national testing company to £5 per item for a qualified electrician, and most quotes carry a £40–£80 minimum. The cheap end is real but comes with conditions: a per-item price of £1.50–£2 usually needs 200+ items, a single site, no repairs and a tester rather than an electrician on the job. Our rate is at the top of that band because the person doing the testing is an NICEIC-registered electrician who can also repair a failed item, look at the socket it was plugged into and tell you whether the fixed wiring has a problem — which matters when the reason you are booking PAT testing is an HMO licence condition, an insurer’s request or a fire-risk assessment action. The minimum of £108 is simply one hour at our standard rate; we do not send someone across London for less than an hour’s work.
What PAT testing includes
Every item goes through the same sequence. A formal visual inspection first — plug, fuse rating, cable, strain relief, casing, signs of overheating — which is where most failures are actually found. Then the instrument tests appropriate to the class of appliance: earth continuity and insulation resistance for Class I (kettles, toasters, desktop PCs, fridges, anything with an earthed metal case), insulation resistance for Class II (double-insulated items such as phone chargers, most lamps and laptop power supplies), plus polarity and continuity on extension leads and IEC leads. Each item gets a dated pass or fail label with a unique asset number, and you receive an asset register as a spreadsheet and PDF listing every item, its location, class, test results and next-test date, together with a certificate for the premises. Failed items are labelled, listed separately with the reason, and either repaired on the spot where a new plug, fuse or lead fixes it, or taken out of service.
Who needs PAT testing in London
Offices, shops and restaurants
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 (regulation 4(2)) require every employer to maintain electrical equipment so far as reasonably practicable to prevent danger. PAT testing is not itself named in law, but it is the recognised way of showing that portable equipment is maintained, and it is what an insurer, a landlord’s managing agent or a fire-risk assessor will ask to see. The commercial EICR covers the fixed installation; PAT covers everything that plugs into it.
Landlords, HMOs and furnished lets
The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector Regulations 2020 make the five-yearly EICR compulsory for the fixed wiring but do not require PAT testing of supplied appliances. In practice most London HMO licences — Haringey, Hackney, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Newham and Tower Hamlets all include it as a standard condition — require a current PAT certificate for every appliance the landlord supplies, and it is the sensible position for a furnished let, an Airbnb or a block with communal laundry equipment. Our landlord electrical compliance checklist sets out what is compulsory and what is a licence condition; the HMO EICR page covers the licensing side in more detail.
Construction sites, schools, care and healthcare
Site tools on 110 V transformers need testing far more often than office equipment, and schools, nurseries, care homes and surgeries usually run to a 12-month cycle under their own governance or CQC/Ofsted expectations. We test outside working hours where a site or ward cannot be interrupted.
How often should appliances be PAT tested?
There is no single legal interval. The IET Code of Practice for In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment (5th edition) gives suggested starting intervals and the duty holder sets the actual frequency on risk. The figures we work to:
| Premises / equipment | Formal inspection & test interval |
|---|---|
| Office IT (desktop PCs, monitors, printers) — Class I | 24–48 months |
| Office Class II items (chargers, lamps, small equipment) | 48 months or none beyond user checks |
| Kitchen appliances in offices, cafés, restaurants (kettles, toasters, microwaves) | 12 months |
| Handheld and portable tools in shops, salons, workshops | 6–12 months |
| Extension leads and multi-way adaptors | 12 months (they fail more than anything else) |
| HMO and furnished-let appliances | 12 months, or as the licence condition states |
| Hotels, student halls, care homes | 12 months |
| Schools and nurseries | 12 months |
| Construction site 110 V tools | 3 months |
The asset register we issue carries the next-test date per item, so a mixed office can have its kitchen on a 12-month cycle and its IT on a 36-month cycle without testing everything every year.
How long does PAT testing take?
Around 30–40 items an hour once we are set up, so a 100-item office is a morning and a furnished flat is under an hour. What slows it down is access — locked rooms, equipment that cannot be switched off, items on desks in use — so the quickest visits are early morning, after close or on a day the office is quiet. Give us the rough count and the site layout when you book and we will tell you how long to allow. The certificate and register are emailed the same day.
PAT testing or EICR — which one do you need?
An EICR inspects the fixed installation: the consumer unit, the wiring, the sockets, the lighting circuits. PAT testing inspects the things that plug into it. A landlord needs the EICR by law and PAT for supplied appliances by licence condition or good practice; a business needs both to show compliance with the Electricity at Work Regulations. The full comparison is on EICR vs PAT testing, and the fixed-wiring side is priced on the EICR cost guide (from £140) and the commercial EICR cost page (from £220).
Related: EICRs for nurseries and childminders, EICRs for railway arches and industrial units and which EICRs a shop with flats above needs.
Frequently asked questions
How much does PAT testing cost per item in London?
£5 per appliance with F & A Electrical, with a £108 minimum visit that covers the first 21 items. A 50-item office is £250, a 100-item office is £500. Labels, asset register and certificate are included; repairs of failed items are from £10 plus parts. All prices labour-only.
Is PAT testing a legal requirement?
Not by name. Employers must maintain equipment under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, and PAT testing is the accepted way to show that. For landlords it is not part of the 2020 Electrical Safety Standards (which cover the fixed wiring only) but it is a condition of most London HMO licences and expected for furnished lets.
How many appliances does the £108 minimum cover?
Twenty-one. Above that every item is £5, so there is no jump in price at any point — the minimum exists so a five-item visit is not charged below one hour of labour.
Do you test IT equipment without switching it off?
We can visually inspect and test the lead and power supply of a running desktop or server without powering it down, but a full Class I test needs the item unplugged for about a minute. For server rooms and equipment that cannot be interrupted we agree a list of exclusions in advance and record them on the register.
Can you test and do the EICR in one visit?
Yes, and it is the cheapest way to do both — the PAT minimum charge is waived when an EICR is booked for the same visit, so a furnished flat pays the EICR from £140 plus £5 per appliance with no separate minimum.
Which areas do you cover for PAT testing?
Haringey, Hackney, Islington, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Camden, Barnet, Newham and Tower Hamlets from Tottenham N15, and central London for offices of 50+ items. See areas we cover.
Book PAT testing in London
Send the approximate number of appliances, the address and whether you need it done outside working hours, and we will confirm a fixed price and a date, usually inside the week. Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453, or WhatsApp — or see all our prices first.