Need an electrician in High Barnet or Chipping Barnet? F & A Electrical covers EN5 — the High Street and The Spires, Wood Street and Barnet Hill, Hadley Green and Monken Hadley, Arkley out along the Barnet Road, and Underhill and the Dollis Valley streets below the town centre — from our base in Tottenham N15, about forty minutes up the A1000 Great North Road. Same-week appointments are standard and emergencies are usually same day. NICEIC registered, Part P, 9.32/10 from 242 reviews on Checkatrade, minimum charge £108 (£90 + VAT), every price labour-only. Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453.
What we do in EN5
High Barnet packs four quite different kinds of property into a couple of square miles, and the work changes completely as you move between them.
Chipping Barnet — the streets fanning out from the High Street and Wood Street, around Ravenscroft Park and down Bells Hill — is mostly Victorian and Edwardian terraces and villas with a run of 1930s semis on the outer roads. Nearly all were rewired once between the 1970s and the 1990s and a good number still sit behind the board that went in at the time, so consumer unit replacements and landlord EICRs are the everyday call. A lot of the bigger villas were split into flats decades ago, which brings fault-finding on shared supplies and communal-area reports.
Monken Hadley and Hadley Green are a different job altogether: Georgian and earlier houses facing the green and the common, a high proportion of them listed and nearly all of them inside a conservation area. Solid walls, lath-and-plaster ceilings, original joinery and no appetite for chasing. Rewires here are planned around what cannot be cut.
Arkley, west along the Barnet Road towards the green belt, is large detached houses on big plots — extended two or three times, with outbuildings, gates, garden lighting, pool plant and separate garage or annexe supplies. The circuit count on an EICR out here is routinely double what the same-sized job would be in the town centre, and there is almost always a sub-main feeding something at the end of the garden that nobody has paperwork for.
Underhill, running down from the town centre towards Barnet Lane and the Dollis Valley, is ex-council and newer-build flats, low-rise blocks and the housing that has replaced the older estate as the regeneration has gone on. That means leasehold flats with a landlord’s supply in a communal riser, newer blocks with their own boards, and a steady stream of questions about where the freeholder’s responsibility stops and yours starts.
Borough-level pricing sits on the EICR Barnet page; this one is the EN5 detail.
High Barnet prices — fixed, labour-only
| Job | Price |
|---|---|
| Minimum call-out / small jobs (sockets, switches, minor faults) | £108 (£90 + VAT) |
| Standard labour after the first hour | £90 + VAT per hour |
| EICR — flat or 2-bed (up to 8 circuits) | from £140 — see EICRs in Barnet |
| EICR — 3-bed Victorian terrace or 1930s semi, 9–12 circuits | from £180 |
| EICR — large Arkley or Hadley house, 13+ circuits or a sub-main | quoted after a circuit count |
| EICR — licensed HMO, 5+ bedrooms | from £300 — HMO EICRs |
| EICR remedial work (C1/C2 fixes) | from £108 — remedial cost guide |
| Consumer unit (fuse board) replacement, RCBO | from £550 — fuse boards in Barnet |
| Emergency call-out, same day | from £108 — emergency electrician Barnet |
| EV charger installation, 7 kW (driveway) | from £450 labour — EV chargers in Barnet |
| Commercial EICR — shop, salon or office | priced per circuit — commercial EICR cost |
| Smoke and heat alarms, mains-interlinked | from £108 first alarm — smoke alarm installation |
| PAT testing of supplied appliances | £5 per appliance, £108 minimum — PAT testing |
| Full rewire, 3-bed terrace or semi | fixed quote after survey — rewire cost guide |
All prices are labour-only: materials, fittings and the board itself are charged separately at trade cost, and you see them itemised on the quote before we start. There is no EN5 premium and no extra for parking. Full London figures are on the EICR cost guide and the fuse board replacement page.
EN5 wiring: what usually comes up
Four findings account for most of the reports we write in High Barnet.
A sound 1980s rewire behind a board that has aged out. This is the standard Chipping Barnet terrace. The PVC cable tests perfectly well, but it lands in a plastic-cased unit with rewireable fuses, or a split-load board where one RCD covers the entire house. That earns a C2 on the socket and bathroom circuits, and the fix is an RCBO consumer unit from £550 labour — not a rewire. We test first and quote after, so nobody is sold a rewire they do not need.
Main bonding that never went back on. In houses where the gas and water services were moved during a kitchen or bathroom refit — routine on the Victorian terraces around Wood Street and Bells Hill — the 10mm bonding to the incoming gas and water is often missing altogether, or is still the old 6mm. It is one of the cheapest C2s to clear and one of the most frequently coded in the whole borough.
Undocumented sub-mains and garden buildings. Far more common on the Arkley side than anywhere else in EN5. A cable runs from the house to a garage, annexe, studio, stable block, pool plant room or set of electric gates, and there is no record of its size, its route, its protective device or its earthing arrangement. Half the time it turns out to be buried twin-and-earth with no SWA and no RCD at the supply end. Every one of those has to be traced and tested before a report can be signed off, which is why large EN5 houses are quoted on a circuit count rather than a bedroom count.
Loft conversions and rear extensions wired on the quiet. High Barnet has had a very long run of loft conversions, side returns and garden rooms, and plenty were wired by whoever was already on site rather than by a registered electrician. We find spurs off ring finals feeding entire new rooms, shower circuits on undersized cable, and no Building Control notification anywhere in the file. That has to be tested and certified before it will pass, and it is the single most common reason an EN5 sale gets held up.
Monken Hadley, Hadley Green and the conservation areas
Monken Hadley is one of the most tightly protected corners of the borough, and much of Chipping Barnet town centre and Wood Street sits in a conservation area too. That rarely changes the wiring itself, but it changes a great deal about what goes on the outside of a building: external lighting, an EV charge point on a front elevation, a meter box relocation, gate and intercom posts, CCTV brackets and any cable run across a frontage can all need a word with Barnet’s planning team first, and on a listed building you may be looking at listed building consent rather than just planning.
Inside, the constraint is the fabric. On the Georgian houses around the green we plan routes around original plaster and joinery, lift and relay floorboards rather than cutting them, chase nothing we do not have to, and use existing voids and cupboard backs wherever a cable can be got through. Where a wall genuinely cannot be disturbed, surface containment in a sympathetic run beats a butchered chase every time. If the property is listed, say so at quote stage — it changes the method and the time, and we would far rather work that out on paper than on the day.
Underhill, Dollis Valley and the ex-council flats
The flats running down from the town centre towards Barnet Lane throw up the same question over and over: who is responsible for what. In a leasehold flat the wiring inside your front door is normally yours, while the intake, the riser, the landlord’s supply and the communal lighting belong to the freeholder or the managing agent — and the two need separate reports. If you are buying, selling or remortgaging and the managing agent has asked for an EICR, it is usually only the flat’s own installation they need from you. Our guide to EICRs on leasehold flats and communal areas sets out where the line falls.
Two things come up repeatedly in the older ex-council stock here. The first is a board sitting in a communal cupboard or an external meter position, which makes isolation and access a matter of arranging with the agent rather than turning up. The second is original 1960s and 1970s wiring that was partly replaced when the kitchen was done and partly left, so you get modern cable landing in a very old distribution arrangement. In the newer blocks the installation is usually sound, and the work is more often about capacity — adding an EV charge point, a shower or an extra circuit to a board with no spare way.
Landlords and HMOs around Barnet Hospital and the college
Barnet Hospital off Wellhouse Lane and the Barnet and Southgate College campus on Wood Street keep a real rental market going in EN5, and a good share of the larger terraces near the town centre are let room by room. Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, every rented home in Barnet needs a satisfactory EICR at least every five years, with a copy to the tenant within 28 days and to the council within seven days if they ask for it. A house let to five or more people forming two or more households needs a mandatory HMO licence, and the licence conditions pull the alarm system and the communal areas into scope alongside the individual rooms.
We issue the report the same day as the visit and quote any remedial work separately, so you can decide what to do with it rather than being handed a single number. The HMO EICR guide covers what licensing inspectors actually ask to see, and the landlord EICR page has the compliance detail.
The High Street, The Spires and Wood Street
Chipping Barnet has a proper town-centre trade — the High Street parades, the units inside The Spires, the run of shops towards Barnet Market and the professional offices along Wood Street. Barbers, salons, cafés, takeaways, estate agents, dentists and clinics all need a commercial EICR every five years, or every three if the lease or the insurer says so, and a fair number of the older units have a three-phase supply feeding a board that has been extended piecemeal over twenty years.
We price commercial reports per circuit rather than per property, test outside trading hours where that suits the business, and can do the PAT testing on the same visit so you are not shutting twice. Detail is on the commercial EICR cost page. Where a unit above a shop has been turned into flats, the conversion certification guide explains what Building Control will want to see.
Nearby areas we cover
EN5 sits at the top of our patch and we work all the way round it. Immediately east and south-east, East Barnet and New Barnet EN4. Directly south, Whetstone and Totteridge N20 and then Finchley N3 and N12. Further east, Southgate N14 and Winchmore Hill N21. We also cover Arkley, Hadley Wood, Friern Barnet and New Southgate N11, Mill Hill NW7 and Brunswick Park on the same pricing — ring and ask. The full list is on our London service areas page.
High Barnet electrician — common questions
How quickly can you get to EN5?
Emergencies in High Barnet are usually same day — we are around forty minutes away up the A1000 outside rush hour, and rather less on a Sunday. Booked work such as an EICR, a board change or a set of downlights is normally within the same week, and you get a two-hour arrival window rather than a whole morning.
What does an EICR cost for a house in High Barnet?
A three-bed Victorian terrace off Wood Street or a 1930s semi on the outer roads usually comes in at nine to twelve circuits, so from £180 labour-only. A converted flat with its own board is from £140. A large Arkley or Hadley house with extensions, outbuildings or a sub-main is quoted after a quick circuit count over the phone, because pricing that on bedroom count alone is how people end up with a surprise on the invoice. Either way the full report comes by email the same day, with every observation coded and explained in plain English. The EICR cost guide has the London table by property size.
My house is listed and in the Monken Hadley conservation area. Can you still rewire it?
Yes, and it is work we do regularly. The difference is method rather than capability: routes get planned around original fabric, floorboards come up and go back rather than being cut, and anything visible on the outside — a meter box, an external light, a charge point — gets checked against planning and, on a listed building, listed building consent before it is fitted. Tell us it is listed when you ring and we will survey it properly instead of pricing it like a standard terrace.
My board is an old Wylex with fuse wire. Does it have to be replaced?
Not automatically, but in practice almost always. A rewireable board with no RCD protection on the socket or bathroom circuits will be coded C2, and once you have a C2 the report is unsatisfactory until it is cleared. An RCBO consumer unit from £550 labour clears it and gives you per-circuit protection, so a fault in the garden no longer kills the whole house. We test before quoting so you can see exactly what is driving the cost.
Can you sort out the wiring to a garage, annexe or garden office?
Yes, and on the Arkley side it is one of the most common jobs we do. We trace what is already there, test it, and either certify it or price a proper SWA sub-main with its own protection and earthing. Our guide to what an EICR covers in the garage, shed or garden office explains where the responsibility sits and what typically fails.
Can you fit an EV charger in High Barnet?
Yes. Most EN5 properties outside the town centre have off-street parking, which makes them straightforward — from £450 labour for a 7 kW unit, plus the charger itself. We handle the DNO notification to UK Power Networks and the Building Control notification. If the board is full or there is no spare capacity we tell you at the survey rather than on the day, and on a conservation-area or listed frontage we will flag anything that needs consent first.
Are your prices really labour-only?
Yes, and we say so up front because plenty of quotes do not. The figures above cover our time and the certification. Boards, cable, accessories and fittings are charged separately at trade cost and listed on the quote before work starts, so the final number holds.
Book an electrician in High Barnet
NICEIC registered, Part P, fully insured, 9.32/10 from 242 reviews on Checkatrade. Call 07407 627542, message us on WhatsApp or email info@faelectrical.co.uk and tell us the postcode and what is going on — we will give you a price over the phone where we can. More answers to the questions we get asked most are on the electrical guides page.