Short answer: out-of-hours labour is charged at £60 + VAT per half hour on top of our standard £90 + VAT per hour, with a minimum charge of £90 + VAT (£108 inc VAT) on any visit. But on a City or West End job the hourly supplement is rarely the biggest number on the quote. The access does that — permit-to-work lead times, goods lift slots, a bay suspension, the £18 Congestion Charge, and the hour an electrician spends standing in a lobby waiting for someone with a key.
This page sets out what those costs actually are, which ones are ours and which ones are the building’s or the council’s, and how to get an out-of-hours electrical job priced properly instead of being handed a surprise at the end. It is written from the jobs we do in EC1 to EC4, WC1, WC2 and W1, plus the managed blocks and shop parades across north and east London. If you want the shorter version alongside everything else we do in the centre, read our electrician in Central London page. F & A Electrical is NICEIC registered and Part P registered, 9.32/10 from 242 reviews on Checkatrade. Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453.
What counts as out of hours for an electrician in London?
There is no industry definition, so here is ours. Normal hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Anything outside that is out of hours: an early start before 8am, an evening after 6pm, a Saturday, a Sunday, or a night shift. Three quarters of our out-of-hours work is not emergency work at all — it is planned work that simply cannot happen while the building is trading or occupied.
That distinction matters because the two are priced differently in most people’s heads but not in ours. A planned 6am start on a shop refit and a 2am call to a dead distribution board both carry the same out-of-hours rate. What changes between them is how much access and preparation time the job needs, and that is where the money goes.
It is worth saying plainly what we do not do: we do not promise a one-hour arrival time, and we do not pretend to run a 24-hour call centre. What we do is answer the phone, tell you honestly whether we can get there tonight or whether tomorrow at 7am is more realistic, and price it before we set off. If a fault has genuinely gone off — no power, burning smell, a board that will not stay in — ring and ask; that is what our emergency electrician page covers.
How much does out-of-hours electrical work cost?
These prices cover labour and certification only. Consumer units, cable, accessories, fittings and lamps are itemised separately so you can see what is materials and what is us. The minimum charge is £90 + VAT (£108 inc VAT), which is one hour at the standard rate, and nothing is priced below it.
| Work | Price (labour and certification) |
|---|---|
| Minimum charge / first hour, normal hours | £90 + VAT (£108 inc VAT) |
| Standard labour, per hour after the first | £90 + VAT |
| Out-of-hours supplement | £60 + VAT per half hour, on top |
| EICR, flat or 1–2 bed | from £140 |
| EICR, 3-bed | from £170 |
| EICR, 4-bed | from £200 |
| EICR, 5-bed or larger | from £250 |
| EICR, large or multi-board property | £300–£400 |
| Commercial EICR | from £220 — see commercial EICR costs |
| HMO EICR | from £180, most licensed HMOs £250–£500 — see the HMO EICR guide |
| Consumer unit, 6-way | from £550 — see fuse board replacement |
| Consumer unit, 10-way | from £650 |
| Consumer unit, 12-way or larger | from £750 |
| Consumer unit + EICR, same visit | from £690 |
| Main earthing and bonding alongside a board | from £108 |
| PAT testing | around £5 per appliance, £108 minimum — see PAT testing |
| Congestion Charge, ULEZ, bay suspension, permit fees | at cost, listed as a separate line |
So a two-hour planned job starting at 6am is two hours of standard labour plus four half-hour out-of-hours units: £90 × 2 = £180, plus £60 × 4 = £240, giving £420 + VAT in labour. The same job at 10am on a Tuesday is £180 + VAT. One exception: a commercial EICR priced per circuit rather than by the hour carries a 25% out-of-hours uplift on the per-circuit price instead of the half-hourly supplement — the commercial EICR cost guide has those figures. That is a real difference, and it is why we will always ask whether the out-of-hours slot is genuinely needed before we quote it.
Charges we pay on your behalf — the Congestion Charge, a bay suspension fee, a building’s own permit or out-of-hours security fee — go on the quote as a separate line at what they cost. We do not mark them up and we do not bury them in the labour rate. If the building has a loading bay or a basement car park we can use, say so when you book: it genuinely makes the job cheaper.
Why is access the bigger cost in the City and the West End?
On a domestic job in a Victorian terrace, access is a doorbell. In a managed office building or a mansion block it is a process, and the process takes time that somebody has to pay for.
Permit to work and the notice period
Anything that involves isolating a riser, a landlord’s supply, a shared intake or a floor’s distribution board goes through a permit-to-work system. The building’s facilities manager issues the permit, it names the circuits, the isolation point and the time window, and it usually needs several working days’ notice. Some buildings want a method statement and a risk assessment with it, and some want them a week ahead.
None of that is wasted effort — it is how you avoid turning the wrong floor off — but it does mean the lead time on a City job is set by the building, not by us. We would far rather sort a permit out on the phone a week before than turn up at 6am and be sent away. When you book, give us the building manager’s name and number.
Goods lifts, inductions and site passes
In most managed buildings we need to be inducted before we can work, booked in at reception, and given a slot for the goods lift. The goods lift slot is the one that catches people out: if the only slot available is 7am to 8am and the job needs two trips with a consumer unit and a reel of cable, the job is shaped around the lift rather than the other way round. Buildings with a single goods lift shared with deliveries and refuse often ration it tightly.
Site passes, where they are needed, can take a day or two to issue. If your building uses a contractor management portal and wants insurance documents, accreditations and RAMS uploaded before it will issue a pass, tell us at the booking stage and we will get them in. It is routine; it just is not instant.
Dead time
This is the honest one. On a well-organised job the electrician arrives, is signed in, gets the lift and starts. On a badly organised one he stands in a lobby for forty minutes because the only person with a key to the riser cupboard is not in until eight, then waits again while security decides whether the permit covers the basement.
We price for a realistic amount of this because pretending it does not happen just means arguing about the invoice later. The way to keep it down is boringly simple: one named contact who has the keys and the permit, confirmed the day before. On jobs where that happens, dead time is usually under fifteen minutes.
What does parking actually add to a London electrical job?
More than most people expect, and in the centre it is occasionally the largest single cost after labour.
The Congestion Charge. The daily charge rose to £18 on 2 January 2026, up from £15. It applies Monday to Friday from 7am to 6pm, and from noon to 6pm at weekends and on bank holidays, inside the Inner Ring Road — which takes in the whole of the City and the West End. Outside those hours there is no charge at all, which is the one genuine saving in out-of-hours work: a van that arrives at 6am on a Tuesday and leaves at 9am pays it, but a van that arrives at 6am and is gone before 7am does not. An 8pm start on a Saturday does not pay it either. Electric vans registered for Auto Pay currently get a 50% discount and electric cars 25%, so the charge is not an argument about diesel any more — it is an argument about timing.
ULEZ. The Ultra Low Emission Zone covers every London borough and runs around the clock, so there is no out-of-hours window on it. A compliant van pays nothing; a non-compliant one pays £12.50 a day. Ours is compliant, so this does not appear on your quote — it is listed here because people ask.
Bay suspensions and loading. A board change, a rewire or anything involving a trunk of cable and a drum needs the van near the door, and in much of the City and the West End that means either a loading bay, a basement car park or a suspended parking bay. Suspending a bay is a council process with a fee and a notice period, and both differ by borough and change from time to time — the City of London, Westminster, Camden and Islington all run their own systems. We check the current tariff and notice period with the relevant council before we quote rather than guessing, and the fee goes on the quote at cost.
Streets where there is simply nowhere. There are City streets with no loading, no bays and no basement, where the only workable answer is to unload, move the van and come back. That is an extra half hour or so of labour and we will tell you about it in advance rather than discover it on the day.
If your building has a basement car park, a loading bay with a booking system, or a goods entrance on a quieter side street, that information is worth real money on the quote. It is the single most useful thing a facilities manager can tell us.
Is it cheaper to start early, work late, or work nights?
Early starts are almost always the cheapest form of out-of-hours work, for three reasons. The access is easier because cleaners and security are already in the building and the goods lift is free. The Congestion Charge can often be avoided entirely if the van is in and out before 7am. And a 6am to 8am window is two hours of out-of-hours supplement rather than a whole shift.
Evenings cost a little more in practice because the lift is busy, you are competing with the cleaning contractor, and the job often runs past the point where the building wants to lock up — which turns into a security callout fee. Sundays are the easiest access of the lot in retail, which is why shop work so often lands on one, but it is a full out-of-hours day.
Genuine night work — a dead board in a server room, a landlord’s supply that has to be off while the building is empty — is the most expensive option and sometimes the only one. If that is what the job needs, we will say so. What we will not do is quietly push a job into a night slot because it is easier to schedule.
A useful rule of thumb: if the work does not involve turning off anything the occupants use, ask us whether it can be done in normal hours in an occupied building. A lot of testing, remedial work on individual circuits, emergency lighting checks and PAT testing can be, and you save the supplement.
When is out-of-hours work actually necessary?
The jobs where it genuinely is:
- Shops and restaurants during trading hours. You cannot isolate a till circuit or a kitchen distribution board at lunchtime. Retail and hospitality work is before opening, after closing or on a Sunday, and that is simply the cost of trading.
- Offices where the work takes a floor off. Testing an occupied floor’s circuits means dropping power to desks and comms cabinets. Most office managers would rather pay the supplement than explain to two hundred people why their screens went black.
- Isolating a riser or a landlord’s supply. This affects the whole building, so it goes in the window the permit allows, which is usually overnight or at the weekend.
- Occupied blocks of flats. A board change leaves a flat without power for most of a day. We agree the date with the tenant rather than the managing agent’s calendar, and sometimes that means a Saturday.
- Data rooms, comms cupboards and anything on a UPS. These need a planned shutdown with the IT people present, and they are never available at 11am on a Wednesday.
- Deadlines. A licence renewal, a lease completion, a tenancy start or a building control sign-off that lands tomorrow. Our same-day EICR page covers the testing side of that.
And the jobs where it usually is not: most EICRs on empty or domestic properties, remedial work on individual circuits in a half-occupied office, emergency lighting testing in common parts, PAT testing out of office hours, and anything in a vacant unit between tenants. If a managing agent has told you the work has to be out of hours, it is worth asking why — sometimes the answer is good and sometimes it is habit.
What should you send us before booking an out-of-hours job?
Six things, and sending them with the first message usually takes a day off the lead time and money off the quote:
- The building manager’s name and number — or the FM company and the portal they use.
- Whether a permit to work is needed, and how much notice the building wants for one.
- The access window the building will actually allow, including the goods lift slot if there is one.
- Where the van goes — loading bay, basement, side street, or nothing at all.
- A photo of the board or the intake, and the last EICR or certificate if there is one. This is the single biggest thing that stops a job being quoted twice.
- Who is on site at the start time, and whether they have the keys to every cupboard the job touches.
Send that to 07407 627542 on WhatsApp and you will usually get a fixed labour quote back the same day, with the access and council charges listed separately so you can see exactly what you are paying for and what you are paying to a council.
Out-of-hours electrical work — frequently asked questions
Do you charge extra for evenings and weekends?
Yes — £60 + VAT per half hour on top of the standard £90 + VAT hourly labour rate, for anything outside Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm. It is stated on the quote before we start, never added afterwards.
Is an early start cheaper than an evening?
Usually, yes. The supplement is the same, but the access is easier, the goods lift is free, and a van that is in and out before 7am avoids the Congestion Charge. A 6am start is the cheapest out-of-hours slot in the centre.
Who pays the Congestion Charge and the bay suspension?
You do, at cost, as a separate line on the quote. We do not mark them up. The Congestion Charge is £18 a day inside the Inner Ring Road during charging hours; bay suspension fees and notice periods differ by borough and change, so we check the current tariff with the council before quoting.
How much notice do you need for an out-of-hours job in a managed building?
The building sets that, not us. If a permit to work is involved, assume several working days and sometimes a week, plus a day or two if a site pass has to be issued. If no permit is needed and access is straightforward, a couple of days is usually enough. Tell us the deadline when you first ring and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable.
Can an EICR be done out of hours?
Yes, and in occupied offices and trading shops it often has to be, because testing means dropping circuits. The EICR prices above are the normal-hours prices with the out-of-hours supplement added on top for the time on site. Where a commercial EICR is priced per circuit instead of by the hour, out-of-hours and Sunday testing adds 25% to the per-circuit price rather than the half-hourly supplement. For a commercial unit, start with our commercial EICR cost guide; for a residential let, the London EICR cost guide has the current bands.
Will you give a fixed price for an out-of-hours job?
For defined work, yes — a board change, an EICR, a known set of remedials. For fault-finding we quote the first block of time and report back before going further, because nobody can honestly fix-price a fault they have not seen yet. Either way the out-of-hours rate, the access charges and the minimum charge are all on the quote in writing before anyone turns up.
Do you work out of hours outside central London?
Yes, on the same rate — the managed blocks, shop parades and small industrial units across Haringey, Hackney, Islington, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Camden, Barnet, Newham and Tower Hamlets. Access there is usually simpler and the Congestion Charge does not apply, so an out-of-hours job outside the zone costs less than the same job in EC2. Everywhere we cover is on our London service areas page.
Book an out-of-hours electrician
Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453, or send the six items above on WhatsApp. F & A Electrical is NICEIC registered, Part P registered and works to BS 7671 18th Edition, 9.32/10 from 242 reviews on Checkatrade, based at Ten 87 Studios, Markfield Road, London N15 4QA. Minimum charge £90 + VAT (£108 inc VAT). All prices labour and certification only, with materials and third-party charges itemised separately.
Related reading: electrician in Central London · electrician EC1 · commercial EICR cost · emergency lighting certificate cost · when a tenant will not give access for an EICR · every question we get asked.