Why This Matters to You
Electrical work is one of the few trades where you can't inspect the result. You can see whether a paint job is good. You can't see whether a connection was torqued properly, whether the circuit is protected correctly, or whether the earthing was ever checked. It looks identical either way until something goes wrong.
That means you're choosing on trust, and the usual signals are weak. A slick website costs a few hundred dollars. Reviews can be bought. The number on the quote tells you almost nothing about quality. So here are the checks that actually mean something.
Check One: The Licence
In South Australia, electrical work must be carried out by a licensed electrician, and the business must hold a contractor licence. Ask for the licence number and check it. It takes two minutes on the Consumer and Business Services website.
An unlicensed job isn't just a quality risk. It can invalidate your home insurance if there's a fire, it can't be certified, and it becomes your problem when you sell the house and the work has no paperwork behind it. Anyone reluctant to give you a licence number has told you what you need to know.
Check Two: Insurance
Public liability insurance covers damage caused during the work. If somebody puts a screw through a water pipe in your wall, or a fault causes damage after they have left, that's what covers the repair.
Ask directly whether they carry it. A legitimate business will answer immediately and be unbothered by the question, because they get asked it regularly.
Check Three: The Certificate of Compliance
Ask whether you'll get a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work. The answer should be an immediate yes for any job that requires one.
This document is your evidence that licensed work was done and tested. You want it on file for two reasons that both arrive at bad moments: when an insurer investigates an incident, and when a buyer's conveyancer asks what work has been done on the property. "The bloke seemed good" Isn't evidence.
Check Four: Who Actually Turns Up
Ask who will be doing the work. In a larger business, the person who quotes is often not the person who attends, and the person who attends may be an apprentice working alone.
There's nothing wrong with a larger operation, plenty are excellent. But it's worth knowing, because the quality of the conversation you had at quote stage doesn't necessarily transfer to the person who shows up.
The Warning Signs
These are the ones that come up repeatedly in jobs we get called in to fix.
- A price over the phone for work nobody has seen. Fine as a ballpark if it's described as one. A problem when it's presented as a quote and then changes.
- Pressure to decide today. Genuine electrical hazards need fixing quickly. Genuine electrical hazards don't require a limited-time discount.
- A recommendation to rewire the whole house without any testing. Full rewires are the exception. If nobody has done an insulation resistance test and they're quoting a rewire, get a second opinion.
- No written quote. A verbal number isn't a scope. When there's a disagreement later there's nothing to point at.
- Vagueness about materials. "Quality LED downlights" Isn't a specification. Brand and model is.
- Cash-only, no invoice. No invoice means no warranty, no certificate and no recourse.
- Reluctance to explain. A good electrician will happily tell you why something needs doing. If the explanation is "it just needs it", that isn't an explanation.
Local Is Worth More Than People Think
Beyond the checks above, whether the electrician actually works in your area matters more than it looks.
A business based across town either builds travel into your price or deprioritises your job when something closer comes up. It also matters for the small stuff: a business an hour away has no interest in coming out for one powerpoint, so those jobs sit undone for months.
There's a knowledge side too. An electrician who works constantly in the same housing stock knows what's behind the walls before opening them. The switchboard in a 1970s Hope Valley house is a known quantity. So is the full-but-serviceable board in a 1990s Greenwith home that now needs an EV charger on it.
What You Should Expect as Standard
- A written quote stating what's included and excluded
- A licence number provided without hesitation
- Confirmation of public liability insurance
- A Certificate of Compliance on completion
- An explanation you can follow of why the work is needed
- Arriving when they said, or a phone call when that changes
- The site left clean
- Someone who answers the phone afterwards if there's a problem
None of that's a high bar. It's just worth knowing what the bar is before you pick.
