What would you do about this electrician?

[Puffinfoot]

I manage a small building, which isn't really big enough and we've done lots of tinkering with it to try and make more space.

We shop around for trades, but generally , once happy with them, use them for 3 years before a review.

One job we've done recently involved a participants wall that needed some wiring moving.

Later our regular electrician was called to do other work and has sent an absolutely furious email about the quality of the electrical work when the partitioning was done. Demanding to know the name of the firm so he can report them to regulators, it's not safe, absolutely shocking that we're using such cowboys etc.

It was him (his firm). He's very embarrassed and apologetic, it was a member of staff who no longer works for him, he's coming straightaway to put it right.

Is that enough, or would you want to do something else? Would you keep using him?

Personally, I'd continue to use him but insist on "him" doing the work and not accepting him sending random staff/subbies to do it. If he can commit to that, fair enough. If he can't, then he loses the contract.

I absolutely hate firms who just "contract out" work to random subbies. I now specifically ask them who will actually do the work after having been stung too many times by a perfectly competent person doing work at first and then them disappearing (other than to come out and give quotes) with a random selection of hopeless/incompetents coming out to actually do the work.

Worst was a very reputable local bathroom/kitchen/plumbing firm. They'd done our bathroom, which was excellent, then we gave them the kitchen job, again excellent. Both times, work done by the business owner and his son (both Gas Safe qualified plumbers/heating engineers), one of whom was in the house all the time, supervising other trades, such as electricians, joiners, plasterers, etc. When we came to needing a boiler replacement with a couple of new radiators, we didn't look anywhere else. The guy came with his son, had a good look, and quoted, all fine. Come the start of the installation, the tradesmen from hell appeared at the door (3 hours late), and spent three days huffing and puffing, telling us how "they" hadn't allowed enough time for the job, how they were "lucky" to get him because he was so busy, singing the "Mission Impossible" tune constantly. Going to our loo and leaving it in a right state, including clearly wiping his arse on our towel! At the end of the three days, he buggered off quickly saying "all done". The owner/son never came near. As soon as he'd gone, it was apparent the boiler wasn't working properly - all kinds of error codes, had to keep resetting. One of the new radiators was stone cold. Phoned up the business owner several times and kept getting fobbed off. Eventually insisted he came back and when he did, same story, he couldn't believe how bad the work had been, and him and his son spent a full day correcting it! Full of apologies, but that's not good enough and we told him so.

If they're using random subbies, they need to get their arses out to supervise what's going on and not just abdicate responsibility! In your case, if he won't do that, then don't give him any more work!

There absolutely needs to be a standards and regulatory system for any kind of small sector building work. Other vocations are regulated.

Even with regulations, there's no "proof" of quality. The moronic guy I mentioned above (the Subbie) who botched our boiler installation was GasSafe certified himself. A few years earlier, we had a gasfire fitted by a GasSafe certified heating engineer who left it with unbearable smell/fumes - he just glibly told us "it's dust burning off" - after several days with no improvement, we had him back a few times, still the same story. Eventually, we got the manufacturer to come out as the installer ran out of ideas - the manufacturer instantly condemned it and said it had been installed and assembled wrongly and the fumes were coming into our lounge instead of the flue! We reported both these "GasSafe" people to GasSafe but just got acknowledgements and a letter with a lot of waffle about how they try to ensure high standards, but nothing was done and both are still working under GasSafe registrations! But yes, having someone with some kind of accreditation/regulation reduces risk, but unless the standards are properly enforced, there'll still be incompetent cowboys.

Yes - he’s unlikely to make the same mistake. How embarrassing for him!