Electrician day rate £500+

[Intsywintsyspider]

i am moving and was going to test and remove 2 chandelier light fittings & replace them with simple fittings and install a new oven.
i have asked an electrician for a quote and he’s stated £350 + VAT for the light fittings and £120 + VAT to replace fhe oven (in the same place as the old oven).
I live in London and appreciate I’m paying for an expert service but this seems crazy expensive. It’s not even a full days work.
Am I deluded?

Our (excellent) electrician charges £35 per hour- we could get cheaper but use him as he is extremely neat and tidy and reliable. So it seems expensive to me but might be just london prices (I'm not in London).

Our electrician is fantastic, we’ve had him for lots of different work. Big and small.
latest work was very small, removing two lantern light fittings and replacing with two basic lights fittings. It was £120 + VAT. He was there max 1hr.

His day rate is around £650 for entire day but he gets lots done. £350 for two light fittings is not good value.
eta.. outskirts of London

Crikey - i'll be having a word with DH tonight & telling him to put his prices up!

I have a relative who is an excellent electrician, lives about an hour outside of London. He charges £150+ vat per hour and is fully booked for the next 3 months. I’m further up north and it’s about £120+ vat for an electrician and £100 + vat for a gas safe heating and plumbing tradesperson. The cost of qualifications, recertifications, tools, decent trade insurance and running a van have all gone up massively over the last couple of years so seems fine to me.

Changing a light fitting and replacing an oven are something anyone reasonably handy can do. I replaced our oven, it was less than 30 minutes and no more complex than changing a plug.

We own a an electrical company. DH been in the trade 14 years and charges £350 day rate. We are 40 mins outside of London.

150 an hour is absolutely crazy. We can get extremely good, reliable electricians for £40 an hour (plus VAT).

Spoke to my hubs (whos not based in London) whos in the trade. Cooker amount sounds about right. The lights, maybe a bit expensive BUT whats the size of the lights being taken down - you mentioned chandelier, what type of light is being putting up? is electrician supplying them? are ceilings high? is there a risk? lots of things to consider before you think its expensive.

i am moving and was going to test and remove 2 chandelier light fittings & replace them with simple fittings and install a new oven

There’s a bunch in Peckham that might help you with the chandeliers.

I would take that quote to mean he doesn’t want the job. I’m not far outside London, still on TFL network, and was recently quoted £90 per fitting for replacing two multi arm light fittings. DH decided he would do it himself.