When something is genuinely an emergency
Most people ring us because they aren't sure. That's fine — we would far rather talk you through something over the phone for five minutes and tell you it can wait until morning than have you sit in the dark worrying, or worse, poke at something you shouldn't.
Call straight away, at any hour, if you have any of the following:
- A burning or fishy smell from a socket, switch, light fitting or the fuse box. Overheating PVC gives off a distinctive sweet, acrid smell. It rarely fixes itself.
- Scorch marks, smoke or melting around an outlet or accessory.
- Buzzing, humming or crackling from the consumer unit or a socket.
- Sparks when you plug something in or operate a switch — more than the brief blue flick you sometimes get from an old lamp.
- Total or partial power loss that isn't a wider street outage.
- Water reaching electrics — a leak through a ceiling rose, a flooded cellar with sockets, rain getting into an outside light or garage supply.
- A shock or tingle from a tap, appliance, or metal pipework. This one is never trivial.
- Lights flickering with warm or hot switch plates.
If you can smell burning and can't find the source, switch off at the main switch and ring us. If there's visible fire, ring 999 first.
What happens when you call
There's no call centre. You get through to someone who does the work, which means the person on the phone can usually tell within a minute or two whether you're dealing with a nuisance trip or something that needs isolating right now.
- We take the details. What's happened, what you can see or smell, what you've already tried, and whether anyone in the property is vulnerable.
- We make you safe over the phone. Which breaker to switch off, what not to touch, whether to leave the room. This costs nothing and often prevents the situation getting worse before we arrive.
- You get an arrival window before you hang up. Not "sometime today" — an actual time, based on where the nearest engineer is.
- We diagnose on site and price before we start. You approve the work knowing the figure.
- We repair, test and certify. Power back on, the installation left tested and labelled, paperwork in your hands.
Out of hours, weekends and bank holidays
A genuine 24 hour electrician service means someone is rostered overnight, not that a mobile diverts to a voicemail box until Monday. We keep engineers on call through the night and across weekends and bank holidays, which is precisely when the awkward jobs land: the immersion heater that fails on Christmas Eve, the shop freezer that trips out on a Sunday, the rental property whose tenant rings the landlord at midnight.
If you're searching for an out of hours electrician near me, a same day electrician, or a late night emergency electrician anywhere in Sussex or Kent, that's us. Typical arrival is between 30 and 90 minutes depending on where you are and what time it is; across most of the region we're with you inside the hour.
Homes, landlords and commercial premises
Roughly half our callouts are domestic — a family with no power, a fuse box that won't stay in, a socket that's started smelling. The rest is split between letting agents and landlords with an obligation to respond, and commercial premises where downtime costs money by the hour.
For landlords and agents we can attend without you being present by arrangement, deal directly with the tenant, and send the certificate and photographs straight through afterwards. For shops, salons, restaurants and small industrial units we work around trading where we can, and we're used to three-phase supplies, distribution boards and the sort of ageing commercial installation that has been extended six times by six different people.
What it costs
We assess on site and give you a clear, upfront price before any work begins. What moves the figure is fairly predictable: the time of day, how long the diagnosis takes, whether parts are needed, and whether the repair is a single accessory or a section of cable that has to be re-run.
Two things we won't do: quote a price down the phone for a fault nobody has looked at yet, and surprise you at the end with a figure you didn't agree to. As a starting point, call-outs are £50 in business hours or £95 outside them, then £100 an hour for the repair — full detail on our pricing page.
How we put it right
Every call-out runs in the same order. The supply is isolated and proved dead before anything is opened, the fault is traced back to its source rather than its symptom, and the repair is tested before the circuit goes back into service. Nothing is re-energised on the assumption that it is probably fine.
The electrician doing that work has a minimum of 18 years in the trade, is registered under Part P of the Building Regulations, and is insured for the work carried out. No apprentice attends unaccompanied, and we do not bring in subcontractors to cover a busy night.
The vans carry calibrated multifunction testers rather than a socket tester and a hunch. Insulation resistance, continuity, loop impedance and RCD trip timing are all measured, the readings recorded, and those results form the certificate issued to BS 7671.
Common Questions
Is a burning smell from a socket an emergency?
Yes. Overheating cable insulation and scorching terminals produce that smell, and both are a fire risk. Switch the circuit off at the consumer unit if you can identify it, stop using the socket, and ring us. Don't wait to see whether it goes away.
Can you come out tonight?
Yes — we run a genuine overnight rota across Sussex and Kent. Typical arrival is 30 to 90 minutes from the call, and most of the region is reached inside the hour.
What should I have ready when I call?
Roughly where the consumer unit is, whether anything has visibly tripped, and what you were doing when it happened. If there is a smell, try to say where it is strongest. None of it is essential — we will talk you through it — but it shortens the call and sharpens the arrival window.
Do you charge more at night or at weekends?
Out of hours work is priced differently to a weekday daytime visit, and we tell you the figure before we set off rather than after the job. There's no hidden weekend surcharge added at the end.
Are you qualified and insured?
Yes. Our electricians work to BS 7671, hold current qualifications, and every job is insured and guaranteed. Certification is issued for the work carried out.
