When you hire an electrical installation company
Are you planning to order or buy electrical installation services? If so, there are some things you need to consider. Most importantly you need to verify that the electrical installation company you are thinking of using is registered with the National Electrical Safety Board.
A quick check of the company you are planning to use reduces the risk of rogue operators doing dangerous electrical installation work. If the company is not registered with us, it is operating illegally and you must not hire it.
- Always check that the electrical installation company is registered with the National Electrical Safety Board under the activity types 'Residential buildings' or 'Electrical installations for generation of electric energy', or 'Limited low-voltage'. That means the company is allowed to work in your home. You can verify this in our Check an electrical company e-service (in Swedish).
- Get quotes from a number of different electrical companies before you decide, and ideally you should have a written contract setting out what you have agreed. Read the terms and conditions in the contract carefully before signing it.
- It can sometimes be difficult for you to know what actually needs to be done in your electrical system. An electrical installation company can help with this in the planning phase.
- Keep documentation about the electrical installation work that has been done, and who did what in your electrical system. It may come in useful if you sell your home or when dealing with insurance issues.
- Never hire an unregistered electrical installation company. If the company is missing from our register, contact it and ask why. It may simply be using another company to carry out its electrical installation services, in which case you should make sure the other company is registered instead. If the company is unwilling to answer your questions or unable to clearly explain why it is not registered, avoid hiring it.
Who is responsible for what?
Owning your house, second home or apartment makes you the custodian of an electrical system, and as such you are also responsible for making sure it is safe. So when you hire an electrical installation company, it is important to keep track of who is responsible for what when work is carried out in the system.
- You are responsible for ensuring that all work on or adjacent to your electrical system is done by individuals who have sufficient knowledge or skills to guarantee safety in terms of personal injury or damage to property.
- You are responsible for providing the electrical installation company with the information it needs about the system to enable it to do the work safely. The scope of the information you need to provide depends on the size and complexity of your system and the components in it. The list of circuits in the distribution box is an example of the kind of information you need to provide.
- The electrical installation company is responsible for carrying out the necessary electrical installation work and ensuring that all the work done meets the relevant requirements.
- The electrical installation company is responsible for documenting and labelling the electrical system in the parts where the work has been done, and handing over the documentation to you.