Terms of service

1. Who you are dealing with

Hour Electric (“Hour Electric”, “we”) provides the booking, payment and customer service for small electrical work in homes and small business premises in York. The electrical work itself is supplied by an independent electrical contractor selected by Hour Electric (“the contractor”). Company registration details will appear here once complete.

Hour Electric acts as booking and payment agent for the contractor that accepts your booking. Your contract for the electrical work is between you and that contractor. Your contract with Hour Electric covers the booking service: arranging the visit, holding your card details, collecting payment on the contractor’s behalf, and being your point of contact throughout.

You do not choose the contractor. We name it to you by email, and on your booking page, as soon as it has accepted your booking, and always before the visit; it also appears on your receipt. If we cannot find a contractor for your booking, we tell you, nothing is charged, and you receive a £10 credit towards a rebooked visit.

2. What you are booking

You book an electrician’s time in a morning, afternoon or evening arrival window, or any time that day with the window confirmed once your contractor is arranged. You tell us the jobs and we work out how much time to book from what you describe: a quick job (£89 including the booking fee) for one small job the electrician can normally finish inside 30 minutes; a standard visit (£109 including the booking fee, up to an hour) for a list of small jobs; or a standard visit plus up to 4 further 30-minute periods (£39 each) for a longer list, up to 3 hours in all. The time we book, the expected labour price we show, and any materials estimate, are our estimate for the work you have described, including how many of each item and what you told us about them. They are not a fixed quote for whatever is found on the day, and they do not replace the electrician’s judgement about what the work actually needs. Materials are supplied by the contractor as part of its work; where the materials needed differ materially from the estimate, the electrician explains the change and you approve it before they are fitted. All visits include travel within our service area. Of each price, £84 or £104 is the contractor’s price for the visit, set through Hour Electric so it is the same whichever contractor attends, and £5 is Hour Electric’s booking fee. If a quick job needs longer than 30 minutes, and you agree, it becomes a standard visit and you pay the difference (£20), nothing more. An electrical safety report (EICR) is a third kind of visit: a fixed price by the number of bedrooms, including the booking fee, covering the circuits stated; circuits beyond that are £10 each and only tested with your agreement. The report is issued by the contractor through its registration scheme; any work it recommends is a separate hourly booking. The booking fee covers arranging the visit and holding your card. If you agree on the day that the electrician should stay longer, each further 30 minutes costs £39. Your electrician tells you when more time is needed; it is charged in 30-minute steps and only once you have approved it, on the electrician’s device or by the link we send you.

Jobs are worked through in the order you list them. If something on your list cannot be finished in the time booked, the electrician will tell you and you can approve more time, book another visit, or stop there. We may check your list before the visit and suggest a longer booking or a different approach; nothing changes unless you agree.

3. Materials

Materials are supplied by the contractor, not by Hour Electric. Small parts the electrician fits are charged at the price they record on the day, with no mark-up from Hour Electric, and your electrician confirms the cost with you before fitting them. Materials over £150 in total need your approval before they are fitted. Parts you supply yourself are fitted at your risk; the electrician may decline to fit anything that is unsafe or unsuitable.

4. Paying

You save a card when you book. Nothing is charged until after the visit. After 6pm the day before the visit, once moving or cancelling is no longer free, we may check the card by authorising the visit price: it shows as pending on your statement, nothing is taken, and the authorisation is released if the visit is cancelled or moved. If the check fails we ask you for another card. Once you have checked the work and the total and confirmed it, or three days after the visit if we have not heard from you, we charge the saved card for the time booked, any extra time you approved, and any materials, collected as the contractor’s agent, together with Hour Electric’s booking fee, less any credit we have given you. Paying Hour Electric discharges your debt to the contractor for that amount. We email you a receipt issued in the contractor’s name. Prices are inclusive of any VAT that applies. The receipt shows the contractor’s VAT position on its lines and Hour Electric’s VAT position on its own charges, each with the relevant VAT number, so it serves as a VAT receipt where either is registered. If a charge fails we will email you a link to pay another way; the visit remains payable.

5. Cancelling, moving and access

These charges are taken from your saved card. We look at every one before charging and may waive it, for example a first genuine mix-up. If you offered more than one day or window, the cut-offs count from the earliest until the contractor confirms one, and we tell you which by 5pm the day before the earliest.

6. Your right to cancel and starting within 14 days

Because you book online or through us directly, you have 14 days from booking to cancel without giving a reason. Most visits happen inside that period. When you book you ask us to go ahead with the visit within the 14 days; if you then cancel after the electrician has started work, you pay for the time and materials used up to that point, on the terms above.

7. Your responsibilities

• Someone aged 18 or over must be at the property during the visit, or you must have told us in advance how the electrician gets in.
• Make the consumer unit and the areas on your list reachable, and tell us about parking, pets and anything that affects access.
• Tell us if you are booking for a property you do not own or live in, so we can arrange sign-off with the right person.

Booking for a property you don’t live at

If you book as a landlord or agent, you are the customer and you pay. You confirm that you are entitled to arrange work at the property, that you have told the occupier their name and phone number will be shared with us and the contractor so the visit can take place, and that the person you name on site can let the electrician in. Extra time and any additional cost are agreed with you, not with the person on site, unless you have set a pre-approved limit in your account. If nobody is in when the electrician arrives, the no-access charge applies.

8. The contractor’s responsibilities

The contractor sends a qualified electrician, assesses the installation, carries out and tests the work, and decides whether work is technically appropriate; it may decline work it considers unsafe. The contractor is responsible for the standard of its work, its workmanship and its certification: notifiable work is certified through the contractor’s scheme and you receive the paperwork by email. Before a contractor receives work through Hour Electric it provides us with its registration and public liability insurance documents, which we review and keep on file. Larger work the contractor identifies, whether before or during a visit, is outside the small-job booking; the contractor may quote you for it directly and any such work is a separate contract between you and the contractor.

9. Hour Electric’s responsibilities

Hour Electric is responsible for the booking service: arranging the visit with a contractor, telling you who is coming, holding your card and collecting payment, sending your confirmation, reminders, receipt and documents, and handling your questions and complaints. Our promise to you: nothing is charged until you have checked the work and signed it off, and if you raise a problem before signing, nothing is taken until we have looked into it. If work done on your visit develops a fault within 90 days, tell us and we will arrange for the contractor to put it right at no charge; if the contractor cannot, we will arrange another. If we agree that work on your list was not done properly, you do not pay for that work; parts that were fitted remain payable. These promises are in addition to your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Hour Electric’s own liability, as agent, is limited to the booking and payment service and to the price of the visit, except where the law does not allow that limit, for example death or personal injury caused by negligence. Nothing in these terms limits the contractor’s responsibility for the work it carries out.

10. Complaints

Speak to Hour Electric first, whatever the problem: email hello@hourelectric.co.uk or reply to any email from us. We aim to answer within two working days and resolve most things within ten, and we deal with the contractor on your behalf. If we cannot agree, you can use an alternative dispute resolution service; we will tell you which one applies.

11. Referrals and credit codes

A referral code gives someone booking their first visit £10 off, and gives the person whose code it is £10 of credit as soon as that booking is made. First visit means no earlier booking under the same email, phone number or address. A code cannot be used by its own holder, and a referral between the same two people counts once, in one direction. A holder can earn from up to ten referrals in any twelve months. A credit code is single-use, has no cash value, and cannot be combined with another code on the same booking. If a referred booking is cancelled, or refunded in full, before the credit earned from it has been used, that credit is withdrawn. We may pause or end the scheme, or withhold a credit where a code has been misused, and we will tell you if we do.

12. General

These terms are governed by English law and the courts of England and Wales. We may update them; the version you accepted is recorded on your booking and applies to it.