Every piece of electrical work in a New Zealand home or business has to be carried out by a registered person and certified when it is done. That is not best practice, it is the law. This guide covers what registration actually means, the warning signs of someone who should not be touching your switchboard, what to ask before you hire, and what it costs when the work is not done properly.
Registered, licensed, or Master Electrician — what the words mean
The three get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing.
Registered means the person holds current registration with the Electrical Workers Registration Board. This is the legal minimum. An unregistered person doing prescribed electrical work is committing an offence, regardless of how competent they are.
Practising licence is the annual renewal that sits on top of registration. Someone can be registered but not currently licensed — ask for the licence, not just the registration.
Master Electricians is a membership organisation, not a legal category. Members are audited and back their work with a workmanship guarantee. It is a quality signal on top of the legal requirement, not a substitute for it.
Red flags
We are called in to fix other people’s work often enough to have a list.
- Cash jobs. A price that drops when you offer cash usually means the job is going through nobody’s books — and if it is off the books, it is not being certified either.
- No Certificate of Compliance offered. A CoC is not optional paperwork; it is the record that the work meets the standard. If nobody mentions one, ask why.
- No written quote. Verbal numbers have a way of growing once the walls are open.
- Reluctance to give a registration number. It is public information. Anyone hesitant to hand it over is telling you something.
- No insurance. Ask what public liability cover they carry, and what happens if something goes wrong six months from now.
What to ask before you hire
- What is your EWRB registration number, and is your practising licence current?
- Will I get a Certificate of Compliance, and is it included in the price?
- Is the quote fixed, or an estimate that can move?
- Who is actually doing the work — and if it is an apprentice, who is supervising?
- What happens if there is a problem afterwards, and how long is the workmanship covered?
Why DIY costs more than it saves
Beyond the obvious risk of injury or fire, uncertified work has two expensive consequences that people rarely think about until they hit them.
Insurance. If there is a fire or a fault and the work behind it was not compliant, the claim is likely to be declined. The saving on the install is irrelevant against the cost of the house.
Resale. Uncertified work surfaces during a sale. You may not be able to settle until it has been inspected, rectified and certified by a registered electrician — at your cost, on the buyer’s timeline.
There is a small amount of low-risk work a homeowner may legally do. Replacing a like-for-like light fitting or a plug on an appliance is fine. Anything involving fixed wiring, the switchboard, or a new circuit is not.
Standards, and why they are not straightforward
Electrical work in New Zealand is governed by AS/NZS 3000 and a set of related standards, and which ones apply depends on the type of work, the age of the installation and the kind of building. Knowing which standard governs a given job is a large part of what registration is for. If you are unsure whether existing work in your home meets the current standard, an electrical warrant of fitness inspection will tell you in writing.
Where we sit
French Electrical has been wiring Auckland homes and businesses since 1974. Every electrician on our team is EWRB-registered, we are Master Electricians members, and our work carries a $20,000 workmanship guarantee. Quotes for installation work are free.
If you would rather see what a job costs before you call, our pricing is published.