Before You Buy Your Home in Doncaster | Electrical Checks

Buying a house in Doncaster? New city, plenty of older wiring

Doncaster became a city in 2022. A lot of its houses are a good deal older than that.

I’m Mat Orton, MP Electrical, an electrician for 25+ years. We work across South Yorkshire, Doncaster included.

Sixty years of change

The A1(M) bypass opened in 1961 and took the Great North Road traffic out of the centre. The pits shed most of their jobs in the late 1980s. The Dome opened in 1989. By 2008 most of the old railway Plant had been cleared for a very large housing development, and more new houses have gone up opposite the racecourse and out in the suburbs.

So a Doncaster buyer can be looking at a house built last year or one that was standing before the bypass.

If it was standing before the bypass

Then it was wired in the rubber cable years, unless someone has rewired it since. I look for the rubber cable first. Then for lighting circuits with no earth. Then for gas and water pipes with no connection to the earthing. In plenty of older houses I open up, that connection is missing.

Find out before you commit

None of that shows on a viewing, and the surveyor does not test electrics. A full EICR does. I report what is there in plain English, I do not predict it, and the seller needs to agree to let me in.

What Doncaster buyers ask me

It is on one of the new estates. Do I need you? Not for a test. Ring us when you want sockets and lights adding.

Do you do small jobs? Yes, any size.

MP Electrical is NAPIT registered, with 330+ five star Google reviews and over 1000 jobs done.

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• Old Fuse Box vs Modern Consumer Unit
• Electrical Jobs You Should Never DIY
• UK Electrical Safety Rules Every Homeowner Should Know

Areas We Cover Near Doncaster

MP Electrical helps homebuyers across Doncaster and into Rotherham, Conisbrough, Mexborough, Swinton, Adwick upon Dearne, Barnsley and Sheffield.

Page last updated: 6 October 2026