Before You Buy Your Home in Rotherham | Electrical Checks

Buying a house in Rotherham? Get the electrics checked before you commit

I’m Mat Orton and I run MP Electrical. I have been an electrician for 25+ years, and the parts of Rotherham we work in most are Wickersley, Bramley, Ravenfield, Waverley and Brinsworth.

If you are buying round here, this page is what I would tell you if you rang me.

A viewing tells you nothing about the wiring

The lights come on. The sockets work. The house looks cared for. None of that tells you what is behind the walls and under the floors.

A homebuyer survey is not an electrical inspection either. The surveyor does not test the wiring.

It is the age of the house, not the postcode

What I find depends on when a house was wired, not which part of Rotherham it is in. Wickersley, Bramley, Ravenfield and Brinsworth all have older houses a few streets from newer ones.

If the house was built before the 1960s and has never been rewired, these are the three things I look for first.

Old rubber cable. Before modern plastic cable, houses were wired in rubber. With age the rubber dries out, goes brittle and crumbles when it is disturbed. You cannot see it from the room. I find it when I take a switch or a light fitting off.

No earth on the lighting circuits. Until the mid 1960s lighting circuits were often run with no earth wire. That matters most when somebody has since fitted metal light fittings or metal switches.

No earth to the gas and water. The gas and water pipes coming into a house should be connected to the earthing at the fuseboard. In a lot of older houses I open up, that connection was never made, or it was lost when pipework was changed.

A house can have a new kitchen, new windows and a fresh coat of paint and still have the original wiring behind it.

What I recommend: a full EICR

An EICR is an Electrical Installation Condition Report. I inspect and test the wiring, the fuseboard and the earthing, then give you a written report of what I found, in plain English, with what I would deal with first.

I recommend a full EICR on any house you are buying. I cannot tell you what yours will say until I have tested it.

It is still the seller’s house, so the visit has to be agreed with them. Your estate agent can usually arrange it.

What you do with the report is up to you. Some buyers want peace of mind. Some want to know what to budget for before they move in. Either way you know what you are buying.

Buying new in Waverley?

A new build is a different story. The wiring is new, so you are not worrying about what is behind the walls.

What I hear from Waverley residents is that the builders often charge a lot for extras like spotlights and extra sockets. So people take the house as it comes, move in, and then ring us.

That is when we make the house a home. Spotlights where you want them, sockets where your furniture actually goes. We help bring your home to life.

And once you are in

The question buyers ask me most is “do you do small jobs?” Yes. We are happy to do any size of job, in an old house or a new one.

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

Helpful Guides for Homebuyers

We have put together a range of guides to help you understand the electrical work your new home might need:

• Do I Need a New Fuse Board? 7 Signs It’s Time to Upgrade
• Signs Your House Needs Rewiring
• Old Fuse Box vs Modern Consumer Unit
• When Does a Fuseboard Need Replacing?
• Electrical Jobs You Should Never DIY
• UK Electrical Safety Rules Every Homeowner Should Know

Areas We Cover Near Rotherham

MP Electrical helps homebuyers across Rotherham and surrounding areas including Wickersley, Maltby, Rawmarsh, Brinsworth, Whiston, Kimberworth, Bramley, Catcliffe, Treeton, Thurcroft, Thorpe Hesley, Aston, Parkgate, Sheffield, Barnsley and Doncaster.

Page last updated: 3 October 2026