Price increase letter to electrician customers
Copy it, replace the bracketed bits, send it. Below the letter: the text-message version, how much notice to give, and what to say when they push back.
Hi [NAME], Sending this well ahead of time so you can update your budgets and your landlords before it lands. From [DATE], my rates for your properties change as follows: Day rate: [OLD] → [NEW] Hourly (under half a day): [OLD] → [NEW] Electrical inspection / safety report, up to [N] circuits: [OLD] → [NEW] Each additional circuit: [OLD] → [NEW] Any job you have already instructed, or any quote issued before [DATE], stays at the old price. Two things are driving it. Materials — cable and consumer units especially — cost noticeably more than when we agreed these rates in [YEAR]. And the inspection work has changed: current standards expect more testing and more protection than they did, and a lot of your older stock needs remedial quotes that take time to write properly. I am not changing how I work with you. Same response time on voids and urgent faults, same photo reports, same certificates within [N] days. If it would help to fix a price for a batch — say, all of your inspections due this year — I can quote that as one job at [PERCENT]% under the new rate. [YOUR NAME] [BUSINESS NAME]
How many customers can this price rise lose?
10% ÷ (40% + 10%) = 20%
Open the full calculator, with your prices and customer count →30 days for account customers such as landlords and agents; open quotes honoured for their stated validity
5–10% on the day rate; fixed-price tests reset separately
The text-message version
For the customers whose entire relationship with you lives in a phone. Send it before the visit, never on the invoice.
Hi [NAME], [YOUR NAME] (electrician). Emailed you new rates for your properties from [DATE] — anything already instructed stays at the old price. Can also quote your inspections due this year as a batch if that helps. Ring me on [PHONE].
Why it is going up, in words you can use
“Rising costs” persuades nobody because everyone says it. Name the actual driver in electrical contracting instead:
- copper cable and consumer units rose sharply and have stayed high
- wiring regulations and code updates keep adding required protection — surge devices, RCD or AFCI/GFCI coverage — so the same job now includes more kit
- registration scheme fees, insurance and test equipment calibration are annual and all went up
- fixed-price inspection reports were set when they took two hours, and older properties now take three
When they push back
You will hear these within a week. Having the answer ready is the difference between holding the price and folding on the phone.
- "Another firm does inspection reports for [LOW PRICE]."
- "Worth asking them how many circuits that covers and whether they test every one or sample them." Cheap inspection reports are usually sampled or rushed, and the agent carries the risk if a tenant gets hurt. Say it once, calmly — agents know what a bad certificate costs them.
- "The landlord won't pay more."
- Give the agent something to forward: a two-line note on what changed in materials and standards. Agents are rarely the ones objecting — they need a reason they can pass on without looking like they did not negotiate.
- "Why is the quote so much more than the parts?"
- "The parts are the smallest part of it. You are paying for testing, the certificate and my name on it." Never itemise your labour into minutes to justify it — it invites haggling over each one.
Is a price rise even the right move for you?
Sometimes it is not. Sometimes the money is in a service plan for customers you already have, or in the job you are quoting below cost without realising. Describe your business in one sentence and you will get three specific moves back — priced per month, with the arithmetic written out so you can put your own numbers in.
Free, no signup, about thirty seconds. If one of them is a price rise, you will get the number to put in the brackets above.
Give me three movesMore letters: trades and repairs
Other trades
A template, not legal advice. If you have a written contract with these account customers, check what it says about notice periods and price changes before you send anything — the contract wins over any template, including this one.