Questions to be considered before hiring a PAT company

Do you run a business or let property in the United Kingdom? If your answer is yes, then it is necessary to make sure that you have your electrical equipment PAT tested.
But before you hire an electrician test equipment company, it is important to ask a few questions beforehand only. This is because using defected fluke pat testers is very dangerous and risky.  
Let us discuss about various questions that are important to be asked before hiring pat testers. 
Ques1- Whether the company you are hiring is accredited or not? 
You should confirm it well in advance only, whether the PAT testing company has professional accreditation. Though there is no PAT testing official body, but all companies belong to one or the other professional associations.
Not only this even if the company lies under this category, it is important to check whether their membership is up- to- date or not? 
 
Ques2- Whether the engineers of the PAT company are qualified or not? 
It is important that PAT testing must be carried out by the qualified engineers. Thus it is important to check whether the engineers sent by the PAT company are professionals or not.
A company that employs unqualified engineers could be compromising the safety of you and your place. 
Ques3- Do they perform a complete PAT test or not? 
It is important for you to ensure, whether the company carries out a full PAT test or just stick labels on the equipment without carrying the full test. The steps to test a PAT involve a number of steps and all the equipments are tested for less than 5 to 10 minutes, is too short. Besides this the testing company should also provide you with a database of all the test results in both paper as well as electronic format.  
Ques4- Do they use the latest equipment for testing or not? 
The PAT testing equipment should always be latest and the company should not hold the old equipment. Besides this the electrical test equipment used for PAT testing, must give correct readings too.
The equipment used by the PAT testing company, should have a certificate to prove that is tested and is functionally correct. 
Ques5- Is there any hidden charges? 
The most important to be checked well in advance is the price of the quote. Ensure whether it includes the database burnt to the CD, cost of the labels and the print out of the results?
Also check whether the work charged is per equipment piece, per hour for whole testing, or other way round?  
Apart from this, you should also check will there be any charges for changing the fuses in plugs or not? 
All the above questions must be considered before appointing a PAT testing company. It will not just ensure the safety of your workplace, but the employees as well.