Electrical Work Warranty in Burlington: What to Get in Writing

By Zvonko Lipovac, Master Electrician, Apollo Electric Inc. · ECRA/ESA 7009372 · Last updated: 5 October 2026

An electrical work warranty is the easiest thing in this trade to promise and the hardest to collect on, which is exactly why it is worth ten minutes of your attention before you sign anything. The number of years matters far less than who is standing behind them and what the document actually says.

Apollo Electric Inc. has worked across Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville and the surrounding area since 2012, and Zvonko Lipovac has over 30 years in the trade under ECRA/ESA licence 7009372. This page sets out what a real guarantee covers, the wording that hollows one out, and the paperwork that protects you whether a warranty is honoured or not.

Three Different Warranties, Often Confused

When a contractor says the job is guaranteed, an electrical work warranty could mean any of three things, and the three behave completely differently.

What it covers	Who stands behind it	What it does not cover
Workmanship, the installation itself	The contractor	Failure of the product they installed
Product, the breaker, fixture, charger or panel	The manufacturer	The labour to remove and refit it, unless the contractor adds that
Labour on a product claim	Nobody, unless it is written down	This is the gap almost every dispute falls into

That third row is the one to watch. A manufacturer will happily ship a replacement fixture under a ten year product warranty and leave you paying a tradesperson to install it. A good electrical work warranty closes that gap explicitly, in a sentence you can point at.

What Should an Electrical Work Warranty Cover?

Seven items belong in an electrical work warranty. If a document is missing any of them, ask for it in writing before the work starts rather than after something fails.

1. Exactly what work is covered, described by circuit, room or device rather than as "the job".
2. The term in years, and the date it starts. Completion date, not invoice date, and they are not always the same.
3. Whether labour is included on a product failure, which is the gap in the table above.
4. What voids it. Fair enough if another trade opens the same circuit. Not fair if normal use voids it.
5. Response time for a callback, so "we will get to it" has a number attached.
6. Whether it transfers to the next owner, which matters if you may sell inside the term.
7. The contractor's ECRA/ESA licence number printed on the same document.

Our view, after thirty years of these: a clear two year electrical work warranty from a licensed business you can verify beats a ten year promise from someone who will not give you a licence number.

Why the Licence Outranks the Promise

An electrical work warranty is a contractual promise from a business. It is worth whatever that business is worth when you need it, which is why the licence check comes first and the promise second.

In Ontario, Licensed Electrical Contractors are the only businesses that can be hired to do electrical work in your home, and the licence is a seven digit ECRA/ESA number that appears on estimates, invoices and vehicles. An unlicensed operator cannot lawfully take the work, cannot file the notification with the Electrical Safety Authority, and is the least likely of anyone to still be reachable in year three.

Verify it yourself in the Electrical Safety Authority contractor locator. It takes under a minute, and it tells you whether the licence is current. We set out the wider checks under how to hire a licensed electrician, and how to read a contractor's public record under verifying a top rated electrician.

Two more things to confirm alongside the licence: liability insurance, and WSIB coverage for anyone working on your property. A certificate of clearance is a document the contractor can produce on request, and a contractor who hesitates has told you something.

The Documentation That Outlives Any Warranty

Here is the part most pages about this topic skip, and it is the most valuable paragraph on this page.

Electrical work in Ontario must be reported to the Electrical Safety Authority by the contractor, before the work starts. What comes back at the end is documentation that the work was done by a licensed business and inspected or sampled. That paperwork does something no electrical work warranty can do: it stays with the house.

• It survives the contractor. A warranty dies with the business. The inspection record does not.
• Your insurer may ask for it after a claim, and its absence is a problem you cannot fix retroactively.
• A buyer's inspector will ask for it, and undocumented work slows or reprices a sale.

So when you compare two quotes, the question is not only how long each electrical work warranty runs. It is whether either contractor will hand you the documentation at all. If one files the notification and one does not, the warranty comparison is irrelevant.

Wording That Quietly Cancels Cover

These phrases turn up in a lot of electrical work warranty documents. Here is what each one actually means.

• "Lifetime warranty." Whose lifetime? Usually the product's expected service life as judged by the seller, not yours. Ask for a number in years.
• "Parts only." You pay the labour, which on most electrical callbacks is the larger figure.
• "Subject to normal wear." Broad enough to cover almost any refusal unless wear is defined.
• "At our discretion." Means the decision is theirs and you have no appeal written into the document.
• A verbal guarantee. Not an electrical work warranty at all. If it is not on the invoice or a separate signed page, it does not exist.
• No licence number anywhere on the paperwork. The most serious warning sign on this list, because it suggests there may be no licensed business behind any of it.

Making a Claim Without a Fight

If something fails inside the term of an electrical work warranty, the process is short when you kept the right things.

1. Stop using the circuit if there is any heat, smell or noise, and treat it as urgent rather than as a warranty matter. Safety first, paperwork second.
2. Photograph the symptom and note the date it started.
3. Contact the original contractor in writing, by email, quoting the invoice number and the warranty clause. A phone call leaves no record.
4. Do not let another trade open the work first. On most documents that voids the cover outright.
5. Keep the inspection documentation to hand, since it establishes who did the work and when.

If the symptom is flicker with warm cover plates or anything smelling of burning, that stops being a warranty question entirely. Call an emergency electrician the same day and sort the paperwork afterwards.

Burlington: Who Is Responsible for What

One local distinction worth knowing before you make any claim, because it decides who you are even talking to.

Burlington Hydro owns and maintains the distribution network up to its connection point at your property. Everything past that point is your equipment, and that is the only part an electrician's warranty can cover. Their 24 hour outage and emergency line is 1-877-310-4937. For a downed line, pole, or branches touching a powerline, Burlington Hydro's own guidance is to stay back at least 10 metres, about the length of a school bus, and to call 911 immediately. Never touch anything near the line.

So a failure at the mast or the service entrance may be theirs rather than your contractor's, and a failure inside the house is yours and your contractor's. Knowing which side of the connection point a problem sits on saves a week of calls.

Burlington's housing stock also shapes what tends to need a callback. The older central neighbourhoods near the lake carry decades of layered work, while the newer subdivisions north of the QEW usually have sound original wiring and run into capacity limits instead. Different failures, different conversations.

If you want a written electrical work warranty and the ESA documentation to go with it, get in touch or call 905-921-5487. You can read more about how we handle compliance on our electrical safety page.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should an electrical work warranty last?

There is no legal minimum in Ontario, so terms vary from one to ten years. Judge the document rather than the number. A clear two year workmanship guarantee from a contractor whose ECRA/ESA licence you have verified is worth more than a ten year promise from a business you cannot look up.

Does an electrical work warranty cover labour or only parts?

Only if it says so. The manufacturer covers the product, the contractor covers the installation, and the labour to fit a replacement part falls between the two unless the document closes that gap. Ask for the labour-on-product-failure position in writing before the work starts.

Is a verbal guarantee from an electrician enforceable?

In practice it is very hard to rely on. Get the term, the scope, what voids it and the contractor's seven digit ECRA/ESA licence number on the invoice or a signed page. If it is not written down, you have nothing to point at when you need it.

What happens to my warranty if the electrician goes out of business?

It generally ends with the business, which is why the ESA documentation matters more. That record stays with the property and proves the work was done by a licensed contractor and inspected, which is what an insurer or a buyer's inspector will ask for years later.

Who do I call in Burlington, the electrician or the utility?

Burlington Hydro is responsible up to its connection point at your property, on 1-877-310-4937, answered 24 hours. Everything past that connection is your equipment and an electrician's work. For a downed line, stay back at least 10 metres and call 911 first.

Does Apollo Electric provide a written electrical work warranty?

Yes. Apollo Electric Inc. is a Licensed Electrical Contractor under ECRA/ESA licence 7009372, WSIB compliant and insured, serving Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville and the surrounding area. We file the notification of work with the Electrical Safety Authority and hand over the documentation along with the written guarantee.

References

• Electrical Safety Authority, hiring an electrician or contractor, on why only a Licensed Electrical Contractor may be hired and on liability and workplace coverage.
• Electrical Safety Authority contractor locator tool, for verifying a licence number.
• Burlington Hydro, report an outage, the 24 hour line, the 10 metre stay-back distance and the instruction to call 911.
• WSIB Ontario, on clearance certificates for contractors working on your property.
• Consumer Protection Ontario, on written contracts and consumer rights for home services.