Electrical safety inspection and the EICR

An Electrical Installation Condition Report, or EICR, is the full periodic inspection of the fixed installation: circuits, consumer unit, sockets, switches, fixed appliances, earthing and bonding. It is the report landlords need and the one that tells a buyer or owner whether the installation is safe to keep using.

Portable appliance testing, usually called PAT, covers equipment with a plug, not the building's wiring. An Electrical Installation Certificate is different again: it is issued after new work to confirm that work was designed, installed and tested properly. It does not describe the rest of the installation.

If an insurer, mortgage lender or letting agent asks for a check, ask which of these documents they mean before you book.

Landlords in England must have the installation in a rented home inspected and tested at least every 5 years, give the tenant a copy of the report and carry out urgent remedial work. Scotland and Wales have their own rules for rented homes.

For owner-occupied homes there is no legal interval. Electrical Safety First recommends periodic inspection at regular intervals, and sooner after flooding, after a period of heavy use or when you buy a property without a recent report. The previous report often states a recommended date for the next one.

For workplaces, the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require electrical equipment and systems to be maintained to prevent danger, but they do not set a fixed interval. HSE makes clear that annual portable appliance testing is not a legal requirement; the frequency should follow the risk, the type of equipment and how it is used.

Source: gov.uk

Expect the power to be off for parts of the visit, so warn anyone working from home and note what needs resetting afterwards. The electrician needs access to the consumer unit, the meter position, every room, the loft if there are cables or fittings there, and outbuildings with a supply. Furniture blocking sockets slows the job down.

Before starting, agree the extent of the inspection and its limitations. On a large installation, some accessories may be inspected by sampling, and items that cannot be reached without lifting floors or moving fitted units may be left out. These limitations must be written in the report. A report with wide limitations and no explanation tells you less than it seems to.

Each observation carries a code, and any C1, C2 or FI item makes the report unsatisfactory. Check that every observation says where the problem is and what it means, not just a regulation number. The schedule of test results for each circuit belongs with the report; without it, the report cannot easily be checked by anyone else.

The electrician who inspects is often the one who offers to fix the faults. That is normal and usually efficient, but for expensive remedial work you are free to ask another firm to quote on the same report. After remedial work, ask for the certificate for that work, so the report and the repair together show the installation is now safe.

• the full report, not a one-page summary
• the schedule of test results for every circuit
• agreed extent and limitations of the inspection
• a clear list of observations with codes and locations
• the recommended date for the next inspection
• a separate written quote for remedial work, if needed

The number of circuits and the size of the property matter most, followed by access, the number of outbuildings and whether an up-to-date circuit chart exists. A landlord with several properties can often reduce travel costs by booking them together. A very low price for an EICR can mean very little testing; a report without a test schedule is a warning sign.

Tell us the property type, the number of bedrooms or circuits and why you need the inspection. After you confirm your phone number and email, electricians in your area see the request without your details. It can be bought once, by one contractor, and then leaves our list. The contractor pays Offrano, not you.

You receive the electrician's name, address and phone number by email before your details are released. There is no guarantee of a buyer, and requests without one are withdrawn after 21 days. Offrano checks only that buyers are registered businesses; check the electrician's competent person or inspection scheme registration yourself.