Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)
The five-yearly safety check on a home's wiring
An Electrical Installation Condition Report records the condition of a home's fixed wiring, sockets, consumer unit and earthing. A qualified electrician inspects and tests the installation against British Standard 7671, the Wiring Regulations. Every UK nation now requires one at least every five years for a privately rented home. No nation requires one for an owner-occupied home.
What This Means
Buying this property to live in carries no duty to hold an EICR. Your survey will not fill that gap either, because a surveyor tests no circuits and opens no consumer unit. The report is the only routine way to learn whether the wiring behind the plaster is sound. Letting the property changes the position completely. The duty becomes yours on the day a tenancy starts. In England a council can fine a landlord up to £40,000. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Practical Advice
- Ask the seller through your conveyancer for any EICR carried out on this property, and its date.
- Ask a registered electrician on a government-approved competent person scheme to quote for an EICR before exchange.
- Ask your conveyancer to confirm whether any tenancy survives completion, because the electrical duty would pass to you.
- Ask the electrician to price the remedial work against each C1 and C2 item on the report.
- Ask your surveyor to note the age and type of the consumer unit where no report exists.
Key Points
- A report fails as Unsatisfactory on a single C1, meaning danger present, or a C2, meaning potentially dangerous. A C3, improvement recommended, is advisory and does not fail it.
- Landlords in England had to hold their first report by 1 April 2021. Those five-year certificates began falling due for renewal from 1 April 2026.
- Where a report demands remedial work, an English landlord has 28 days to complete it, or a shorter period if the report specifies one.
Additional Information
No public register records which homes hold a valid report. Unlike an EPC, it cannot be looked up against an address. So this report cannot tell you whether one exists for this property. England's guidance is linked below; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each publish separately.