What is an EICR and how often do you need one?
An EICR is a check-up for your home's wiring. Here's what gets tested, what the C1, C2, C3 and FI codes mean, and how often homeowners and landlords need one.
An EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) is an inspection and test of a property's fixed wiring that records whether it is safe. Private landlords in England must have one at least every five years, and homeowners are advised to have one every ten years or when buying a house. Problems are graded C1, C2, C3 or FI.
- Landlords in England: every five years by law
- Homeowners: every ten years, or when buying
- From £120 for a one or two bed home
- Report back within 48 hours
What an EICR is (in plain English)
If you have been asked “what is an EICR” by a letting agent, a solicitor or an insurer, here is the short answer. An EICR is an Electrical Installation Condition Report. It is a check-up for the fixed wiring in a building: the cables in the walls, the sockets, the light fittings, the switches and the consumer unit, which is the trade name for the fuse box. It does not cover the things you plug in. Kettles, lamps and washing machines are a separate job called PAT testing.
The word “report” matters. An EICR is not a certificate in the everyday sense, and your house does not pass or fail in the way a car passes or fails its MOT. The electrician inspects and tests the installation, writes down everything they find, and gives the whole thing one of two overall verdicts: satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Even a satisfactory report will often list a few things worth improving.
We have been producing these reports across the Fylde coast since 2004, and the question I am asked most is still “will it pass?”. The honest answer is that we are there to find out, not to tick a box.
What gets checked
An EICR has two halves. The first is a visual inspection. The electrician walks the property looking at every accessory they can reach: cracked sockets, scorch marks around switches, the condition of the consumer unit, how cables enter it, whether the earthing and bonding are in place. Bonding is the green and yellow wire that connects your gas and water pipes to the earth of the electrical system, so that a fault cannot make a pipe live.
The second half is testing with instruments. The power is switched off for most of it. The electrician measures how well the earth path works, checks that the insulation on the cables has not broken down, and confirms that the protective devices in the consumer unit, the fuses, circuit breakers and RCDs, will cut the power quickly enough if something goes wrong. An RCD is a residual current device, the switch that trips if electricity leaks where it should not, for example through a person.
Not every socket in the house gets opened up. The report records a sampling percentage, and on a house we have not seen before we typically open and check a good spread across every circuit. If the first samples throw up problems, we open more.
C1, C2, C3 and FI: what the codes mean
Every observation on the report gets a code, and the codes decide the overall verdict.
A C1 means danger is present right now. Someone could get a shock or something could catch fire. A bare live conductor inside a broken socket is a C1. We make it safe before we leave, even if that means isolating the circuit and telling you why.
A C2 means potentially dangerous. Nothing is going to hurt you this afternoon, but under the wrong conditions it could. A missing earth on a metal light fitting is a typical C2.
A C3 means improvement recommended. The installation does not meet the current wiring regulations but is not dangerous. A plastic consumer unit in good condition with no RCD protection on a lighting circuit usually gets a C3.
FI means further investigation required. The electrician found something they could not get to the bottom of in the time available, and it needs looking at before the installation can be called satisfactory.
Any C1, C2 or FI makes the whole report unsatisfactory. C3s on their own do not. That is the bit most people need to know.
How often you need one
The wiring regulations, BS 7671:2018+A2:2022, do not set the intervals themselves. They come from guidance published by the IET, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and from law where law applies.
For an owner-occupied house the usual recommendation is every ten years, or whenever you move in. A 1930s semi in Poulton that has never had one is overdue.
For a privately rented home in England the interval is set by law: at least every five years, under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. We cover the detail in our landlord guide. Wales and Scotland have their own rules, with the same five-year rhythm.
For holiday lets and guest houses the common recommendation is also five years, and many insurers and booking platforms want to see a current report. The Blackpool guest houses we look after tend to have one done at the end of the season, when the rooms are empty.
Commercial premises are generally on a five-year cycle too, although some settings such as swimming pools and caravans are inspected more often.
Buying a house is a good time to have one done. A survey will tell you the roof is sound, but surveyors do not test the electrics. We have found more than one “recently rewired” house where only the kitchen had been touched.
How long it takes and what it costs
A one or two bedroom flat usually takes us two to three hours. A three or four bedroom house takes most of a morning. Older properties with more circuits, and houses where the consumer unit is hard to get to, take longer. We need the power off for part of the visit, so plan around the freezer and the home office.
Our EICR prices start at £120 including VAT for a one or two bedroom flat or house, from £150 for a three bedroom house and from £180 for four bedrooms and up. The report is with you within 48 hours. Landlords can add a smoke and heat alarm check for a bundle price from £165.
Be wary of anyone offering an EICR for a price that would not cover the time. An inspection that takes forty minutes has not tested very much.
What happens if it fails
If the report is unsatisfactory, it will list the C1, C2 and FI items that caused it. You then have the remedial work done, by us or by anyone else you choose. Once the work is complete you get either a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate for small jobs or an Electrical Installation Certificate for bigger ones, and the written confirmation that the installation is now satisfactory. You do not usually need a whole new EICR, just evidence that the coded items have been dealt with.
Landlords in England have 28 days from the inspection to complete remedial work, or sooner if the report says so, and must give written confirmation to the tenant and the council if asked. Homeowners have no legal deadline, but a C1 should not wait, and a C2 should not wait long. The salt air on the Promenade does not improve corroded terminals by leaving them alone.
We tell you if the work is not needed. If a C3 is cosmetic we will say so, and you can decide whether to spend the money.
Need a hand?
If you need an EICR for a sale, a tenancy or simply because nobody has looked at the wiring in years, our EICR and landlord certificates page explains what is included and what changes the price. For anything you are not sure about, get in touch and we will talk it through before you book.
