EICR Meaning Explained

EICR stands for Electrical Installation Condition Report. It is the written report produced after a qualified electrician inspects and tests the fixed electrical wiring, consumer unit and connected fittings in a property, to confirm they are safe to continue using. If you rent out a residential property in England, you must have this inspection carried out at least every five years and give tenants a copy of the result.

This guide explains what an EICR actually checks, who legally needs one, what the difference between a pass and a fail looks like, and what to do once you have a report in hand.

Definition

An EICR is an assessment of a property's fixed electrical installation against the UK wiring standard, BS 7671. "Fixed" is the key word: the report covers the wiring behind the walls, the consumer unit (fuse board), sockets, switches and light fittings, and earthing and bonding, rather than plug-in appliances like kettles, washing machines or lamps.

That distinction matters because it is often confused with two other, separate checks:

• PAT testing (Portable Appliance Testing) checks individual plug-in appliances, not the building's fixed wiring. It is voluntary for most rental properties, though it is common in HMOs and furnished lets.
• Gas Safety Certificate (CP12) covers gas appliances and flues, an entirely separate system with its own annual legal requirement. Our gas safety certificate guide covers that requirement in full.

An EICR is carried out by a qualified and competent electrician, normally registered with a competent person scheme such as NICEIC, NAPIT or ELECSA. The electrician tests each circuit, inspects the consumer unit and visible wiring, and produces a written report listing any observations, each coded by severity, along with an overall verdict.

Who needs one

Since 1 June 2020, the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 require landlords of most residential tenancies in England to have the electrical installation inspected at intervals of no more than five years, and to:

• Supply a copy of the report to existing tenants within 28 days of the inspection.
• Supply a copy to a new tenant before they move in, and to a prospective tenant if they ask.
• Supply a copy to the local housing authority within seven days if requested.

These specific regulations apply in England. Landlords in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have broadly similar duties under their own housing legislation, so check the rules for the specific nation a property sits in rather than assuming England's regulations apply directly across the UK.

Practically, this means almost every landlord letting a residential property in England needs a current EICR on file, renewed at least every five years, with the report available to hand to a tenant or local authority whenever asked. Our EICR certificate guide covers the full legal duty in more depth, including what happens if you let the deadline slip.

Pass vs fail

An EICR does not simply pass or fail in a binary sense; it comes back "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory," based on the codes the electrician records against anything they find:

• C1: Danger present. An immediate risk of injury, which the electrician should normally make safe on the spot, even if that means isolating part of the supply during the visit.
• C2: Potentially dangerous. Not immediately dangerous, but urgent remedial action is needed to prevent it becoming so.
• C3: Improvement recommended. The installation does not meet current standards but is not necessarily dangerous. This is advisory rather than compulsory.
• FI: Further investigation required. The electrician could not fully assess something during the visit and recommends a closer look.

A report is marked "unsatisfactory" if it contains any C1, C2 or FI observation. A report with only C3 observations, or none at all, is marked "satisfactory." The overall verdict is what determines whether you have an immediate legal duty to act, since an unsatisfactory report requires remedial work, further investigation, or both, to be carried out within 28 days, or sooner for a C1 finding, with written confirmation supplied to the tenant afterwards.

A worked example helps make this concrete. An older terraced house might come back with a C2 against a fuse board with no residual current device (RCD) protection on socket circuits, and a C3 recommending the consumer unit be replaced with a modern metal-clad unit. The C2 makes the overall report unsatisfactory and triggers the 28-day remedial work duty. The C3 does not carry a legal deadline on its own, though many landlords choose to fix both in the same visit, since a single call-out usually costs less than two separate ones.

Next steps

If your EICR comes back satisfactory, the practical next step is simply to note the next inspection date, which the report itself will state, and file the certificate alongside your other compliance paperwork.

If it comes back unsatisfactory, arrange the remedial work within the timescale the electrician has set, get written confirmation once it is complete, and supply both the original report and the confirmation to your tenant (and the local authority, if they have asked) within 28 days of the work being finished.

Either way, keep the report on file for the full five years until the next inspection is due, since you may need to produce it for a tenant, a prospective tenant, or the local authority at any point during that period. If you are booking your first EICR, or a renewal, our EICR certificate cost guide covers typical pricing by property type so you know roughly what to expect before you get quotes.

How Property HQ helps

Property HQ tracks your EICR renewal date alongside gas safety, EPC and licensing deadlines in one compliance register, and gives you somewhere to log any remedial work and store the confirmation paperwork against the right property, so an unsatisfactory finding does not slip through the gaps between one inspection and the next.

Disclaimer

This guide is general information for UK landlords, not legal or electrical safety advice. Electrical inspections and remedial work must be carried out by a qualified and competent person. Check GOV.UK for the current regulations that apply to your property's nation.