Electrical safety legislation concerning UK commercial and residential property has changed significantly in recent years. Whether you are a business employing staff, a private residential landlord, or a commercial landlord in the UK, staying on top of the latest regulations regarding electrical safety certificate checks is crucial to ensuring your property remains legally compliant.
A key area of importance when it comes to electrical safety is the EICR – electrical installation condition report (sometimes known as landlord electrical safety certificate checks). Whilst some business owners – such as residential landlords – are legally compelled to provide an EICR for their property, it is just as important for commercial landlords and businesses to be well informed about their legal obligations in regard to electrical safety and who is responsible for EICR on commercial property.
In this easy-to-follow guide, we discuss: What does the law say about who is responsible for EICR on commercial property or residential property? How long is an EICR valid for? How to prepare for an inspection, and how phs Compliance can support business owners and landlords to ensure you always stay compliant and safe.
An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is produced following an assessment of electrical installations in a building. ‘Electrical installations’ include electrical wiring, sockets, consumer units (fuse boxes), and other fixed electrical parts within a property.
During the electrical assessment, a qualified and competent electrician tests and inspects the electrical installation, checking all the components for wear and tear, faulty wiring and anything that could pose a potential risk, like an electric shock or dangerously high temperatures.
It is important to understand the EICR meaning clearly, as inspection outcomes will directly impact what a landlord or business owner must do next. Following inspection, any electrical defects that are identified are categorised based on severity of risk and are recorded within the EICR. Landlords and business owners may then need to take action to repair these defects to stay compliant. Failure to do so can carry severe penalties.
Once an EICR assessment has taken place, the landlord/business owner will receive a copy of the EICR report. The report will advise if the inspection was ‘satisfactory’ or ‘unsatisfactory’.
The following classification codes show if additional work is needed:
Danger present, immediate remedial action required. This is the most serious category. Repairs or replacements must made safe immediately and reported to the site contact.
Potentially dangerous, urgent remedial work required. Further Inspection (FI) Further investigation required.
This code indicates that improving your electrical installation is advised. For instance, wiring that doesn't adhere to the most recent regulations, but that isn't necessarily dangerous. To be clear, there is no danger and no likely circumstance that may result in someone gaining access to live wires. So, even if C3 issues are identified, EICR certificates may still be valid.
Once all required repairs have been carried out to C1, C2 and FI defects, and all supporting documentation has been carried out to provide a detailed audit trail that the defects have been completed, the installation is classified as satisfactory. An EICR certificate will be issued by the electrician, along with a recommendation about how long the EICR is valid for.
The British Standards Institute sets the standard for electrical installations (BS 7671) and an EICR assessment is measured against these standards to show that your electrical installation complies with BS 7671.
Here is a handy table for you to download:
EICR inspections can be known by various different names, including hard wire testing, periodic inspection and electrical safety certificate.
Nope. If an electrical installation safety report does not satisfactorily satisfy your expectations, you must make all necessary remedial work and further investigation. You will have written confirmation (Electrical installations certificate / Minor works certificate) from the electrician to complete the work to confirm that the required works have been completed.
Any person with the required experience and industry recognised qualifications can carry our an EICR.
Recent updates in the law carry the greatest impact for landlords of residential properties, however commercial landlords and business owners also have a legal obligation when it comes to electrical safety and will need to get an EICR.
For residential landlords – EICRs are now a legal requirement for all new and existing residential rental properties, including short-term rentals such as holiday lets in the UK, and are the responsibility of the landlord. They form part of a landlord’s legal obligation to ensure that a property is fit for human habitation and must be provided to residential tenants at the start of their tenancy (or during, if the law came into force after the tenancy commenced).
EICRs became a requirement through different pieces of legislation in different parts of the UK, at different times. However, the combination of these pieces of legislation means that EICRs are/will be required in all parts of the UK by December 2024.
They legislation and dates of enforcement are as follows:
1 December 2024 (The Electrical Safety Standards for Private Tenancies Regulations) 2024)
1 March 2024 (Repairing Standard (Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, Chapter 4)
1 December 2023 (Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016)
1 April 2021 (Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020)
For businesses and commercial landlords, particularly businesses who lease their premises through a commercial landlord, knowing who is responsible for EICR on commercial property is an important yet often confusing topic:
For commercial landlords (e.g. of shops, offices or warehousing) – an EICRs for the leasing of commercial buildings is not a legal requirement. However, commercial landlords must comply with other legal regulations regarding electrical safety standards, namely the Landlords and Tenants Act of 1985. This states that a property’s electrical installation must be ‘safe at the beginning of the tenancy’ and ‘maintained in a safe condition for the entire duration of the tenancy’. In addition, the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 and the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1984 make clear that a landlord’s duty of care goes beyond their obligation to the tenant and extends to anybody who visits their property – for instance, office workers or shop customers.
For businesses – EICRs are not an explicit legal obligation and businesses cannot be fined for not having a valid EICR. However, they can be fined for negligence regarding electrical safety through other legislation, i.e. the Electrical Work Regulations of 1989. This requires that fixed wire testing is carried out to ensure the provision of a safe workplace for employees. In addition, the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) also outlines businesses’ responsibility to provide a safe working environment for their employees.
Clearly then, whether you are legally required to possess an EICR certificate, if you are a residential or commercial landlord, or operate a business, having an EICR provides concrete evidence that your building is 100% legally compliant in respect of the safety of its electrical installation, and that as a landlord or employer, you maintain the highest safety standards.
Requesting an EICR on a property that is being purchased is the best way to find out if work needs to be carried out on the electrical system. Whilst there is no legal requirement to have an EICR carried out, an EICR provides peace of mind that a home is electrically safe.
If you are required by law to have an EICR (see ‘Who needs an EICR – what does the law say?’ above) to prove the electrical installations compliance of your property, it is important to know how long is an EICR valid for, and when you should carry out your next assessment.
By law across England, Scotland and Wales, residential landlords must ensure an EICR assessment is carried out by a qualified and competent electrician at least every five years.
For commercial landlords and business, how often you should carry out an assessment and renewal of your EICR depends on your type of property as some environments may carry higher risks than others. Following completion of the EICR, your electrician will specify the maximum length of time that you should wait until your next inspection. However, as a ‘reasonable’ estimate, a standard commercial office should be every five years, whilst an industrial premises should be every 3 years.
Special locations such as hospitals or a construction site should be more frequent. If you would like more advice on how frequent your property should be tested, please get in touch.
Electrical installation conditions reports vary in price based on the property's size and room numbers. Depending upon their size it can also depend upon how many fixed electrical installations must be tested. In most cases, a single-family rental home is about £125 and a five-person home is more than 300 pounds. An EICR costs around £250 in most cases. Because price varies by a variety of factors, these costs are ballpark numbers.
No, an electrical installation certificate is produced when a new installation has been completed, a distribution board has been replaced or when a new circuit has been installed.
It is important for the inspectors to see your installation as it is usually set up and used, so no changes should be made before the test.
However, there are things you can do to help make the testing process go quickly and smoothly. For example:
- Ensure the entire building is accessible with no parts blocked off or difficult to reach
- Ensure access to main electrical rooms and the gas and water supplies
- Remove any objects or possessions that may be placed around the building and that could get in the inspector’s way when looking for electrical accessories, or items of electrical equipment
- If you’re on a prepaid meter, ensure it is loaded with enough credit for the tests to be carried out.
We are the UK’s largest and most experienced provider of EICR inspections, certifications, and electrical safety testing.
We have a large, nationwide team of highly experienced engineers so we will always have an expert local to you, no matter where you are.
We have full regulatory and industry accreditations.
Our expert, fully qualified engineers understand how important it is to keep businesses running during EICR testing. They pride themselves on carrying out their job with minimal or no interruption to your business, employees, or customers.
If you require more guidance on EICR meaning for your business, or to learn more about our what phs Compliance offers, to get a quote, or simply to ask a query, please feel free to contact us now!
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