Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICRs)

Firstly – what’s an electrical installation?

An electrical installation includes the system of wires, switches, socket-outlets and lighting that brings electricity from the main supply into your house and makes it usable. This includes: 

• wires and cabling inside your walls, under your floors and above your ceilings 
• consumer units or fuse boxes 
• light fittings, switches and socket-outlets 
• fixed electrical equipment such as showers  
• protective devices including circuit breakers and RCDs (residual current devices). 

In contrast, portable items that you plug into your socket-outlets (think, hairdryers, fridges, or TVs) are generally not considered part of the electrical installations – they’re appliances.  

What is an EICR? 

Also referred to as an electrical safety check, an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is a document produced by an electrical inspector following a comprehensive health check of your home’s or property’s electrical installation. You might also have heard of it referred to as ‘fixed wire testing’ or ‘periodic inspection and testing’.  

An EICR will identify signs of age, wear and tear, and damage, ensuring your home’s electrical installation is safe to use and that you’re not at risk of fires or electric shocks resulting from faults in the electrical installation. 

Do I have to get an EICR? 

Rented properties - If you are a landlord renting out properties in the UK private rented sector, then yes, you must legally have your electrical installations inspected and tested by an electrical inspector at least once every five years. You must also provide your tenants with a copy of the report after it’s completed or soon after they move in.  

From November 2025, social landlords in England will also become subject to these legal requirements for all new tenancies, with existing tenancies to be brought under the law in May 2026. Social landlords in Scotland and Wales are already subject to similar requirements. 

Businesses 

While there aren’t any specific laws on commercial EICRs, under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, businesses and employers must ensure that all electrical equipment in their building is safely maintained. Failure to comply with this legislation can lead to prosecution, with sanctions including fines. 

Given that the easiest way to safely maintain electrical equipment is through regular electrical safety checks, it’s strongly recommended that business owners obtain an EICR at least once every five years. It’s also highly recommended that they carry out in-service inspection and testing of electrical equipment, (formerly known as Portable Appliance Testing or PAT testing), which involves the inspection and testing of electrical appliances like kettles, microwaves, printers and laptops. 

Homes 

If you own your own home, there aren’t any laws requiring you to obtain an EICR for your property.  

However, it’s generally recommended (for example, by electrical safety charity Electrical Safety First) that you obtain an EICR at least once every 10 years. 

What does an electrical safety check involve?

When undertaking an EICR, your electrical inspector will move through a four-step process: 

1. Visual inspection

The first step is a visual inspection to spot obvious signs of damage or poor installation quality, including: 

• cracks or wear and tear in socket-outlets or switches 
• signs of overheating or burning 
• outdated or damaged consumer units/fuse boards 
• missing or broken equipment and enclosure covers 
• incorrect labelling of circuits 
• DIY alterations that may not meet regulations. 

2. Testing of circuits

Using a range of specialist equipment, your electrical inspector will isolate parts of your installation and perform a defined range of tests on the wiring around the home.  

This includes: 

• Continuity testing: to check all wires are properly connected with no unintended breaks. 
• Insulation resistance testing: to ensure all wires are properly insulated and there’s no risk of the insulation breaking down, resulting in potential faults or electric shock risks. 
• Polarity testing: to confirm that live and neutral wires are correctly connected and that the circuit protective devices are correctly installed. 
• Earth fault loop impedance testing: to verify that, if a fault occurs, the system will trip quickly to safely cut off the supply.   
• RCD testing: to ensure that RCDs function as intended and that they trip quickly enough to avoid electric shock.  

3. Recording the results

If any faults or issues are found, your electrician will note these down and assign each one a classification code: 

• Code C1: danger present – immediate action required. 
• Code C2: potentially dangerous – urgent remedial work needed. 
• Code C3: improvement recommended – not dangerous but should be improved. 
• FI: further investigation required. 

4. Issuing the report

Following the inspection, the homeowner, landlord, or business will receive a full report on the electrical safety status of their home or property, listing any electrical faults diagnosed, their classification code, and recommendations of how to fix them.  

EICRs are either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If a C1, C2 or FI code is assigned to any observed issue, this will result in an unsatisfactory outcome.  

Note that an FI classification code can be assigned to issues that are not necessarily faults. It can simply mean an unknown situation that needs further investigation to rule out a potential fault.