EICR and Electrical Safety Certificates
Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire & Cambridgeshire
Electrical Installation Condition Reports arranged and managed across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, for landlords, letting agents and commercial premises. One property or a portfolio. Call 01462 506 374 or send us the details.
Two things before anything else, because most pages on this subject are now out of date.
The maximum penalty is £40,000, not £30,000. It was raised on 1 November 2025. Any page still quoting £30,000 has not been updated in a year.
This is general information and not legal advice. Where your situation is unusual, take proper advice on it.
What an EICR is, and what the law requires
An Electrical Installation Condition Report is a formal inspection and test of a property’s fixed electrical installation, carried out against BS 7671, the 18th Edition Wiring Regulations. It covers the consumer unit, circuits, wiring, sockets, switches and fixed accessories. It is not a plug-in appliance test and it is not a visual walk round.
The duty sits in the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. If you let residential property in England you must:
- Have the electrical installation inspected and tested by a qualified person at intervals of no more than five years, or sooner if the report itself specifies an earlier date.
- Have it done before a new tenancy begins.
- Give existing tenants a copy of the report within 28 days of the inspection.
- Give new tenants a copy before they occupy.
- Give a prospective tenant a copy within 28 days of a written request.
- Give the local housing authority a copy within 7 days of a written request. Note that is seven days, not twenty-eight.
- Retain the report until the next inspection.
The 28 day remedial rule, which is the one that catches people
If the report identifies work as required, you must have that work carried out by a qualified person within 28 days, or sooner if the report specifies a shorter period. You must then obtain written confirmation that the work is complete and supply that confirmation to the tenant and to the local housing authority.
That last step is the one landlords most often miss. Getting the work done is not the whole duty. Evidencing it to two parties is.
Codes, and what they actually mean
A report is either satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and the observations are coded. In practice:
- C1, danger present. Risk of injury, immediate action required. The installation is unsatisfactory.
- C2, potentially dangerous. Urgent remedial action required. The installation is unsatisfactory.
- C3, improvement recommended. This does not make the report unsatisfactory and it does not require work within 28 days.
- FI, further investigation required. Makes the report unsatisfactory and does need acting on.
Worth knowing because C3 items are routinely sold to landlords as though they were mandatory. They are a recommendation. A report that comes back with a page of C3s and no C1 or C2 is a satisfactory report and no work is legally required. We will tell you which of your observations actually oblige you to spend money and which do not.
Who can carry one out
The regulations define a qualified person as somebody competent to carry out the inspection and testing and any further investigative or remedial work. It is a competence test rather than a named register, though government guidance points landlords towards the Registered Competent Person Electrical scheme and Electrical Safety First’s register.
Being Gas Safe registered does not cover this. Ours is 956889 and it covers gas work. An EICR requires an electrician competent in BS 7671, which is a separate discipline and a separate ticket. Any company implying otherwise is telling you something untrue.
We arrange and manage EICRs through qualified electricians as part of a landlord’s compliance package, alongside the gas safety check and boiler service, so it is one point of contact, one schedule and one set of paperwork rather than three companies to chase.
What changed recently, and what is coming
on 1 November 2025. A local housing authority may impose it where it is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of a breach.
Registered providers are caught for tenancies granted after 1 December 2025, with full compliance for pre-existing social tenancies required by 1 November 2026. Social landlords also have to inspect landlord-supplied electrical equipment every five years. That equipment duty does not apply to private landlords, whatever a letting agent may tell you about PAT testing.
where a tenant obstructs access, which was a genuine gap before.
Rolling out by area from late 2026, landlords will be required to register properties and upload safety information including electrical certificates, gas safety records and EPCs. Compliance is about to become visible and searchable rather than something nobody checks until there is a problem.
And one thing that has stopped being true
For years the argument for keeping certificates in order was that a missing one blocked a Section 21 notice. Section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026 under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. Possession now runs through Section 8 on specified grounds, and the prescribed requirements bar that was attached to Section 21 has no Section 8 equivalent.
We are not going to pretend otherwise to frighten you into booking. The reasons to keep an EICR current are the £40,000 penalty, the criminal and civil exposure if somebody is hurt, your insurance position, and the database that is about to make all of it public.
Which properties are exempt
The 2020 regulations do not apply to accommodation shared with the landlord or the landlord’s family, long leases and tenancies of seven years or more, student halls of residence, hostels and refuges, care homes, hospitals and hospices, other healthcare accommodation, or accommodation in mobile homes, caravans and boats.
If you are not sure whether your arrangement is caught, tell us the tenancy type and we will tell you straight rather than selling you an inspection you do not need.
HMOs are caught twice
Everything above applies, and separately the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 require the fixed electrical installation to be inspected at intervals of no more than five years, with the certificate supplied to the local authority within seven days of a written request. That duty predates the 2020 regulations and runs alongside them. A licensed HMO also has to send the council an updated gas safety certificate every year as a proactive duty, not on request.
How we work with landlords and agents
Reminders before the expiry rather than after. Reports issued and emailed the same day where possible. Direct access arrangements with tenants so you are not the one chasing. Portfolio scheduling so ten properties are not ten separate conversations. And a straight answer on which observations actually require work.
Book an EICR
Call 01462 506 374 or send us the property details and we will come back with a price and a date. Across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
Frequently asked questions
How often does a rented property need an EICR?
Every five years, or sooner if the report itself specifies a shorter interval. That comes from the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. A new tenancy does not reset the clock. If the existing report is still in date and satisfactory, you supply a copy to the new tenant instead of paying for another inspection.
What do C1, C2, C3 and FI actually mean?
C1 means danger present and the risk is immediate. C2 means potentially dangerous. FI means further investigation is required. Any of those three makes the report unsatisfactory. C3 is an improvement recommendation only and does not make a report fail, so you are not obliged to act on it.
What is the 28 day rule?
If the report comes back unsatisfactory, remedial or further investigative work has to be completed within 28 days, or sooner where the report specifies a shorter period. You then need written confirmation from the electrician that the work is done, and that goes to the tenant and, on request, to the local authority.
Do I need an EICR if I live in the property myself?
There is no legal requirement for an owner occupier. The recommendation for a domestic property is an inspection every ten years, or at change of occupancy. Most people who ask us for one are either selling, buying, or have noticed something behaving oddly.
How long does an EICR take?
A typical three bedroom house takes two to four hours depending on how many circuits there are and how accessible the consumer unit and accessories are. Larger properties, or ones with outbuildings, sub mains or an older mixed installation, take longer.
Do I have to be there?
Somebody needs to give access, and the power will be off for parts of the inspection, so plan around that. We can work to a tenant access arrangement if you are a landlord and not local.
Areas we cover
We carry out electrical installation condition reports across our full coverage area.
- Hitchin
- Stevenage
- Letchworth
- Baldock
- Royston
- Biggleswade
- Sandy
- St Neots
- Bedford
- Luton
- Dunstable
- Harpenden
- St Albans
- Welwyn Garden City
- Hertford
- Ware
- Hemel Hempstead
- Hatfield
- Potters Bar
- Cambridge
- Shefford
- Stotfold
- Arlesey
- Knebworth
- Flitwick
- Ampthill
We work across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire from our base in Stevenage. If your village is not listed, ring 01462 506374 and we will tell you honestly whether we reach you.
Related: landlord services, landlord gas safety certificates, electrical services and boiler servicing.
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Vantage Plumbing and Heating covers Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas. Call and talk to an engineer, or send us the details and we will come back to you with a price.
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