EICR Requirements for London Landlords

EICR requirements for London landlords have been mandatory since 2020, and they are one of the most common compliance failures we see when taking on a property from a previous agent. An Electrical Installation Condition Report is not a nice-to-have document. It is a legal pre-condition of lawful letting, and letting without a valid one carries civil penalties of up to £30,000. This guide explains what an EICR is, when it is required, what inspectors look for, what the outcome codes mean, and what London landlords should do before their current certificate expires.

What is an Electrical Installation Condition Report?

An Electrical Installation Condition Report, EICR, is a formal safety inspection of the fixed electrical installation in a property. It covers the consumer unit (fuse board), the wiring, the sockets and switches, and the earthing and bonding. It does not test portable appliances such as kettles and fridges; those fall under separate Portable Appliance Testing. The inspection must be carried out by a qualified electrician, typically registered with NICEIC, NAPIT, or ELECSA, who assigns condition codes to any defects found and issues either a satisfactory or unsatisfactory certificate. The certificate is valid for up to five years, and it must reflect the installation as it stands on the day of the inspection.

EICR requirements for London landlords

The legal framework is the same across England, but a few practical features of London stock, older wiring in Victorian conversions, shared consumer units in HMOs, sub-meters in mansion blocks, make EICR compliance more complex than it first appears.

The Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020

The relevant law is the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. It requires that every private rental in England has a satisfactory EICR in force, that the report is issued by a qualified and competent person, and that copies are provided to the tenant, the local authority on request, and, from 2026, the national property portal. The regulations apply to all new and existing tenancies, including assured shorthold tenancies, assured tenancies, and licences to occupy. Houses in multiple occupation have additional electrical safety obligations on top of the EICR.

The five-year inspection cycle

The default inspection cycle is five years, but the inspecting electrician can recommend a shorter interval if the age or condition of the installation warrants it: for example, three years for a flat with an aged consumer unit or substantial remaining original wiring. Whatever interval is on the certificate is the legal interval for that property. Landlords cannot override a three-year recommendation and run on the five-year default. The certificate expires on the date written on it, not five years from issue.

New tenancies and existing tenancies

For new tenancies, the EICR must be in force and provided to the incoming tenant before they move in. For existing tenancies, a copy of the current EICR must be provided within 28 days of an inspection, and a copy must be available on request. When taking over a property from another agent, the first task is always to confirm the EICR is on file, valid, and satisfactory. If it is missing or expired, the property cannot be re-let until it is put right.

What happens during an EICR inspection

A typical London flat takes two to four hours to inspect; a larger house or HMO can take a full day. The inspector will need access to every consumer unit, every socket and switch, and any junction boxes that can be reached without significant intervention. The power will be off for parts of the inspection, so tenants need advance notice.

What the inspector checks

The inspector carries out both a visual inspection and a series of live electrical tests. The visual inspection looks for damaged sockets, burnt accessories, missing faceplates, inadequate or missing RCD protection, unenclosed live parts, and signs of DIY work. The live testing measures earth fault loop impedance, insulation resistance, polarity, continuity of protective conductors, and RCD trip times. Any defect is logged with a condition code that determines whether the certificate can be issued as satisfactory.

The four observation codes explained

Every defect found during an EICR is assigned one of four observation codes. Understanding them is the difference between a straightforward remedial job and a significant rewiring bill.

• C1, Danger present. An immediate risk of injury. The inspector is required to make the installation safe before leaving the property, which usually means isolating the affected circuit. Any C1 results in an unsatisfactory certificate.
• C2, Potentially dangerous. A fault that could become dangerous but is not an immediate risk. A C2 also results in an unsatisfactory certificate and must be rectified within 28 days of the report.
• C3, Improvement recommended. The installation meets the safety standards of its era but does not meet current best practice. A C3 does not make the certificate unsatisfactory and is not a legal defect, though sensible landlords address C3s at the next convenient opportunity.
• FI, Further investigation. The inspector could not reach a conclusion without additional testing, for example, because a circuit could not be isolated during the visit. FI results in an unsatisfactory certificate until the follow-up is complete.

What to do if your property fails the EICR

An unsatisfactory EICR, any C1, C2, or FI code, must be rectified within 28 days, or within the shorter period specified on the report if the inspector has flagged something urgent. The remedial work must be carried out by a qualified electrician, and written confirmation that the work has been done to the required standard must be obtained and kept on file. This confirmation can take the form of either a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate, an Electrical Installation Certificate, or a fresh EICR, depending on the extent of the work. Common remedial items in London rentals include replacing older split-load consumer units with fully RCBO-protected units, upgrading sockets in kitchens and bathrooms, fixing missing supplementary bonding, and replacing deteriorated back-boxes in period properties.

It is worth knowing that an unsatisfactory EICR is not itself a penalty offence, failing to remediate it within 28 days is. Landlords who receive an unsatisfactory report and act on it promptly are fully compliant; landlords who receive one and file it away without action are exposed.

How much does an EICR cost in London?

For a typical one- or two-bedroom London flat, a standalone EICR costs between £120 and £200. A three- or four-bedroom house typically runs £180 to £280. HMOs with multiple consumer units and a larger circuit count start at £250 and scale from there. Remedial work is priced separately and varies widely: a missing supplementary bond might be £60–£90, a consumer unit replacement in a typical flat £450–£750, a partial rewire £1,500–£3,500. Quotes that look significantly cheaper than this are often coming from inspectors who are not on a registered competent-person scheme, which creates its own compliance risk.

Penalties for non-compliance

Local authorities can impose civil penalties of up to £30,000 per breach under the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020. Each breach, letting without an EICR, failing to remediate within 28 days, failing to provide a copy to the tenant or local authority, is counted separately, and penalties can be compounded across multiple failures for the same tenancy. Enforcement has historically been light-touch, but it is tightening, and the arrival of the national property portal under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 means local authorities will, for the first time, be able to see which properties have valid certificates on file and which do not. The low-effort compliance check is about to become routine.

How AIHPG handles EICRs for London landlords

EICRs are one of the safety certificates included as standard in our service bundles. That means we book the inspection, pay the electrician, issue the certificate to the tenant, store a copy against the property record, and diarise the renewal before expiry, all without the landlord having to chase anyone. If the report comes back unsatisfactory, our in-house property management team scopes and schedules the remedial work with vetted electricians, and the 28-day clock is managed as a standard internal SLA rather than a compliance risk. When a property is being taken over from another agent, the first thing we do is audit the EICR, gas safety, and EPC position, because a handover without all three current and on file is a handover that is not yet complete.

For landlords using our let-only service, the EICR is arranged and the certificate is in place before the tenancy starts, so the property can be marketed and let without compliance delays. For fully managed landlords, the certificate is maintained for the life of the instruction.