Electrical Installation Condition Report's

An EICR which stands for electrical installation condition report is a detailed and in-depth inspection of your existing electrical installation.

The whole purpose of the EICR is to identify any potential issues or hazardous conditions that may be present within the installation. These could be from previous work carried out to a poor standard or just simply through deterioration over time.

From the 1st of July 2020 privately owned rental properties need to have an in date EICR certificate and nearly all business premises, where staff work in house, also need to have a valid EICR certificate.

For the general homeowner, where you live in your own privately owned property, you do not need to have an EICR, although it is recommended that you have your electrics tested every ten years or so as they can deteriorate over time. It is recommended to have an EICR carried out when purchasing a new property as you do not know what work has been carried out or by whom before your purchase.

Also, for the private owner, it is worth noting that if a fault should occur that causes damage to your property due to a poorly maintained electrical installation, then insurance companies can use this as grounds to avoid paying out for claims.

It is recommended that an EICR only be carried out by a competent person, as they will usually have the authority to sign off the works. A competent person will always be registered with a scheme provider such as NAPIT or in our case the NICEIC, to confirm they understand the regulations and standards required by building control.

Here at Ely Electrical Ltd we are registered as an approved contractor with NICEIC and so can carry out an EICR inspection for you and provide you with a certificate.

Currently it is recommended that for privately owned rental properties, an EICR should last for 5 years, although it is a good idea to have a new certificate granted before each new tenancy.

With regards to private properties, it will usually last for 10 years, but this will be stated on the certificate and is down to the discretion of the inspector.

An EICR is usually broken down into three main elements, these include a visual inspection, dead testing and live testing.

Visual inspection:

The visual inspection is pretty much as it says. We will usually start by turning off all your electrics and isolating the installation using a suitable lock off kit. This means we can inspect each element of the installation safely. This includes but is not limited to, removing sockets, light fittings and light switches so that we can inspect the state of the wiring to all the various points within your property.

Dead testing:

Providing that the visual inspection has not shown up anything of concern, we will then carry out a series of dead tests on each circuit. These dead tests are generally broken down into three separate tests for every circuit and include insulation resistance testing, polarity testing and continuity testing.

Live testing:

Once the dead tests have been carried out and again hopefully nothing untoward has been found, we will then move onto live testing. These live tests will prove functionality of basic protection such as the circuit protective conductors. We will then take readings from each socket / light fitting that is accessible. Following on from this, we will move onto testing the functionality of any additional protection including the RCD’s / RCBO’s or AFDD’s.

Once the EICR certificate is complete, you will either have it passed as satisfactory or not satisfactory. This is determined by what is found during the tests and any issues found are graded from C1 – C3.

C1– means danger is present, risk of injury is likely and immediate remedial action is required.

C2– means the installation is potentially dangerous and urgent remedial action is required.

C3– means remedial action is recommended as soon as possible, and it is the only code that can be on a certificate for it to still pass.

Yes, is the short answer. If there are any C1 or C2 issues, then the certificate will be signed off as unsatisfactory. This means that your installation will require further investigation/ remedial works to get it up to standard. Here at Ely Electrical Ltd we are more then happy to quote you for the works to enable your installation to pass or you may wish to get another contractor in to complete the works, but either way, you will then need a new EICR assessment to be carried out.

The price of an EICR is based on how large the property is. We have a standard fixed rate for up to three bedrooms and it then increases per bedroom as this is generally the best way to gauge the size of a property.