An HMO (house in multiple occupation) in England must have its fixed electrical installation inspected and tested at intervals not exceeding five years, and the landlord or manager must give a copy of the resulting EICR to the local housing authority within 7 days of a written request. That duty used to sit in regulation 6(3) of the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006; the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 revoked it and now apply the same five-year maximum, 7-day council rule and 28-day remedial deadlines to HMOs as to every other private tenancy. Councils enforce the requirement through HMO licensing and can impose financial penalties of up to £30,000.
- Every HMO in England needs a satisfactory EICR no more than five years old, with copies to tenants within 28 days and to the council within 7 days of a request.
- Mandatory licensing (five or more people, two or more households) makes the EICR a practical condition of the licence.
- One EICR covers one installation. Shared houses on a single supply get one report with a schedule per board; converted flats with separate meters get separate reports.
- The defects that come up most in HMOs are overloaded and extended ring finals, missing 30 mA RCD protection, poor intake and meter-cupboard conditions and borrowed or shared supplies.
- Fire alarm and emergency lighting circuits are inspected as fixed wiring; the systems need their own BS 5839-6 and BS 5266-1 certificates.
What is an HMO and which electrical rules apply?
An HMO is a property let to three or more people from more than one household who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet; certain buildings converted into self-contained flats are also HMOs under section 257 of the Housing Act 2004. Since 1 October 2018 mandatory licensing has applied to any HMO occupied by five or more people from two or more households, regardless of the number of storeys.
Three sets of rules touch the electrics:
| Rule | What it requires | Who enforces it |
|---|---|---|
| Management of HMOs (England) Regulations 2006, regulation 6 | Manager keeps the electrical installation safe and in working order (the former five-year inspection duty in regulation 6(3) was revoked by the 2020 Regulations) | Local housing authority; breach is a criminal offence |
| Electrical Safety Standards in the PRS (England) Regulations 2020 | EICR by a qualified and competent person at least every five years; copies to tenants within 28 days, new tenants before occupation, council within 7 days of request; C1/C2/FI remedials within 28 days; financial penalties up to £30,000 | Local housing authority |
| Housing Act 2004 licensing (Part 2) | Licence conditions on electrical safety; improvement notices and prohibition orders under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System | Local housing authority |
The 2020 Regulations revoked the old electrical inspection duty in the 2006 Management Regulations and the parallel licence condition so the two regimes no longer conflict. Treat the 2020 Regulations as the operative requirement, keep the current report to hand, and expect the council to ask for it at licence application, renewal and any complaint-driven inspection; most licence application forms require a satisfactory EICR dated within the last five years alongside the gas safety record and fire alarm certificate. See EICR Landlord Requirements 2026: England, Scotland, Wales and How Often Is an EICR Required? Intervals by Property Type.
What should the scope of an HMO EICR cover?
An EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) is a periodic inspection report under Chapter 65 of BS 7671 covering one installation from its origin to the final circuits. The first job on an HMO is to decide how many installations there are.
| Building type | Supply arrangement | Reports required |
|---|---|---|
| Shared house, single supply | One meter, one consumer unit | One EICR, one schedule of test results |
| Shared house, single supply, several boards | One meter, main board plus sub-boards (kitchen, loft, outbuilding) | One EICR with a separate schedule page for each distribution board |
| Bedsit HMO with landlord's supply and sub-metered units | One incoming supply, private sub-meters to each bedsit | One EICR covering the whole installation, boards listed per unit |
| Converted flats, separate utility meters | Each flat has its own supply; landlord's supply for common parts | One EICR per flat plus one for the landlord's supply |
Where there are several boards on one supply, record the supply characteristics once at the origin and give each board its own schedule page with a reference, location, supply source (for example "sub-main from DB1 way 8, 25 mm² SWA") and its own Zdb and Ipf; see Schedule of Test Results: How to Fill In Every Column.
How should the report be structured per unit?
Councils and agents read HMO reports room by room, so structure the observations that way. Number every observation, give the location as the unit or room name on the tenancy (Room 3, first-floor rear bedsit, meter cupboard) and name the board and circuit. "No RCD protection to sockets" is useless in a six-bedroom HMO; "DB2 (first-floor landing), circuit 4, ring final serving Rooms 3 and 4: no additional protection by 30 mA RCD, Regulation 411.3.3, C3" tells the landlord exactly what to price. See How to Write EICR Observations That Stand Up.
Extent and limitations matter more in an HMO than anywhere else. Record every locked room and every circuit not tested, and say why; a report that silently omits three bedrooms may not satisfy the council and leaves the inspector exposed.
What are the most common EICR observations in HMOs?
Shared houses are used harder than family homes and carry a history of cheap alterations. The following findings recur.
| Finding | Typical location | Usual code | Why it matters in an HMO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ring final extended to serve extra rooms, spurs off spurs, r1/rn/r2 not continuous | Bedrooms added in lofts and extensions | C2 (broken ring) or C3 (poor practice, tested sound) | Each room may run a heater, fridge and cooking appliance on one 32 A circuit |
| No 30 mA RCD protection to socket-outlets or bathroom circuits | Pre-2008 consumer units | C3 for sockets generally, C2 for bathrooms without supplementary bonding or sockets likely to feed outdoor equipment | Multiple bathrooms and shared kitchens raise the exposure |
| Rewireable or plastic consumer unit in the only escape route | Understairs cupboard, hallway | C3 (Regulation 421.1.201 applies to new work) | Fire in the escape route is the classic HMO risk |
| Meter cupboard: damaged cut-out, exposed service head, tails undersized or unsheathed, no main switch | Communal intake | C1 or C2 depending on exposure; DNO defects referred to the distributor | Tenants store bikes and pushchairs against the intake |
| Absent or undersized main protective bonding to gas and water | Intake | C2 | Shared kitchens and bathrooms on a supply with no bonding |
| Borrowed neutral or shared supply between units | Landings, conversions | C2, often FI first | A tenant's isolator does not make their circuit dead |
The coding follows Electrical Safety First Best Practice Guide 4 and IET Guidance Note 3; see EICR Codes Explained: C1, C2, C3 and FI (with examples). Two points deserve emphasis. First, BS 7671 limits a ring final to a floor area of 100 m², not a number of sockets, but a ring extended to serve every bedroom in a five-storey conversion is a design problem, and if the r1, rn and r2 readings show it is broken it is a C2: test every ring end to end as in Ring Final Circuit Testing: r1, rn, r2 and R1+R2 Explained. Second, borrowed neutrals and supplies taken from the landlord's board are common in pre-licensing conversions; record them as FI if you cannot trace them on the day and C2 once confirmed, and tell the landlord that isolation labelling in the building is unreliable until they are fixed.
How do fire alarms and emergency lighting fit in?
Most licensed HMOs have a Grade A or Grade D fire detection system to BS 5839-6 and often emergency lighting to BS 5266-1. The EICR inspects and tests the fixed wiring that supplies them: the dedicated circuit, its overcurrent device, cable condition and labelling at the board. It does not test the alarm's functionality or battery standby; that is the fire alarm engineer's certificate. What the EICR should say is whether the supply arrangement is right: BS 5839-6 expects the fire alarm circuit to be independent, labelled and not exposed to loss of supply from an RCD shared with other loads, so a fire alarm on the same 30 mA RCD as the kitchen sockets is a C3. Emergency lighting fed from the local lighting circuit is a design choice under BS 5266-1, so do not code it just because it shares a circuit.
What should the landlord do with the report?
If the outcome is satisfactory, the landlord gives copies to existing tenants within 28 days and to new tenants before occupation, and diaries the next inspection by the recommended date, which will be five years at most. If it is unsatisfactory, the 28-day clock under the 2020 Regulations starts on the date of the report: remedial work must be completed and the electrician's written confirmation must go to the tenants and the council within 28 days of the work; see Unsatisfactory EICR: What Happens Next (Landlords & Electricians). A new consumer unit is notifiable under Part P and needs an Electrical Installation Certificate (/guides/part-p-notification-explained); a council will accept an EIC or Minor Works Certificate as evidence a C2 has been cleared, but not a receipt.
How Certio helps
Certio produces the EICR, EIC, Minor Works certificate and PAT records on the BS 7671 model forms and turns them into branded PDFs. Photograph the consumer unit and the circuit schedule drafts itself; point the phone camera at a Megger MFT-X1 and the reading goes straight into the schedule of test results, or dictate it while your hands stay on the probes. Suggested observation wording with the regulation reference is there for you to check and confirm. The judgement stays yours; the typing goes. Starter is free for 7 days, then £5 a month.