Landlord EICRs in Scotland and Wales: An Electrician's Guide

A landlord EICR in Scotland or Wales is the same BS 7671 inspection and the same model form as in England, at the same maximum interval of five years. What changes is everything around it. Scotland has required the report since 1 December 2015, adds inspection and testing of landlord-supplied appliances, and since 1 March 2024 treats a house with no 30 mA RCD in the main consumer unit as failing the Repairing Standard. Wales has required a valid electrical condition report since 1 December 2022 and runs on 14-day deadlines rather than England's 28. If you work either side of a border, those differences decide what you record, what you attach and how fast you issue it.

What does Scottish law require from a landlord's electrical inspection?

The duty comes from the Repairing Standard in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, as amended by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014. It applied to new tenancies from 1 December 2015 and to existing tenancies from 1 December 2016, which made Scotland the first UK nation with a mandatory landlord EICR. The detail an electrician needs is in Annex D3 of the Scottish Government's Repairing Standard: statutory guidance for private landlords, published on 31 January 2024 and applying from 1 March 2024.

Two points catch out electricians used to English work. First, the guidance brings hard-wired smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detectors into the visual inspection, so look at them and say so on the report. Second, the EICR must carry the landlord's or agent's name and address and a description and location of what was inspected, which a properly completed model form already gives you. For the inspection sequence itself, see How to Do an EICR Step by Step: Inspector's Workflow.

The same paperwork is asked for outside the private rented sector too. Scottish short-term let licences carry mandatory conditions requiring an EICR and appliance testing, and social landlords are expected to hold a five-yearly EICR under the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

Can a Satisfactory EICR still fail the Repairing Standard?

Yes, and this is the most important Scottish difference for the person signing the report. Paragraph D.55 of the statutory guidance says there must be one or more RCDs with a rated residual operating current not exceeding 30 mA in the main or principal consumer unit, that this will normally cover at least the socket-outlet circuit, and that "the absence of an RCD means that the house does not comply with the Repairing Standard".

BS 7671 coding does not work like that. Take a tidy 1990s flat on a rewireable-fuse board with no RCD at all, ground-floor sockets with no realistic outdoor use, and a bathroom where supplementary bonding is present and effective. Following Electrical Safety First's Best Practice Guide 4, the missing additional protection could reasonably be coded C3, and with no C1 or C2 the overall assessment is Satisfactory. In England that landlord has a compliant report. In Scotland the same landlord has a Satisfactory EICR and a house that fails the Repairing Standard.

Do not inflate the code to force the issue. Code what BS 7671 and your judgement support, then deal with the Scottish rule separately:

1. Record the absence of 30 mA RCD protection as an observation with its proper code, as described in How to Write EICR Observations That Stand Up.
2. Add a clear note, in the report's summary or a covering letter, that the Scottish Repairing Standard requires at least one 30 mA RCD in the main consumer unit regardless of the code.
3. Quote for the fix. That is usually a board change, covered in Consumer Unit Replacement: Which Certificate and What to Check, and the options are compared in RCBO vs RCD Split-Load Boards: Which to Fit and Why.

The guidance is equally direct on codes. Anything coded C1 or C2 must be rectified to comply, C1 work should be done immediately, C2 needs urgent action, and FI items should be investigated "as soon as practically possible". C3 is recommended but not required. Code definitions are in EICR Observation Codes Explained: C1, C2, C3 and FI.

Who counts as competent to inspect in Scotland?

The guidance treats membership of SELECT, NICEIC or NAPIT as evidence that you are suitably competent. If you are not a member of one of those, you can still carry out the inspection, but the landlord should ask you to complete and sign the checklist in Annex D3. It asks you to confirm that you can evidence:

• membership of a professional body;
• public liability insurance (the guidance recommends at least £2 million) and employers' liability insurance where you have staff;
• professional indemnity insurance (£250,000 recommended);
• BS 7671 training within the last five years;
• trade qualifications, or eligibility for Approved Electrician grade;
• a health and safety policy and an ECS health and safety assessment within the last three years;
• calibrated test instruments.

If you are an English contractor taking on a few properties over the border, check that list before you quote. A letting agent who knows the guidance will ask for the signed checklist with the report. Scheme choice is covered in NICEIC vs NAPIT: Which Scheme Should an Electrician Join?.

Scotland also has no Part P. Notifiable electrical work falls under the Scottish building standards system instead, where a building warrant may be needed and approved certifiers of construction can certify electrical installations to BS 7671. England and Wales use Part P, explained in Part P notification: what to notify, how, and by when.

How should you handle appliance testing on a Scottish landlord job?

Scotland is the only UK nation where the landlord must have supplied appliances inspected and tested. The duty covers what the landlord provides, such as white goods, brown goods and portable items, and not anything belonging to the tenant. The guidance sets out some practical rules:

• Equipment bought new less than one year before the test does not need to be included.
• The work can be done by a skilled electrician or by someone who has completed appropriate training, so some landlords and agents do their own.
• Records should follow the IET Code of Practice for In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment, and copies should be attached to the EICR.
• The whole electrical safety inspection, fixed installation and appliances together, runs on the same maximum five-year cycle, with earlier retest dates where the condition or use of an item justifies them.

On site, that means agreeing before you start which items are the landlord's, getting them accessible, and issuing the appliance record with the EICR as one pack. If the landlord has had the appliances done separately, ask for the record and reference it, because the tenant must receive both. Method, classes and pass limits are in PAT Testing Guide UK: Intervals, Tests and Records.

What does Welsh law require?

Wales rebuilt its renting law on 1 December 2022, when the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 came into force. Tenancies became occupation contracts, tenants became contract-holders, and the electrical duty arrived in regulation 6 of the Renting Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) (Wales) Regulations 2022. Unlike England's original 2020 rules, it applied to private and community (council and housing association) landlords from day one. Existing tenancies that converted on 1 December 2022 had 12 months to comply.

Regulation 5 sits alongside it: a smoke alarm on every storey, in working order, connected to the electrical supply and linked to every other smoke alarm, plus a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a gas, oil or solid fuel appliance. That is installation work landlords in Wales regularly need, and alarm grades and categories are covered in Fire Alarm Certificate BS 5839-6: Grades and Categories.

There is no fixed financial penalty in the Welsh scheme. The pressure comes through the contract: rent is not payable for any period the dwelling is unfit, and a landlord who has not provided a valid report cannot serve a no-fault notice under section 173. Welsh Government guidance also confirms that an EIC for a new build satisfies the requirement for five years. Wales has no appliance testing duty.

What do the Welsh 14-day deadlines mean for your paperwork?

They mean your turnaround is part of the landlord's compliance. Three clocks matter.

The report. The landlord has 14 days from the day the inspection was completed to get the report to the contract-holder. If your EICR takes ten days to arrive, the landlord has four.

The validity date. The report stays valid for five years unless you write an earlier next inspection date, in which case the law follows your date. Recommend a shorter interval only where the condition of the installation justifies it, and say why. The reasoning is in How Often Is an EICR Required? Intervals by Property Type.

The confirmation of work. After remedial or investigatory work, the landlord needs written confirmation from a qualified person that it has been carried out, and must pass it on within 14 days of receiving it. The right document is a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate for most repairs, or an EIC for a new circuit or a replacement consumer unit, each referring back to the EICR observation it clears. See Minor Works Certificate: When to Use It (and When Not To) and Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) Explained.

Scottish guidance takes the same line on remedials: defects are recorded as fixed on a Minor Works certificate, and a full consumer unit replacement needs an EIC. In neither nation does the landlord need a fresh EICR after remedial work. The original report plus the certificates is the evidence, as explained in Unsatisfactory EICR: What Happens Next (Landlords & Electricians).

Which edition of BS 7671 do you inspect to, and what changes with A4?

BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 was published on 15 April 2026, and Amendment 2 is withdrawn on 15 October 2026. A periodic inspection is carried out against the edition current at the time, so from mid-October landlord EICRs across the UK move to A4. Two things follow for Scottish and Welsh work.

FI stops driving the outcome. On the A4 model EICR, observations are split. C1 and C2 are grouped as the items that give an Unsatisfactory outcome and need remedial work. C3 and FI are grouped as recommendations and advisory items, and the FI wording changes to "further investigation is advised". The IET set this out in Wiring Matters issue 110 (July 2026), which also stresses that periodic inspection is not fault-finding and FI should be used rarely.

So an A4 report with an FI and no C1 or C2 will read Satisfactory, yet a Scottish landlord is still told to investigate promptly and a Welsh landlord still has to evidence investigatory work. Explain that in plain words on the report, and use FI only where you truly cannot reach a conclusion within the agreed extent, as discussed in EICR Sampling and Limitations Explained: Extent, LIM and N/V.

The Welsh regulation names a specific amendment. When checked on legislation.gov.uk on 5 October 2026, regulation 6 still defined the electrical safety standards as BS 7671:2018+A2:2022. Whether that definition is updated for A4 is a matter for the Welsh Government, not the inspector. The sensible course is to inspect to the current edition, state the edition and amendment clearly on the report, and watch for an amending regulation. Northern Ireland's regulations and England's simply name the 18th Edition, BS 7671:2018.

How do Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland compare?

Electrical Safety First puts the Northern Ireland change at more than 100,000 privately rented homes. Its rules mirror England's on timing, and social housing is outside them. For English work see Landlord EICR Regulations in England: The Electrician's Guide, and for licensed shared houses see EICR for HMOs: Rules, Scope and Common Findings in England.

What should go on the report and in the handover pack?

Send the pack as PDFs the landlord can forward the same day. A Welsh landlord working to 14 days, or a Scottish agent who must hand the report over before keys are released, cannot wait for a carbon copy in the post. Retention and data protection are covered in Electrical Certificate Retention and GDPR for Electricians, and the case for electronic issue in Digital vs Paper Electrical Certificates: What Schemes Accept.

What mistakes do electricians make when working across the borders?

• Quoting English deadlines. Telling a Welsh landlord they have 28 days, or telling a Scottish landlord there is a 28-day remedial window. Neither is right.
• Leaving out the appliances in Scotland. The EICR alone does not complete the electrical safety inspection there.
• Treating C3 for no RCD as the end of the matter in Scotland. The Repairing Standard rule applies separately from the code.
• Citing the wrong legislation. Covering letters that refer to the English 2020 Regulations for a property in Cardiff or Dundee undermine an otherwise sound report.
• Assuming Part P applies in Scotland, or assuming English notification rules apply in Wales, which has its own Approved Document P with a longer list of notifiable work.
• Slow certificates after remedials. In Wales the landlord's 14 days start when your confirmation arrives, so the delay before that is yours.
• Pricing as if it were an English job. Scottish visits take longer once appliances and the alarm check are included. See How to Price an EICR: A Method for Electricians and How Long Does an EICR Take? Typical Times by Property Type.

The defects themselves are the same everywhere. The usual list is in EICR Fails: The Ten Most Common C1 and C2 Observations.

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 £4.99 a month.

Written by the Certio team. Last checked 5 October 2026.