No UK law requires an electrical certificate to sell an owner-occupied house. The work arrives anyway because the seller has to answer the Law Society's TA6 truthfully, and the sixth edition has been mandatory for conveyancers since 30 March 2026. Surveyors don't test electrics, and without a recent EICR they're told to recommend further investigation. So you'll get calls for a pre-sale EICR, a lost Part P certificate or a quick "sign-off". This guide covers what you can issue, what you can't, and how to code it when a sale is riding on the result.
- A sale creates no legal duty to hold an EICR, but a let property must already have a valid report under the landlord rules.
- You can't certify another installer's work. An EICR reports condition; it isn't a Part P certificate.
- The time limit for a section 36 notice is now 10 years, not 12 months: England since 1 October 2023, Wales since 1 July 2026.
- A surveyor's "condition rating 3" is not a C3. Don't let the two get confused.
- Code the same way whoever's paying. Under the A4 model form only C1 and C2 make a report unsatisfactory.
What are sellers actually being asked for?
The paperwork depends on what's been done to the installation. The compliance certificate and the BS 7671 certificate are separate documents, and solicitors often lump them together as "the electrical certificate". Part of your job is to work out which one they mean.
| Document | Proves | Who issues it | Can you supply it for old work? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Building Regulations compliance certificate | Notifiable work was self-certified through a scheme | Competent person scheme, for the registered installer | No, only for your own notified work |
| Building control completion certificate | Work was approved by building control | Local authority or registered inspector | No |
| Regularisation certificate | Unauthorised work later accepted by the council | Local authority | No, but your test results may support the application |
| EIC | New work was designed, built and tested to BS 7671 | Those responsible for the work | No, only your own work |
| Minor Works certificate | A small addition or alteration was done properly | Installer | No, only your own work |
| EICR | Condition of the installation on the day | Inspector | Yes, this is the one you can offer |
GOV.UK's guidance for homeowners says a compliance certificate should arrive within 30 days of completion, and that certificates may be requested when selling. Our Part P notification guide sets out what's notifiable in each nation. In England that's new circuits, consumer unit replacements and additions or alterations in special locations.
Where does the request come from?
There are usually three triggers.
The TA6. It asks the seller about electrical work and the certificates that go with it. Sellers answer from their own knowledge, but a "not known" next to an obviously new board will draw an enquiry from the buyer's solicitor. The TA6 covers England and Wales only.
The survey. A NICEIC article for RICS surveyors explains that electrics get a visual inspection only: no testing, and no view on safety or compliance. It says surveyors should look for Part P certification on work since 1 January 2005 and for a recent EICR. Where there's no such evidence, they should recommend further investigation and give condition rating 3, even if everything looks fine.
That's worth explaining to the customer. A condition rating 3 from a surveyor is a survey rating. It isn't a C3 on an EICR, and it isn't a finding that the electrics are faulty.
The lender or solicitor. They want a risk closed, and they aren't assessing the electrics. A letter saying "the electrics look fine" closes nothing. A properly scoped EICR at least gives them a dated professional opinion.
Can I issue a Part P certificate for someone else's work?
No, and this is the request most likely to get an electrician in trouble. You can't sign for design, installation or testing you didn't carry out, however good the board looks. Backdating a certificate, or notifying an old job through your scheme as if it were yours, is a false record. It also puts your name on work you never saw go in.
What you can do depends on the route the owner takes:
- Find the original. The first calls are to the original installer and the scheme. Owners can also search for a filed notification at checkmynotification.com. Records exist only if the job was notified.
- Regularisation. Under council regularisation schemes, the work must have started after 11 November 1985. Trafford's form says the council may require opening up and testing, and it won't issue a certificate for post-2005 work until satisfactory electrical test certificates are produced. Fees are set locally.
- EICR. It doesn't replace the missing certificate, and the council may or may not accept it as evidence. It does tell the buyer the condition of the installation.
- Indemnity insurance. The conveyancer arranges a lack-of-building-regulations policy. It covers the financial risk but doesn't make anything safe. Brokers warn that cover isn't available once the council knows about the issue, so nobody should ring building control before taking the conveyancer's advice.
If you replace a board or add a circuit for the sale, your EIC and notification cover your work. They don't bring the rest of the installation within your certification. Record any existing defects you noticed, or the owner may assume you've checked everything.
Has the enforcement risk changed?
Yes, and plenty of web pages are out of date on this. Section 39 of the Building Safety Act 2022 changed section 36(4) of the Building Act 1984, replacing "12 months" with "10 years" as the limit for notices requiring non-compliant work to be removed or altered. It commenced in England on 1 October 2023 and in Wales on 1 July 2026. The same section reworked the section 35 offence, which can now bring up to two years in prison on indictment, a fine, or both.
| Point | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Section 36 removal or alteration notice | 12 months after completion | 10 years after completion |
| Section 35 penalty | Fine only: up to £5,000 plus £50 a day, on summary conviction | Fine or up to 2 years' imprisonment on indictment, plus a daily fine |
| Commencement | n/a | England 1 Oct 2023; Wales 1 Jul 2026 |
Whether the longer limit reaches a job finished before those dates depends on the transitional provisions, and that's a legal question. Don't tell a customer "it's over a year old so you're fine". Refer them to their conveyancer. A local-authority enforcement policy sets out the earlier prosecution limits by date if you need the background.
How should you scope a pre-sale EICR?
Treat it as any other periodic inspection. IET Guidance Note 3 and BS 7671 don't have a lighter "house sale" version, and our step-by-step EICR guide covers the full method. A few things matter more than usual on a sale:
- Say why it's being done. Record that it's a report for a proposed sale or change of occupancy. Guidance for owner-occupied homes is typically 10 years or change of occupancy, so a sale is a natural trigger.
- Agree the limitations in writing first. Occupied house, full of furniture, no floors lifted: put it in the extent and limitations section. Our sampling and limitations guide covers the wording. "Sampling agreed" with no percentage won't help when a buyer's solicitor reads it.
- Know who the client is. If the buyer instructs you, the owner still has to give access. Agree who can isolate what, because a full shutdown can catch out a working-from-home seller or a fridge full of food.
- Date it honestly. An EICR describes the installation on the day. If a kitchen is rewired afterwards, your report doesn't cover it.
- Check the amended-to box. Since A2 and A3 were withdrawn on 15 October 2026, the current edition is BS 7671:2018+A4:2026. Our BS 7671 guide covers the change.
A pre-sale report also gets more readers than usual. A solicitor, a buyer and perhaps the buyer's own electrician will all read your observations, so write them for someone who wasn't there. Our guide to writing EICR observations has the structure.
How should you code it when a sale is at stake?
The same way as any other job. The seller wants a Satisfactory and the buyer may want ammunition, but neither changes the risk. Under the A4 model form, FI is advisory and only C1 and C2 make the overall assessment unsatisfactory. Our codes guide goes through them in detail.
| Finding | Usual code | Sale-related note |
|---|---|---|
| Exposed live parts | C1 | Make safe now. Tell the person in control of the property, whoever commissioned you |
| No main protective bonding where it's needed | C2 | ESF Best Practice Guide 4 Issue 7.4. See the bonding guide |
| Sound 6 mm² main bonding on PME | C3 | Older size, not a danger on its own. Explain it, because it looks alarming to a buyer |
| No RCD on buried cables | Normally C3 | Doesn't fail the report by itself. Worth quoting as an improvement |
| Plastic board fitted before 1 January 2016 | Not C2 for its age alone | The non-combustible requirement in Regulation 421.1.201 came in after it was installed |
| Earthing arrangement can't be established | FI | Say what you couldn't establish and what would resolve it |
An EICR measures against current BS 7671, but failing to match the latest edition doesn't make an installation dangerous. The old 2016-era board is the classic example: a customer may hear "out of date" and a buyer may hear "fail". Your wording needs to settle that.
If the report comes back unsatisfactory, the seller's options are to fix it, price it into the sale, or disclose it and proceed. For the repair route, issue a Minor Works certificate or EIC for the remedial work, and keep it with the report. Don't reissue the EICR as satisfactory: the remedial certificate is the record of what changed. Our unsatisfactory EICR guide covers the follow-up.
What's different if the house is let or in Scotland?
Let property in England. The private and social rented regulations (S.I. 2025/1043 renamed the 2020 rules) keep applying until the landlord stops being the landlord. There must be a valid report, and remedial deadlines still run, whatever's happening with the sale. Buyers taking on tenants inherit the inspection date, so a four-year-old report will soon need renewing. The rules set out who gets copies, and that's the tenants and next inspector, not the buyer as such. The buyer gets the report through the sale pack. See our England landlord guide.
Scotland. The TA6 and Part P don't apply. Sellers provide a Home Report, and some electrical work needs a building warrant under the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004, with its own completion certificate. Landlord duties are separate, covered in our Scotland and Wales guide.
Wales. Part P still covers a wider list, including kitchens and outdoor power, so a kitchen job that needs no notification in England may have needed it in Wales.
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 £4.99 a month, charged when you sign up.