An EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) on a typical three-bedroom house with one consumer unit and eight to twelve circuits takes one inspector two and a half to four hours on site, plus 30 to 60 minutes for the report. A one-bedroom flat takes one and a half to two and a half hours; a large house or an HMO takes most of a day. Circuit count drives the time, not floor area: allow about an hour of fixed work at the origin and the board, then 8 to 17 minutes of dead and live testing per circuit. NICEIC declines to publish a typical figure, so the ranges below are working estimates with the arithmetic shown.
- Build the estimate from three parts: about an hour of fixed work, roughly 12 minutes a circuit, and 20 to 45 minutes walking the property.
- A ten-circuit house comes out at about three and a half hours on site. At the very quickest it is two and a half.
- No circuit chart, an old fuse board, an occupied property and faults that need tracing are what add hours. Each can be priced if you ask before quoting.
- Since BS 7671:2018+A2:2022, Regulation 643.8 needs one RCD test per device, not six.
- Sampling saves little in a dwelling and a great deal on commercial work.
- The landlord's 28 days run from the inspection date, not from the day the report arrives. Issue it the same day.
How long does an EICR take on a typical property?
These are working ranges for one inspector, a reasonably accessible installation and no major faults. They come from the arithmetic in the next section, not from survey data, and they are on-site times: add 30 to 60 minutes for the report unless you record as you test.
| Property | Typical circuits | On-site time | What usually moves it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio or one-bed flat | 3 to 6 | 1.5 to 2.5 hours | Access to the intake cupboard; landlord's supply out of scope |
| Two-bed flat or small terrace | 6 to 8 | 2 to 3 hours | Ring finals; an electric shower or cooker circuit |
| Three-bed semi or terrace | 8 to 12 | 2.5 to 4 hours | The most common landlord job; condition of the board |
| Four or five-bed detached | 12 to 18 | 4 to 6 hours | A second board, garage or outbuilding, EV charger, PV |
| HMO with five or six lets | 12 to 20, plus landlord's supply | 5 to 8 hours | Room-by-room access; often two visits |
| Small shop or office, one board | 10 to 16 | 4 to 6 hours | Three-phase board; out-of-hours isolation |
| Commercial, several boards | 20 to 40 ways a board | Half a day to a day per board | Agreed sampling; phased isolation |
Where a client cannot accept isolation in working hours, an EICR on commercial premises is split across evenings or weekends and the total grows, because you set up and make safe on every visit. For shared houses, the HMO guide covers what a licensing authority expects the report to include.
How do you estimate EICR time from the circuit count?
Chapter 65 of BS 7671 makes a periodic inspection a fixed sequence, and each stage has a time you can estimate. The method is in the step-by-step EICR guide; this is what the clock looks like.
| Stage | What happens | Typical time (domestic) |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival and extent | Confirm what is being inspected, agree limitations, find the board, meter and earthing | 10 to 15 minutes |
| Origin | Earthing arrangement, Ze, prospective fault current, main bonding, tails, main switch | 15 to 25 minutes |
| Consumer unit | Cover off; devices, terminations, thermal damage, circuit identification, RCD arrangement | 15 to 30 minutes |
| Dead tests | Continuity, insulation resistance and polarity on each circuit | 6 to 12 minutes per circuit |
| Live tests | Zs at the furthest point, RCD operation | 2 to 5 minutes per circuit |
| Walk-round | Accessories opened and inspected; bathroom, kitchen, loft and outdoor equipment | 20 to 45 minutes |
| Re-energise | Restore the supply, functional checks, confirm everything works | 10 to 15 minutes |
That gives a simple rule: fixed work of 50 to 85 minutes, plus 8 to 17 minutes for each circuit, plus 20 to 45 minutes for the walk-round.
Take a ten-circuit 1990s semi with a labelled split-load board and the landlord there with the keys. Fixed work is about 65 minutes, ten circuits at 12 minutes is 120, and the walk-round is 30. That is 215 minutes, a little over three and a half hours. Now take the same house with a 1970s rewireable board, no chart and a tenant working from home. Fixed work is 85 minutes, the circuits take 17 minutes each for 170, the walk-round is 45, and identifying the circuits adds another 30 to 45. That is about five and a half hours for the same number of circuits.
Where does the time go on each circuit?
The per-circuit figure is an average. A lighting radial with three points takes a few minutes; a ring with fourteen sockets and a spur under the sink takes a quarter of an hour on continuity alone.
| Test | Regulation | What it involves | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Continuity of protective conductors | 643.2 | R1+R2 or R2 at the furthest point; on a ring, end-to-end r1, rn and r2, then the cross-connected readings | 3 to 5 minutes a radial; 10 to 15 a ring |
| Insulation resistance | 643.3 | 500 V d.c., minimum 1 MΩ under Table 64 | 1 to 3 minutes a circuit, or one test for the whole board |
| Polarity | 643.6 | Confirmed during continuity and at the accessories you open | Little extra |
| Earth fault loop impedance | 643.7.3 | Zs at the furthest point, compared with the maximum for the device | 1 to 3 minutes |
| RCD operation | 643.8 | One a.c. test at rated residual current; 300 ms maximum for a general-type device | Under a minute per device |
| Functional checks | 643.10 | Test buttons, switchgear and isolators | A few minutes for the board |
Rings are why two houses with the same circuit count take different times: the ring final test is three end-to-end readings and a set of socket readings, and it is the only proof that the ring is a ring. Any circuit that returns an unexpected reading costs a further 10 to 30 minutes before you can record it.
What adds hours to an EICR?
Most of the overrun on an EICR is predictable from a photo of the board and three questions on the phone.
| Factor | Typical addition | Why |
|---|---|---|
| No circuit chart | 30 to 60 minutes on a ten-circuit house | Every circuit has to be identified by switching and walking. Regulation 514.9.1 requires a diagram, chart or schedule of the circuits, so its absence is also an observation |
| No previous report | 15 to 30 minutes | Regulation 651.1 expects earlier documentation to be taken into account and, where there is none, the installation to be investigated before you start |
| Rewireable or pre-RCD board | 20 to 40 minutes | Awkward terminations, mixed cable colours and more observations to write |
| Occupied property | 15 to 45 minutes | Agreeing when the power goes off, moving furniture, rooms you have to come back to |
| Each fault to trace | 10 to 30 minutes | Splitting a circuit to find a low insulation resistance or a borrowed neutral |
| Second board or outbuilding | 30 to 60 minutes each | Its own origin tests, schedule and sub-main; an earth electrode test on a TT supply |
| EV charger or solar PV | 15 to 30 minutes each | Section 722 and Section 712 checks on top of the circuit tests |
Decide early how long you will chase a fault. If it cannot be found in the time the job allows, record what you measured, give it the right classification code and say what investigation is needed. An hour of unpaid fault finding is not part of an inspection.
Is there a minimum time for a proper EICR?
Nobody publishes one. Writing in Professional Electrician in April 2022, NICEIC's director of technical excellence said NICEIC cannot tell contractors how long a typical EICR should take, because every installation is potentially unique. His advice was to look over the installation, agree the extent with the person ordering the report, then estimate the time, and to think hard before accepting a job that cannot be done correctly in the time the client allows.
The arithmetic still gives a floor. Using the quickest figure for every stage, a ten-circuit house is 50 minutes of fixed work, 80 minutes of testing and 20 minutes of walk-round: two and a half hours. A ten-circuit report turned round in 45 minutes has not had the cover off the board and every circuit tested. Regulation 651.2 calls for a detailed examination of the installation backed by appropriate tests, and Regulation 651.5 requires the work to be done by skilled persons competent in it. Whatever the agent paid, the declaration in Section G is signed by the inspector, and the liability goes with the signature.
How can you cut the time without cutting corners?
- Get the board photo and the last report before you go. In England, regulation 3(3) of the landlord regulations makes the landlord keep the report and give a copy to whoever carries out the next inspection, so ask for it. Comparing readings is faster than starting blind.
- Do insulation resistance on the whole board first. With the main switch off, every breaker closed, and line and neutral linked, one test to earth covers the installation. Where that reading is under 2 MΩ, IET Guidance Note 3 expects each circuit to be tested separately. Record how you did the test.
- Do the RCD test the standard now asks for. Since A2:2022, Regulation 643.8 needs one a.c. test at rated residual current. On a ten-way RCBO board that is ten tests where the old six-test sequence was sixty. The detail is in the RCD testing guide.
- Visit each point once for dead tests and once for live. Plan the furthest points from the board photo before you start, not circuit by circuit.
- Record readings as you take them. Notebook to form at the end of the day is where the hour of report time goes, and where transcription errors come from.
- Use two people where it pays. One at the board and one at the points shortens the visit on an HMO or a commercial floor. It does not halve the labour hours, and it needs a strict routine for isolation.
- Warn the occupier. Tell them the supply will be off for two to three hours, and ask about freezers, routers and any medical equipment that needs power.
Does sampling make an EICR quicker?
In a dwelling, barely. A three-bedroom house has around 40 accessories, opening a proportion of them saves perhaps half an hour, and the landlord regulations expect the installation to be inspected and tested. Domestic limitations are about access: fitted furniture, floor coverings, a locked room.
Commercial work is different. IET Guidance Note 3 expects switchgear and distribution boards to be inspected in full and allows final circuit accessories to be sampled at 10 to 100 per cent, with the sample increased when it finds defects. On an office floor with 420 accessories, a recorded sample of 60 is about five hours of work against about 35 for the lot. Regulation 653.1 requires the report to record the extent and every limitation, so the sample goes in Section D with the name of the person who agreed it. The sampling and limitations guide covers what must never be sampled.
How long does the report take, and when is it due?
Written up from a notebook, the schedule of test results, the schedule of inspections and the observations take 30 to 60 minutes on a sound installation and up to two hours on one with fifteen defects. Recorded as you test, what is left is the observations and a final check.
BS 7671 sets no deadline for issuing the report. The law that applies to the client does. Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, the title since S.I. 2025/1043 amended them, a landlord must give the report to the tenant within 28 days of the inspection and complete remedial or further investigative work within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so. Both periods start on the day you inspect. A report that arrives a fortnight later has used half the landlord's time, and the penalty for a breach is now up to £40,000. The landlord regulations guide has the detail.
Two dates matter this autumn. Social landlords have until 1 November 2026 to complete the first round of inspections on tenancies granted before 1 December 2025, so expect volume work with fixed slots. And BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, published on 15 April 2026, replaces the A2:2022 edition when that is withdrawn on 15 October 2026. Your first few reports on the new model form will take longer than the hundredth did on the old one. Allow for it.
How should you quote the time to landlords and agents?
Agents want a fixed price and a fixed slot. You can give both without losing money on the difficult properties if the assumptions are written into the quote.
- Ask three questions: how many ways on the board (a photo is better), when the board was last changed, and whether a previous EICR exists.
- Quote a range tied to the answers: "8 to 12 circuits, modern board: three to four hours on site, report issued the same day".
- State what changes it: no circuit chart, a fuse board, a second board or outbuilding, EV charger or PV, limited access, or faults that need investigation beyond a stated allowance.
- Say that the supply will be off for most of the visit, so the agent can warn the tenant.
- Include the report time in the price, and say that it is included.
If the installation turns out far worse than described, finish the inspection and charge the extra time under your stated terms, or stop, record the limitation and agree a return visit. Do not finish in the quoted time by skipping tests. The guide to pricing an EICR turns these hours into a figure.
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.