Before a tenant moves into a privately rented home in England, the landlord must hold a satisfactory Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) dated within the last five years, give the tenant a copy before they occupy the property, and have completed any C1, C2 or FI remedial work within 28 days of the inspection. That is the core of the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, and the maximum civil penalty for breaching them is £30,000 per breach. The checklist below covers the report, the alarms, supplied appliances, the fix-ups and the paperwork, so nothing is missing on the day the keys are handed over.
- A satisfactory EICR, no more than five years old, is the legal minimum in England, Scotland and Wales before a new tenancy starts.
- The tenant must receive a copy of the EICR before moving in (England), and the local authority within seven days if they ask.
- C1, C2 and FI observations must be fixed or investigated within 28 days, with written confirmation from the electrician.
- Smoke alarms on every storey and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance are separate legal duties.
- Landlord-supplied appliances must be safe; PAT testing is the practical way to show it and is mandatory in Scotland.
- Keep the whole file together: EICR, remedial confirmation, alarm test record, appliance record and dates issued to the tenant.
What must a landlord have in place before the tenant moves in?
The table below is the pre-tenancy check in one place. The legal references are the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 as amended, the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 and its 2022 fitness regulations, the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 as amended in 2022, and the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994. GOV.UK publishes the guidance for landlords on each.
| Item | England | Scotland | Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| EICR by a qualified person | Every 5 years, or sooner if the report says so | Every 5 years | Every 5 years |
| Copy to new tenant | Before occupation | At start of tenancy | Within 14 days of occupation |
| Copy to existing tenant | Within 28 days of the inspection | On request | Within 14 days of the inspection |
| Copy to local authority | Within 7 days of a request | On request | On request |
| Remedial work deadline | 28 days from inspection (or sooner if stated) | Before tenancy / without delay | 28 days |
| Written confirmation of remedials | Yes, to tenant and council within 28 days of completion | Yes | Yes |
| PAT on supplied appliances | Not explicitly required, but appliances must be safe | Required, with records | Not explicitly required |
| Smoke alarm | At least one per storey with living accommodation | One per circulation space per storey, interlinked, plus living room and kitchen heat alarm | One per storey, mains powered and interlinked |
| Carbon monoxide alarm | Any room with a fixed combustion appliance (not gas cookers) | Any room with a carbon-fuelled appliance | Any room with a gas, oil or solid-fuel appliance |
| Maximum penalty | Up to £30,000 per breach | Rent Penalty Notice / First-tier Tribunal | Property may be treated as unfit for habitation |
Dates and details differ by nation, so a landlord with property in more than one country needs to follow each set of rules, not the strictest one across the board.
Is the EICR in date and satisfactory?
Start with the report itself. Check three things: the date of the inspection, the recommended date for the next inspection on the front page, and the overall assessment box. A report is either "Satisfactory" or "Unsatisfactory". Anything with a C1 (danger present), C2 (potentially dangerous) or FI (further investigation required) is automatically unsatisfactory under BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 and IET Guidance Note 3, and the tenancy should not begin until those items are closed out. C3 items do not make a report unsatisfactory.
Look at the extent and limitations box as well. A report that says "no sampling of accessories" or "loft not accessed" is still valid, but a landlord should understand what was not looked at. Where the previous inspector limited the inspection heavily, the next one may find more.
The five-year interval is a maximum, not a target. An inspector can recommend a shorter interval, and if the report says three years, that is the legal interval for that property in England. The regulations use the phrase "at intervals of no more than five years, or such lesser period as specified in the most recent report".
Who is allowed to carry out the EICR?
The regulations require a "qualified and competent person". GOV.UK guidance says this means someone who is a member of a competent person scheme, or who can demonstrate adequate qualifications, experience and insurance, and it lists the sort of evidence to ask for: a City & Guilds 2391 or equivalent inspection and testing qualification, 18th Edition (BS 7671) qualification, and public liability insurance. Membership of NICEIC, NAPIT or a similar scheme is the simplest proof, and the schemes have public registers you can check. Electrical Safety First also publishes a checklist for landlords choosing an electrician.
If the electrician cannot show an inspection and testing qualification, the report may be challenged by a council or tribunal later. The pre-tenancy stage is the time to ask, not after a complaint.
Have the remedials been done and confirmed in writing?
Where an EICR came back unsatisfactory, the landlord must have the C1, C2 and FI items dealt with within 28 days of the inspection, or sooner if the report gives a shorter time, and then obtain written confirmation from the electrician that the work is complete or that the further investigation has been carried out and the installation now meets the standard. A copy of that confirmation, together with the original report, goes to the tenant and, if they asked for the report, the local authority, both within 28 days of the work finishing.
Remedial work of its own may need a certificate. Replacing a consumer unit requires an Electrical Installation Certificate and, in England and Wales, Part P notification. Adding RCD protection to an existing circuit or replacing a damaged accessory can be covered by a Minor Works Certificate. The guide at Consumer Unit Replacement: Which Certificate and What to Check covers the board case, and Minor Works Certificate: When to Use It (and When Not To) explains when the shorter form is appropriate. The landlord should file those certificates with the EICR.
A common pre-tenancy mistake is treating the remedial invoice as the confirmation. An invoice proves payment, not that the installation was retested. Ask for the certificate or a signed statement that references the observation numbers on the EICR.
Are the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms compliant?
Alarms are a separate duty from the EICR, and an EICR does not certify them. In England, since 1 October 2022, landlords must fit at least one smoke alarm on every storey with a room used as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker. The landlord must check the alarms work on the first day of a new tenancy and repair or replace them once told they are faulty. The maximum penalty is £5,000 per breach.
Scotland goes further: since February 2022 every home needs interlinked alarms, with a smoke alarm in the living room and in every circulation space on each storey, a heat alarm in the kitchen, and a carbon monoxide alarm wherever there is a carbon-fuelled appliance. Wales requires mains-powered, interlinked smoke alarms on each storey under the Renting Homes fitness regulations.
Where alarms are mains wired, the electrician doing the EICR will normally record them on the schedule as a lighting or dedicated circuit and note their presence on the inspection schedule. Where they are battery only, record the test date yourself and keep it with the tenancy file.
Are supplied appliances safe?
If the landlord supplies a cooker, fridge, washing machine, microwave, kettle or any other electrical item, the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 1994 make the landlord responsible for that appliance being safe when supplied. In England and Wales there is no explicit legal duty to PAT test, but a documented visual inspection and test is the accepted way to demonstrate the duty was met. In Scotland, the repairing standard requires portable appliance testing of landlord-supplied appliances, with records kept.
A pre-tenancy appliance check should cover, at a minimum: plug and flex condition, correct fuse rating, casing damage, and a combined test on a PAT tester for Class I items. Second-hand appliances bought for a let are worth extra attention; the cheapest appliance PAT failure seen on site is a replacement 13 A plug fitted with the wrong fuse, and it is also the cheapest to fix. The guide at PAT Testing Guide UK: Intervals, Tests and Records explains the classes, tests and record keeping.
What paperwork should the tenancy file contain?
Compliance is only useful if it can be proved. A council officer asking for a copy of the EICR has a legal right to it within seven days, and a tribunal will expect to see the dates on which documents were served. The tenancy file should hold the current EICR, any written confirmation of remedial work with the electrician's details, EICs or Minor Works certificates for work done since the last EICR, the alarm test record from the first day of the tenancy, the appliance inspection record, a note of the date the EICR was given to the tenant and how (email is fine if the tenancy agreement allows it), and the gas safety record if there is gas.
The guide at Electrical Certificate Retention and GDPR for Electricians covers how long to keep each document and what the data protection rules say about tenant details on certificates. For the full legal background on England, see Landlord EICRs in England: what the 2020 regulations require, and for the differences north and west of the border, EICR Landlord Requirements in Scotland and Wales (vs England).
What are the most common pre-tenancy electrical failures?
From routine landlord EICRs, the observations that most often stop a tenancy starting on time are, in rough order of frequency: no RCD protection on socket-outlets likely to supply portable equipment outdoors, or on circuits in a bathroom (usually coded C2 for the bathroom, C3 elsewhere depending on the inspector's judgement); main protective bonding to gas or water missing or undersized (C2); damaged or broken accessories with live parts accessible (C1 if exposed, C2 if a cover is cracked but no contact possible); an old rewireable fuse board with no RCD and signs of thermal damage (C2); and lighting points with no earth in a metal fitting (C2). Each of these is fixable within the 28-day window, but only if the electrician is booked promptly. The observation-code guide at EICR observation codes explained: C1, C2, C3 and FI explains how inspectors decide the code.
A landlord who books the EICR six to eight weeks before the intended move-in date leaves room for remedials, the retest and the paperwork without delaying the tenancy. A landlord who books it the week before usually ends up starting the tenancy on a promise, which is exactly the situation the regulations were written to prevent.
Does a void period change anything?
No. The five-year clock runs from the date of the inspection, not from the tenancy. A property that has been empty for a year still needs a valid EICR before the next tenancy, and if the report expired during the void, a new one is due before occupation. The same applies where a property switches from owner-occupied to let: the existing owner's paperwork may be none at all, so an EICR is the first job before marketing the property. The guide at How Often Is an EICR Required? Intervals by Property Type sets out the intervals.
Work done during a void, such as a kitchen refit or a new shower, should have its own EIC or Minor Works certificate, and if it involved a new circuit, a consumer unit change or work in a bathroom in England or Wales, it should have been notified under Part P. Ask for the Building Regulations compliance certificate from the scheme; it is a separate document from the EIC.
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.