Do I need an EICR? Renting, selling and buying

If you let residential property in England, Scotland or Wales, yes: the law requires an EICR at least every five years. If you are selling or buying a home, no law demands one, but a buyer's solicitor or lender increasingly asks, and it is cheap insurance against renegotiation. If you own and occupy your home, an EICR is guidance rather than obligation, commonly recommended every ten years, or when you move in.

Landlords: where the legal duty bites

In England, the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector Regulations 2020 require an inspection and report by a qualified person at least every five years (or sooner if the last report says so). The paperwork duties are where landlords get caught: a copy to existing tenants within 28 days of the inspection, to a new tenant before they occupy, to a prospective tenant within 28 days of a request, and to the local authority within 7 days if they ask. An unsatisfactory report starts a 28-day clock for remedial work, with written confirmation to the tenant when it is done.

Scotland requires an EICR every five years for private tenancies, and Wales requires electrical condition reports on the same five-year rhythm under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act regime. HMO licences in all three nations routinely attach their own electrical conditions, and where a licence says something stricter, the licence wins.

One nuance worth knowing: arrangements where the landlord lives in the property with the occupier (a lodger in your own home) generally fall outside the English regulations' scope. If the situation is anything but plain, check the tenancy type against the regulations rather than assuming.

Selling a house: not required, increasingly requested

There is no statute that says a seller must produce an EICR. What actually happens: the buyer's survey flags the electrics as untested, the solicitor raises an enquiry, and the buyer either asks for a report, a price reduction, or an indemnity. A recent satisfactory EICR closes that conversation before it opens. If work was done on the property, that is different paperwork: an EIC or minor works certificate for the work itself, and a Building Regulations compliance certificate where the work was notifiable.

Buying: nothing forces you, everything argues for it

A mortgage survey is not an electrical inspection. An EICR before exchange, at the cost of a few hours of an electrician's time, is the only way to know whether the wiring is a £0 problem or a rewire. Sellers rarely object to access for one.

"I have an EIC. Do I still need an EICR?"

Yes, eventually. They answer different questions. An Electrical Installation Certificate certifies work that was done, on the day it was done. An EICR reports on the whole installation's condition as found, years later. A new-build's EIC effectively starts the clock; the first EICR typically falls due when the certificate's recommended inspection interval expires, commonly ten years for a new home and five for a rental.

What this means in practice

For tradies, every one of these situations is inbound work with a legal deadline attached, and every report you issue names the date the next one falls due. Pascal tracks that renewal date on each certificate and surfaces the ones coming due, so five-year rental work returns to whoever did it last rather than whoever the landlord happens to ring.