How to check an electrical certificate is genuine

Three checks tell you whether an electrical certificate is worth the paper: verify the electrician on their scheme's public register (NICEIC and NAPIT both run free online checks), verify notifiable work against its Building Regulations compliance certificate, and read the document itself, since a genuine certificate carries full schedules, an identifiable signatory with stated qualifications, and a certificate number that its issuer can look up. A one-page "all fine" letter fails all three.

Check 1: the person who signed it

Every credible certificate names its signatory. Put that name or firm into the scheme's own register (NICEIC's and NAPIT's website checkers are free and public) and confirm they were registered when the certificate was issued. No scheme registration is not automatically damning for inspection work (see our guide on who can carry out an EICR), but then the burden moves to the electrician's stated qualifications and insurance, which you are entitled to ask about. A certificate whose signature line is blank, illegible, or gives no qualifications is not evidence of anything.

Check 2: the notification trail, for installation work

For notifiable jobs (new circuits, consumer unit changes, work in bathroom zones) a Building Regulations compliance certificate should exist alongside the electrical certificate. The schemes can reissue or confirm these, and your local authority holds building control records. On a purchase, this is the check your solicitor is (or should be) doing when the seller declares electrical work.

Check 3: the document itself

A genuine EICR or installation certificate is a multi-page document. Expect: the installation's details and the agreed extent and limitations; the schedule of inspections; the schedule of circuit details and test results with real measured values circuit by circuit, not blank columns; on an EICR, observations with classification codes (C1, C2, C3, FI) and regulation references, and an overall satisfactory/unsatisfactory assessment; a recommended date for the next inspection; and a certificate or report number. Ask the issuing firm to confirm the number matches their records. A firm with a proper certificate register answers in a minute, and hesitation is its own answer.

The forgery problem nobody talks about

The awkward truth: traditional certificates are just documents, and documents can be edited. A PDF made from an editable template, or a photocopied pad page, proves little by itself, which is why the register checks above matter more than the paper, and why the direction of travel is toward certificates that are verifiable records rather than files. A certificate held in a system where issued documents are permanently locked, numbered from a gapless sequence, and reproducible by the issuer on demand gives a landlord or buyer something a Word template never can: a fact that can be checked, years later, against the record of the firm that made it.

For the trade

Your certificates are your reputation travelling without you. Making them easy to verify (registered signatory, stated qualifications, numbers you can look up when a solicitor calls in 2031) is free marketing to every landlord and agent who checks. That verifiability is structural in Pascal: issued certificates lock permanently, numbering is gapless per company, every engineer signs under their own credentials, and the record is a search away when the call comes.