Guide · Electrical Safety
Unsatisfactory EICR: exactly what happens next
An unsatisfactory EICR feels like a verdict; it's actually a work order with a deadline. The regulations anticipate failure — older installations fail routinely — and prescribe a clean path back to compliance: remedy the coded items, obtain written confirmation, distribute it, file the pair. This guide walks that path in order, including the parts landlords most often miss.
Electrical Safety
What exactly has 'failed'?
Precision first: the installation hasn't been condemned — specific observations coded C1, C2 or FI have made the report unsatisfactory. The observations table lists each one with its location and code; the schedule of test results shows the measurements behind them. Together they define the entire scope of what must happen next: nothing more, nothing less.
Read the codes as a triage: C1 items are live dangers handled immediately (often made safe during the inspection itself, with your permission); C2 items are the compulsory remedial workload; FI items are questions requiring prompt investigation. C3 items, wherever they appear, are advisory — they can wait for the refurbishment plan.
Electrical Safety
What is the deadline, and where does it come from?
In England, the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020 set it: remedial work within 28 days of the inspection — or sooner, if the report itself specifies a shorter period, which for C1 and urgent FI items it frequently does. The report's own words govern; the 28 days is the ceiling, not the target.
Scotland and Wales route the same obligation through the Repairing Standard and Renting Homes frameworks: the installation must be brought to a satisfactory state without unreasonable delay. Under every regime, a dated plan moving promptly beats a technically-inside-deadline scramble — and reads far better if anyone later asks.
Electrical Safety
Who should do the remedial work?
A qualified person — in practice an electrician competent for the work, and often, though not necessarily, the inspecting firm. Using the inspector has friction advantages: they know the findings and can confirm completion seamlessly. Using a different contractor is entirely legitimate and sometimes cheaper; they'll work from the report's observations and codes.
Whoever does it, insist the paper matches the work: each coded item addressed and referenced, minor-works or installation certificates for anything that involved new circuits or significant alteration, and a clear statement of what was done about every C1, C2 and FI on the list. Unreferenced invoices cure nothing on paper.
Electrical Safety
What is the 'written confirmation' that completes compliance?
The pivotal document most landlords under-value: written confirmation from a qualified person that the remedial (or investigative) work is complete and the electrical safety standards are now met. In England it must be obtained within 28 days of the work finishing — and it, not a fresh full EICR, is what converts the unsatisfactory report into a compliant position.
Distribution is part of the duty: the confirmation goes to every tenant of the premises, and to the local authority if they've requested the report. File it stapled — literally or digitally — to the EICR it cures: the pair is the compliance object, and each half alone tells a worse story.
Electrical Safety
What can the council do meanwhile?
In England, local authorities hold the full toolkit: they can demand a copy of the report within seven days, serve remedial notices, arrange urgent remedial action themselves and recover the cost, and impose financial penalties of up to £30,000 per breach. Their interest concentrates on exactly one pattern: unsatisfactory reports with no evidenced follow-through.
The defensive posture is simply visible motion: work booked promptly, confirmation obtained on time, copies distributed and receipted. A landlord who can show that sequence has little to fear from the toolkit; it was built for the landlord who filed the report and moved on.
Electrical Safety
Do FI items really need chasing?
Yes — 'further investigation required without delay' fails the report precisely because it represents an unresolved safety question. The investigation itself is the remedy: sometimes it clears the suspicion (documented, in writing), sometimes it uncovers a defect that becomes remedial work with the same clock. What it can never do is sit on the report unanswered.
FI items also carry a quiet cost warning: they often mark inaccessible or ambiguous sections of the installation, where investigation can expand into discovery. Budget contingency, and prefer investigating early in the deadline window — an FI that blooms into a C2 on day 25 is a self-inflicted emergency.
Electrical Safety
How do you avoid the next unsatisfactory report?
Mine this one: the C3 advisories map exactly where the installation is ageing toward failure, and the inspector's chosen next-due interval tells you how much confidence the installation earned. Fixing C3 clusters during voids, upgrading tired consumer units on your own schedule, and photographing completed work builds toward a boring next inspection.
Then close the loop administratively: next-due date in the calendar the day the paperwork arrives, report-plus-confirmation filed per property, and the electrician who impressed you noted for the batch of work a portfolio generates. Unsatisfactory reports are normal once; systems make them rare twice.
Need the certificate itself?
The EICR (Electrical Safety Report) page covers cost, process and every UK area we serve.
FAQ
Related questions, answered
Is an EICR legally required for rentals in your area?
In England, yes: private landlords must have a satisfactory EICR renewed at least every 5 years. Scotland requires an EICR as part of the Repairing Standard. In Wales, the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2022 regime requires electrical safety testing at least every 5 years. Northern Ireland currently has no equivalent general duty for private tenancies, though safety obligations still apply.
Does an EICR cover portable appliances too?
No. The EICR covers the fixed installation only. Appliances you supply with the tenancy — kettles, washing machines, lamps — are checked separately, usually through PAT testing, which is good practice rather than a blanket legal requirement in England and Wales.
How often does an EICR need renewing?
At least every 5 years for rental property in England, Scotland and Wales, or sooner if the report specifies a shorter interval — inspectors can recommend earlier re-inspection where the installation's condition justifies it.
My your area property is a new build — do I still need an EICR?
A new installation comes with an Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC), which in England can stand in place of the first EICR for 5 years from installation. After that, the normal 5-year EICR cycle applies.
What happens if my EICR is unsatisfactory?
In England you must complete the remedial work within 28 days (or sooner if the report says so) and obtain written confirmation from a qualified person, then supply it to the tenant and, if requested, to your local council. Keep the confirmation with the report — together they evidence compliance.
Do tenants get a copy of the EICR?
In England, yes: existing tenants within 28 days of the inspection, new tenants before occupation, and prospective tenants within 28 days of a request. your local council can also demand a copy, which must be supplied within 7 days.
Book it
Ready to act on this? The pillar page covers the certificate end to end, with every UK area linked: EICR (Electrical Safety Report).