How often does a landlord need an EICR, what does it cost, and what proof must you keep?

Quite a few landlords are meeting this one properly for the second time this year. The first wave of reports done in 2021, when existing tenancies came into scope, is falling due through 2026, and a certificate that felt like a one off job back then turns out to have been the start of a cycle. It is a good moment to be clear about what the rules actually require, what a fair price looks like, and what you need to be holding afterwards.

What is an EICR and who needs one?

An Electrical Installation Condition Report is a written assessment of the fixed wiring in a property, meaning the consumer unit, the circuits, the sockets, the switches and the light fittings. It is not a check of the kettle or the tenant's television. A qualified and competent person inspects and tests the installation, records what they find against a set of standard codes, and gives the whole thing an overall verdict of satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

In England the duty comes from the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. New tenancies were caught from 1 July 2020 and existing tenancies from 1 April 2021, so almost every privately rented home is now inside it. There are a few narrow exclusions, such as social housing and long leases, but for an ordinary assured shorthold tenancy you should assume it applies to you.

How often does a landlord need an EICR?

At least every five years, and sooner if the report itself says so. That last part catches people out. An inspector who is not entirely comfortable with an installation can name a shorter interval on the report, and where they do, that shorter interval is the one that binds you. The five year clock also runs from the date of the inspection, not from the date the tenancy started, so a property let in the second year of a certificate has three years left rather than five.

You also need a valid report in place before a new tenancy begins. Booking the electrician after the tenant has the keys is too late.

What does an EICR cost in 2026?

Prices vary with the number of circuits rather than the number of bedrooms, but bedrooms are the rough shorthand most electricians quote against. These are indicative figures for 2026 and worth treating as a sense check on a quote rather than a fixed rate.

London and the South East tend to sit fifteen to thirty per cent above those numbers. A portfolio booked together usually comes in lower per property. What none of these prices include is the work itself. An EICR tells you what is wrong; putting it right is quoted separately, and a report that turns up a handful of C2 items can easily cost more to remedy than the inspection did. It is worth asking, before booking, whether the electrician prices remedial work at the same visit, because a second call out is money spent on a van rather than on the fault.

What do the codes C1, C2, C3 and FI mean?

Every observation on the report carries a code, and the codes are what decide the overall verdict.

• C1, danger present. Something on the installation could injure someone now. It should be made safe on the day.
• C2, potentially dangerous. Not an immediate risk, but capable of becoming one. This is the code most remedial work sits under.
• C3, improvement recommended. A suggestion, not a requirement. A report can be satisfactory with several C3 items on it, and you are not obliged to act on them.
• FI, further investigation. Something could not be fully tested on the day and needs another look.

Any C1, C2 or FI makes the report unsatisfactory. C3 items on their own do not. That distinction matters, because a landlord who assumes every observation must be fixed can spend a lot of money on improvements the law never asked for, and a landlord who assumes none of them matter can miss the ones that do.

What happens if the report comes back unsatisfactory?

You have 28 days from the date of the report to complete the remedial work, or less if the report names a shorter period. When the work is finished you need written confirmation from a qualified person that the installation now meets the standard, and that confirmation has to reach the tenant and the local authority within 28 days of the work being completed.

The order of that sequence is the part to hold on to. The report, the work, the written confirmation, then the two people who have to receive it. Each of those has a date attached, and if the question is ever asked, the dates are the answer.

Who has to get a copy, and by when?

Four different people, on four different clocks.

1. An existing tenant, within 28 days of the inspection.
2. A new tenant, before they move in.
3. A prospective tenant, within 28 days of a written request.
4. The local authority, within seven days of a request.

You also keep the report until the next inspection and give it to whoever carries that one out, so they can see what was found last time and whether it was dealt with. In practice that means a report needs to survive five years of phone changes, email clear outs and, quite often, a change of agent. That is a longer life than most documents get.

What does it cost to get this wrong?

A local authority can impose a civil penalty of up to £30,000 for a breach, and where a landlord has not carried out remedial work it can arrange the work itself and recover the cost. Beyond the penalty, a missing or expired report is the sort of thing that surfaces at the worst moment: in a deposit dispute, in an insurance claim after a fire, or in a tribunal where the general question is whether this landlord runs the property properly. One gap invites a look at everything else.

Do the rules differ in Wales and Scotland?

They do, though the shape is similar. In Wales the Renting Homes (Wales) Act made a five yearly inspection a legal requirement from 1 December 2022 as part of the fitness for human habitation duty, and the copy goes to the contract holder within 14 days. In Scotland five yearly checks have applied since 2015 under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, and the Scottish requirement goes further by including a portable appliance test on any electrical appliances the landlord supplies. If you let across a border, the safest approach is to run the whole portfolio to the tightest of the three.

How do you keep the proof without it becoming a second job?

The work here is not hard. What fails is the memory of it. Five years is long enough that the renewal date leaves your head entirely, and long enough that the report ends up in an email account you no longer use, or with an agent you no longer instruct. The pattern is the same one we wrote about in the evidence trail every landlord needs: the compliance was fine, the proof of it quietly evaporated.

The fix is to stop treating the certificate as a document and start treating it as a date with a file attached. There is no public register for electrical reports, so unlike an energy certificate nobody can look yours up, which makes your own record the only record there is. Lodgic holds the report against the property with its expiry date, watches the clock and chases the renewal before it lapses, and keeps the remedial work alongside it as a job with dated photos and a contractor sign off, so the report and the proof that you acted on it sit in the same place. Nobody has to remember anything, and when a tenant, an agent or a council officer asks, it takes a minute rather than an afternoon.

A simple checklist

1. Know the inspection date of the current report, not just the year it was done.
2. Read the recommended interval on the report itself in case it is shorter than five years.
3. Book the next one before a new tenancy begins, never after.
4. Get remedial work done within 28 days and keep the written confirmation.
5. Send the copies to the tenant and, on request, the local authority, and keep proof that you did.
6. Store the report where it will still be findable in five years, against the property rather than in an inbox.

General information, not legal advice. Rules and costs change, so check the current position for your property and your part of the UK.