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EICR for private tenants

EICR for private tenants. EICR stands for Electrical Installation Condition Report. The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 require landlords to ensure all fixed electrical appliances are safe for continued use in their privately rented out properties.

This law comes into effect on 1 June 2020 and applies to Landlords in England only.

If you are a landlord and is renting out your property, you must provide the EICR to your private tenants within 28 days of the test.

Qualified Electrician Inspector

For this purpose, you must use a qualified and competent person to carry out the test. You may use the Government approved electrical competent person register to find your electrical in your local area or to check if your electrician is registered with the scheme. You can see which scheme the person or company you check is currently registered with. For example, you will see the logo ‘NIC EIC’ or ‘NAPIT’.

The inspection aspects

Primarily, your qualified electrician should carry out the test that meets the standard set out in the 18th edition of the Wiring Regulations. Your qualified electrician shall carry out the following tests:

  • the wiring
  • the socket outlets and plug sockets
  • the light fitting
  • the fuse box
  • showers
  • extractors etc.

The purpose of the test is to find out the following:

  • If your electrical installations are overloaded.
  • Whether there are any potential electric shock risks and fire hazards.
  • Any defective electrical work detected.
  • There is a lack of earthing or bonding – these are 2 ways of preventing electrical shocks that are built into electrical installations.

The inspection report outcomes

Correspondingly, you would receive a report with one of the following 4 outcomes:

  1. Code 1 (C1): Danger present. Risk of injury. The electrical inspector may make any C1 hazards safe before leaving the property.
  2. Code 2 (C2): Potentially dangerous.
  3. Further Investigation (FI): Further investigation required without delay.
  4. Code 3 (C3): Improvement recommended. Further remedial work is not required for the report to be deemed satisfactory.

If you get the codes C1 or C2 in on your report, then you as a landlord must carry out remedial work. Your report will state the installation is unsatisfactory for continued use.

If you get the code FI, you must also ensure you follow up on this.

The cost of obtaining this EICR is your property expense and is deductible against your rental income.

Using limited company for your properties letting business

If you are using a limited company to hold your properties letting portfolio, you must also comply with Companies House requirements. You must deliver the following documents to Companies House every year.

During this COVID-19 outbreak, you deliver the above documents online. For this, you would require your company’s authentication code issued by Companies House.

On the same note, if your business is severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and unable to deliver your accounts on time, you can apply for an extension from Companies House.

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