How often does a landlord need an EICR?
At least every five years. The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 require you to ensure the electrical installation is inspected and tested at regular intervals by a qualified person, at intervals of no more than five years. The report then specifies the date by which the next inspection is due, which may be sooner than five years if the inspector judges it necessary. The regime has been in force for a while: it applied to new tenancies from 1 July 2020 and to existing tenancies from 1 April 2021, so for most established lettings the clock is already running and you should know exactly when your next test falls due.
Is an EICR the same as an Electrical Installation Certificate?
No, and the difference trips people up. An EICR — an Electrical Installation Condition Report — is a periodic report on the condition of an existing installation. An Electrical Installation Certificate, or EIC, is issued when an installation is newly built or completely rewired, certifying that new work at the time it was done. GOV.UK guidance is clear that a newly built or fully rewired property should have an EIC, and that you then do not need a further report for five years after the EIC is issued. So if you have just had a property rewired, the right document is an EIC, not an EICR — and the five-year periodic cycle picks up from there. Quoting the wrong one to a tenant or an authority signals you have not understood your own paperwork.
Who can carry out an EICR?
A qualified person — defined in the regulations and restated in GOV.UK guidance as a person competent to undertake the inspection and testing. The regulations do not name a single scheme you must use, but competence is the test, so in practice landlords rely on electricians registered with a recognised competent-person scheme and working to the national wiring standard. The inspector produces the report, gives the results, and sets the date for the next inspection. It is worth checking an inspector's credentials and scheme membership before they attend, because an EICR signed by someone who cannot show they were competent is a weak foundation if a local authority later asks questions.
Who has to receive the EICR, and by when?
Three deadlines do the heavy lifting. You must supply a copy of the report to each existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection and test. You must supply a copy to the local housing authority within seven days of receiving a written request for it. And you must give the most recent report to any new tenant before they occupy the premises, and to a prospective tenant within 28 days of a written request. Miss any of these and you are in breach even if the installation itself is perfectly safe, because distribution is a duty in its own right. Tracking which tenant received which report, and when, is the part landlords most often cannot evidence after the fact.
What happens if the EICR flags problems?
Where the report identifies that further investigative or remedial work is needed, you must ensure a qualified person carries it out within 28 days, or sooner if the report specifies a shorter period, starting from the date of the inspection and test. You then obtain written confirmation that the work has been completed. The 28-day remedial window runs from the inspection date, not from when you got round to reading the report, so a report that sits unopened for a fortnight has already eaten half your time. Treat any coded defect as a live deadline the moment the inspection happens.
What is the penalty, and does this apply outside England's PRS?
The maximum financial penalty for breach is up to £40,000, enforced by the local housing authority. That figure rose from £30,000 on 1 November 2025, when an amendment substituted the higher cap, so any guidance you see still quoting £30,000 is out of date. The regime here covers the private rented sector in England. From 2025 it has been extended to the social rented sector in England on a phased basis, starting on 1 November 2025 and 1 May 2026, but the private rented sector rules described above are unchanged. Scotland and Wales operate under their own electrical safety regimes, so do not assume the English five-year duty maps across the border.