EICR for Dorset Landlords: The Complete Guide to Staying Legal

If you let a property in England, the law says the electrical installation must be inspected and tested at least every five years by a qualified person, and you must give your tenants a copy of the report within 28 days. That report is an EICR — an Electrical Installation Condition Report. This guide explains what an EICR actually involves, what the codes on it mean, what happens if yours comes back “unsatisfactory”, and how to keep the whole thing painless.

We’re Dorset Electrical Solutions, a NAPIT-approved electrical contractor based on the Ferndown Industrial Estate. We carry out EICRs for landlords and homeowners across Bournemouth, Poole, Ferndown, Wimborne, Christchurch, Ringwood and the surrounding East Dorset area, so most of what follows comes from doing these week in, week out.

What an EICR actually is

An EICR is a formal health-check of a property’s fixed electrical installation — the consumer unit (fuse board), the wiring, the sockets, switches and light fittings, and the earthing and bonding. It’s not a quick look round. A proper EICR involves both inspection (physically examining the installation) and testing (taking readings with calibrated instruments, which means turning the power off for a period).

The electrician is checking the installation against BS 7671, the UK wiring regulations. They’re looking for things like deteriorated cabling, missing or inadequate earthing, overloaded circuits, signs of overheating, dangerous DIY alterations, and a lack of RCD protection. At the end you get a report stating whether the installation is satisfactory or unsatisfactory, with any problems listed against a classification code.

The law: what Dorset landlords must do

The rules come from the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. They applied to new tenancies from July 2020 and to all existing tenancies from April 2021, so if you’re letting in Dorset today, they apply to you. In short, you must:

• Have the installation inspected and tested at least every 5 years by a qualified and competent person — or more often if the report itself specifies a shorter interval.
• Give existing tenants a copy of the report within 28 days of the inspection.
• Give new tenants a copy before they move in, and any prospective tenant a copy within 28 days of them asking.
• Give the local authority a copy within 7 days if they request it.
• Keep a copy to hand to whoever does the next inspection.

If the report requires remedial or further investigative work, you must get it done within 28 days (or sooner, if the report says so) and then supply written confirmation that it’s been completed to your tenants and the council. Councils can issue financial penalties of up to £30,000 for non-compliance, so this isn’t one to leave in the pile.

A quick note: these are the rules for England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements. And if you run an HMO, electrical inspection requirements have applied under licensing for longer — check your licence conditions too.

The codes on your report — and the one most people misread

Every issue found gets a classification code. These are the ones you’ll see:

• C1 — Danger present. Risk of injury, right now. Think exposed live parts. A good electrician will make this safe before they leave, and tell you immediately.
• C2 — Potentially dangerous. Not dangerous this second, but it could become so — for example, no earthing to a circuit. Urgent remedial work needed.
• C3 — Improvement recommended. Not dangerous. It’s an “it would be better if…” note, often because the installation was fine under an older edition of the regs.
• FI — Further investigation required. Something couldn’t be fully assessed and needs looking into without delay.

Here’s the bit that catches people out: a report is only unsatisfactory if it contains a C1, C2 or FI. C3 items on their own do not make a report unsatisfactory — you are not legally required to act on them. It’s worth knowing, because we do occasionally see landlords quoted for a long list of “essential” work that turns out to be all C3s. If you’re ever unsure, ask your electrician to walk you through the codes line by line. Any decent one will happily do it.

If your report comes back unsatisfactory

Don’t panic — it’s common, particularly in older Dorset housing stock. You have 28 days (or less if specified) to get the C1s, C2s and FIs resolved and to confirm completion in writing to your tenant and, if asked, the council.

In practice, the most frequent fixes we carry out are consumer unit upgrades where an old fuse box has no RCD protection, sorting out earthing and bonding, replacing damaged accessories, and occasionally a partial or full rewire where the wiring has simply reached the end of its life. We’ll always quote the remedial work separately and clearly, so you can see exactly what’s required versus what’s merely recommended.

What affects the cost

We won’t quote a number here, because an honest price depends on the property: how many circuits and consumer units there are, the size and age of the place, how accessible everything is, and whether we can get to the loft and under the boards. A two-bed flat and a five-bed converted house are very different jobs.

What we will do is give you a fixed price up front before we start — no hourly creep, no surprises on the invoice. If you’d like a figure for your property, tell us a bit about it and we’ll quote you.

How to make your EICR go smoothly

A bit of preparation genuinely saves time (and therefore money):

• Warn the tenant. The power will be off in stages. Most EICRs on a typical home take a few hours.
• Provide access to the consumer unit, the loft hatch, and the meter — and make sure we can actually reach them rather than climbing over storage.
• Unplug sensitive kit where you can — and flag anything that must not lose power.
• Dig out the last report and any certificates for work done since. It genuinely speeds things up and helps us spot what’s changed.

What about homeowners — do you need one?

If you live in your own home there’s no legal requirement, but an EICR is recommended roughly every 10 years, and it’s well worth one if you’re buying a property, if you’ve just moved into somewhere with unknown history, or if the place still has an old fuse box, rubber or fabric-covered cabling, or no RCD protection. It’s also the sensible first step if you’re getting flickering lights, a breaker that keeps tripping, or a burning smell — though those want looking at straight away, not at the next inspection.

Frequently asked questions

How long does an EICR take?

For a typical two- or three-bed home, usually a few hours. Larger or older properties, or ones with lots of circuits and additions over the years, take longer. The power will be off for parts of it.

How often does a rented property need an EICR?

At least every five years in England — unless the report itself specifies a shorter interval, in which case follow the report.

Does a C3 mean I have to pay for work?

No. C3 is “improvement recommended” and doesn’t make your report unsatisfactory. You can choose to do it, but you’re not legally obliged to.

What happens if I don’t get one?

Your local authority can serve a remedial notice and impose a financial penalty of up to £30,000. They can also arrange the work themselves and recover the cost from you.

Can I use the previous landlord’s or seller’s EICR?

If there’s a valid report that’s less than five years old and covers the same installation, it can stand — but if work has been done since, or you’ve no confidence in it, get a fresh one. You’re the one carrying the liability.

Do you carry out EICRs across Dorset?

Yes — we’re based in Ferndown and cover Bournemouth, Poole, Wimborne, Christchurch, Verwood, Ringwood, West Moors and the surrounding areas.

Getting yours booked

We’re NAPIT-approved, we work to BS 7671, and every job is certified on completion. You’ll get a clear report, a plain-English explanation of anything we find, and a fixed quote for any remedial work — with the C1s and C2s clearly separated from the “nice to haves”.

Have a look at our EICR and electrical safety certificate service, or get in touch for a fixed quote.