An Electrical Installation Condition Report or an EICR is used to determine the condition of a electrical installation. Often called a Landlords certificate, these are required for rental purposes and often property sales but increasingly we are seeing them being requested for insurance purposes and for clients who require a check over of a installation to get an idea of what condition it’s in. The report is very much like a MOT for your property’s electrics. It doesn’t cover appliances but it does cover the majority of the fixed installation.
It all starts at the incoming supply where the condition and general characteristics are checked. After this the consumers side of the installation is visually inspected for damage and general condition, the bonding is checked (these connect the incoming water/gas etc to the installation) followed by a selection of accessories being removed and internally inspected for tightness of the connections and signs of overheating or other issues. Any special locations are inspected, the most common one in a domestic property being a bathroom where we check that accessories are suitable for the location.
The circuits will be checked to make sure they correspond to the labels at the consumer unit (fuse box) before undergoing various tests with each result being compared to what is expected along with the maximum figures allowed. The protective devices within the consumer unit will also be tested, both for isolation and where possible tested to make sure they do what they should be doing to protect the installation should a fault occur.
Finally all the figures and results from the inspection are complied into a report. Again, like the MOT any issues noted during the report will gain a code, these can range from a ‘code 3’ which is classed as ‘improvement recommended’ through to a ‘code 1’ which would be classed as ‘danger present’ and require attention very swiftly. The report will then be given one of two outcomes, satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If it’s the latter, then issues have been identified that require attention before it can be given a satisfactory report.
As you can imagine all of this isn’t the work of a moment, even small installations take a reasonable amount of time to check. It would be difficult to see how anyone could carry out a comprehensive report in less than a couple of hours even on the smallest of installations. For an EICR on domestic installations we generally allow half a day for a smaller properties, a small flat or house for example. Prices start from £140. We also carry out commercial testing which again will be priced depending on the size of the installation and it’s condition which would be determined from an initial site visit.
We cover Milton Keynes, Leighton Buzzard and the surrounding areas, if you would like to discuss booking a condition report or have any questions about, drop us an email or message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
