As an owner / tenant / landlord of a commercial premises, an EICR can seem like another headache to deal with, but without it, you may invalidate your insurance, tenancy agreement / lease and you may even fall foul of some mandatory legislation.

Although an EICR (electrical installation condition report) isn’t specifically a mandatory requirement for commercial premises, it is a means of demonstrating you have complied with your obligations under the Health & Safety at work act and the Electricity at work regulations. For tenanted domestic properties, holding a satisfactory EICR became mandatory in June 2020.

BS7671 is the standard associated with the IET British wiring regulations and along with the associated guidance note 3, they stipulate that commercial installations should be tested and inspected at intervals not exceeding 5 years and industrial installations such as workshops, no longer than every 3 years. Additionally domestic rented properties require an EICR undertaken every 5 years as a maximum.

What’s involved?

Our electricians undertake a thorough check of the entire building or part if a partial scope is agreed. The electrical installation will be checked and certain accessories, like switches, sockets, isolators etc can be opened and visually inspected. They will also examine all the switchgear and distribution equipment and check to see if what is found complies with the industry standard regulations BS7671. If any non-compliances are found, the electrician notes them on the EICR document and will attach a code of severity, effectively on how serious the issue is. The most common codes issued are listed below.

C1 – Danger present and must be made safe or rectified.

C2 – Potentially dangerous

C3 – Improvement recommended

FI – Further investigation required

Following receipt of the report, should any non-compliances be identified, you will then have an obligation to undertake the repairs, normally within 28 days of receiving the report. For total transparency, you do not have to use the same contractor to complete the repairs as the one who undertook the EICR, however it can often be simpler when dealing with the administration.

At MK Electrical Contractors Ltd our electricians are very experienced in both commercial eicr and domestic eicr (landlord report). They hold advanced qualifications in test and inspection (City & Guilds 2391-52) and can guide you through the entire process. Please get in touch for cost and availability.