Buying and selling
No law requires an EICR to sell a home
Nothing in the conveyancing process requires one, and no seller has to produce one. There are still situations where getting one answers a question that would otherwise stall things.
Arrange an EICR
Three questions and a postcode. We match you to a qualified local electrician.
What a survey does instead
A homebuyer survey assesses the property as a whole. It is not an electrical inspection and normally says so, usually by recommending a separate one where the wiring looks dated or the installation could not be assessed.
If your survey flagged the electrics, an EICR is the thing it was pointing at.
When it is worth having as a buyer
- The survey recommended one
- The consumer unit looks original to a property of some age
- The seller cannot say when the property was last rewired or inspected
- You are planning work that will extend or alter the installation
When it is worth having as a seller
Mainly to stop a question becoming a negotiation. A current report answers what the buyer's solicitor may ask and removes an unknown that otherwise gets priced in.
It is not a requirement and there is no obligation to commission one.
The moment you let it out, this changes
If the property becomes a rented home, the five-yearly duty applies and the report stops being optional. Buying with the intention of letting is the case where getting one early is straightforwardly useful.
What you get
A report records circuits, codes and limitations
The verdict is the least useful part. What matters is the schedule of test results behind it, the coded observations, and an honest record of anything the inspection could not reach.
A ticked box and nothing else is a verdict with no working shown. Worth knowing before you accept one, whoever arranged it.
Who does the work
Every electrician clears six checks
We do not carry out the inspection. We put you in touch with an electrician who does. An EICR is worth what the person signing it is worth, so these checks are the product. Each is verified against the issuing body's own register, not taken from a logo.
Competent to inspect and test
Inspection and testing carries its own qualification. A good installer is not automatically the right person to sign a report.
Registered with a competent person scheme
Checked on the scheme's own public register, not a badge on a website.
Public liability insurance, in date
We check the certificate and the expiry date, not just that one exists. A lapsed policy is the most common reason to turn someone away.
Reports that carry their schedule
We look at an electrician's reports before sending them a job. The schedule of results is the part worth checking.
Working to the current standard
BS 7671 as currently amended. The 2026 amendment changed what makes a report unsatisfactory, and not everyone has caught up.
A public record worth reading
We read what previous customers wrote instead of counting stars. We publish no figure of our own, because we have none.
Scheme registration and insurance details come with your quote, so you can check them against the public register yourself. How we choose electricians sets out every check, including what gets someone turned away.
Next step
Send your postcode and get a real quote
If your current report has months left, that is what you will be told.
Questions
Buying or selling questions
Does a house sale need an electrical certificate?
No. Nothing in the sale process requires an EICR, and there is no electrical equivalent of an EPC.
The seller has a report from six years ago. Is it valid?
Validity is not really the right frame outside rented property, where the five-year duty applies. An older report tells you what was true then, and the installation may have been altered since.
Can I ask the seller to fix what the report finds?
You can ask. There is no obligation on them to do so, and it becomes a negotiation like any other survey finding.
Get a quote
Arrange an EICR
Five fields. We reply with either a fixed price or the one thing we still need to know.
- No cost, and no obligation to book anything
- Your details are never sold on or passed around
- A fixed price for the work described, in writing
Would rather talk it through? Leave a number in the form and say so in the details, and we will ring you rather than emailing back.