Owner-occupiers
EICR for homeowners in Chesterfield
Electrical safety at home is not something the law makes you prove. If you own your home and live in it, you do not have to have an EICR. People still get one when buying, selling, insuring, or when the fuse board has started tripping and they want to know why.
No statutory duty applies to owner-occupiers in England. The five-yearly requirement is for rented homes.
Where is the property?
The postcode tells us whether we cover you.
What you are getting
An EICR helps when buying, selling or insuring
You are buying, and the survey flagged the wiring
A homebuyer survey is not an electrical inspection, and usually says so while recommending one. An EICR is what it was pointing at.
You are selling, or about to let
A current report answers a question a buyer's solicitor may ask. Let the property out and it stops being optional.
You have inherited a property, or bought one whose history you do not know
The value is the schedule of results, not the verdict. It tells you what is installed, not what was assumed.
Something has started happening
Repeated tripping, a warm socket, a smell. A tripping RCD is sometimes the device doing its job. Worth finding out which.
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.
Classification codes
C1 and C2 make a report unsatisfactory
Only C1 and C2 make a report unsatisfactory. C3 and FI were decoupled from that outcome in 2026, so much of the published guidance still describes the old position.
Risk of injury. Immediate remedial action required. The inspector should make it safe before leaving, or tell you plainly that it is not.
Makes the report unsatisfactory.
Urgent remedial action required. Nothing is dangerous right now, but something has to fail for it to become so, and that failure is foreseeable.
Makes the report unsatisfactory.
Not a fault. Usually something installed to an older standard that was correct at the time. Worth doing, not required, and it does not make the report unsatisfactory.
Does not make the report unsatisfactory.
Something was found that could not be fully identified within the extent of the inspection, and it may turn out to be a C1 or a C2. It does not make the report unsatisfactory, but it does mean a question is still open.
Does not make the report unsatisfactory.
An FI not making a report unsatisfactory is not the same as an FI being safe to ignore. Where a report says further investigative work is necessary, the landlord’s 28-day duty is engaged. How that sits with the 2026 change is unsettled. Ask the electrician who signed your report what they meant by it.
This describes the law in England. The Welsh and Scottish positions differ, Scotland's repairing standard also covers portable appliances, which the England duty on private landlords does not. It is general information, not legal advice. Last checked against the primary sources on 27 August 2026.
How it works
The power goes off, circuit by circuit
The visit is more disruptive than most people expect, so it is worth knowing what it involves before you book.
Tell us about the property
Age, rough circuit count, and anything added since: an extension, a loft room, a garage supply, an outbuilding. Additions are where inspections most often find something.
The power goes off, circuit by circuit
Testing needs each circuit isolated, so power goes on and off through the visit. Plan around anything that cannot lose it.
Accessories are sampled, not all removed
A proportion of sockets and switches come off. The electrician records which, and anything they could not reach.
You get the report and a conversation
Codes, a schedule of results, and what it means for whatever prompted the call.
Areas covered
We cover eight towns across north Derbyshire
Chesterfield, the S40, S41, S42 and S43 districts and the towns around them.
Do we cover your postcode?
Type the first part, like S40 or DE45. No need for the whole thing.
Outside those eight? What an EICR costs and covers across Derbyshire.
Standards
The standards every inspection is carried out to
An EICR is only as good as the person signing it. Every inspection here is carried out to these standards, and each one is checked against the issuing body's own register rather than taken on trust.
Qualified to inspect, not just to install
Inspecting an existing installation is a separate qualification from wiring a new one. 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.
You get the test results
Not just a pass or fail. The report lists each circuit and the readings taken, which is the part worth checking.
Working to the current standard
BS 7671 as amended in 2026. That amendment changed which findings make a report unsatisfactory, and not everyone has caught up.
Reviews you can read
Not a star rating with no detail behind it. We publish no figure of our own, because we have none to publish yet.
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
Ask whether an EICR would tell you anything
Tell us why you are thinking about one. If an inspection would tell you nothing useful, that is what you will hear.
Questions
Homeowner questions
Do I legally need an EICR?
Not as an owner-occupier in England. The five-yearly duty applies to rented homes. If you let the property out, even to a family member on a tenancy, that changes.
My house is old. Will it fail?
Age on its own is not a fault. An inspection reports condition against the current standard, and older installations frequently come back satisfactory with improvements recommended. What matters is what is actually there and what state it is in.
How often should I have one?
There is a widely-quoted interval for owner-occupied homes and we have deliberately not printed a figure, because we have not verified it against a primary source. Your electrician will recommend an interval on the report itself, and that recommendation is specific to your installation rather than a general rule.
Is this the same as a homebuyer survey?
No. A survey is a visual assessment of the property as a whole and usually recommends a separate electrical inspection rather than replacing one. They answer different questions.
Who will actually turn up?
A qualified local electrician. You can ask who it is before booking, and their registration and insurance details come with the quote.
Get a quote
Ask about a homeowner inspection
Postcode, roughly how old the property is, and what prompted you to ask.
- No cost, and no obligation to book anything
- We come back with a date or a question, not a sales call
- 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.
Other situations
The same inspection carries different duties
The inspection itself is the same job in every case. What changes is whether the law says you have to have one.
Landlord EICR
The electrical landlord certificate every privately rented home in England must hold, renewed every five years.
Read moreSocial landlord EICR
Extended to registered providers in 2025. First inspection due before 1 November 2026 for existing tenancies.
Read moreCommercial EICR
Commercial EICR and fixed wire testing. No statutory five-year interval exists for commercial premises. There is a duty to maintain the installation, and a frequency you set from risk.
Read moreHMO EICR
The five-yearly duty applies as it does to any rented home. A licensed HMO also has a licensing authority taking an interest.
Read moreLetting agent EICR
Managed portfolios, staggered renewal dates, one point of contact.
Read more