The most reliable way to assess a home's electrics before you buy is to ask the seller for a recent Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) and, if there is not one, to pay a registered electrician to carry one out before you exchange contracts. A standard home survey will not do this job: the charity Electrical Safety First warns that many buyers assume the survey covers electrical safety when it does not.
Alongside the report, ask for the certificates for any electrical work done since 1 January 2005, when work in homes came under the Building Regulations. This guide explains what you can check yourself on a viewing, what an EICR tells you, which paperwork to ask for, and what changes if you are buying a home to let. If you are on the other side of the deal, our guide to whether you need an electrical certificate to sell covers the seller's position.
Electrical Safety First's advice to buyers is direct: "Don't rely on the standard home survey as this will not cover electrical safety." Inspecting and testing the wiring, earthing and protective devices is a job for a registered electrician. Our guide on which home survey you need explains what each level of survey does cover.
The charity also points out that a full rewire can be expensive, so it is worth finding out what is needed before you agree a purchase price rather than after.
None of these replaces a professional inspection, but they help you spot a property that needs a closer look. Look rather than touch: do not remove covers, and ask before pressing any test button, because testing an RCD switches off the power to the circuits it protects.
Modern consumer units have a main switch and circuit breakers or fuses. Look for signs of physical damage, heat damage or discolouration. To see whether there is a residual current device (RCD), look for a button marked "Test" or "T". An RCD switches off the power automatically if it detects a fault, which protects against electric shock and reduces the risk of fire.
For owner-occupied homes, Electrical Safety First says there may be a label in the consumer unit stating when the installation was last inspected and tested.
Electrical Safety First lists these warning signs:
Some features suggest wiring that may be near the end of its life. Electrical Safety First says an old fuse box with a wooden back, cast-iron switches or a mixture of both will need replacing, and that items that may need replacing include round-pin sockets, round light switches, fabric-covered cables hanging from ceiling roses, and black switches and sockets mounted in skirting boards. Cables coated in black rubber were phased out in the 1960s, and cables coated in lead or fabric are older still. The IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) adds that a green "slime" at sockets and switches is most likely on cables made in the 1960s and 1970s, and that where an installation is badly affected, the only resolution is a rewire.
Age alone does not settle the question. Electrical Safety First says electrics more than 50 years old should be checked and updated, but that for a 1980s house, whether it needs rewiring depends on its condition rather than its age. An EICR is how you find out.
Electrical Safety First recommends at least one smoke alarm on each floor, with a heat detector in the kitchen. Check they are fitted and ask whether they are tested regularly.
An EICR is a report on the condition of the existing fixed installation: the wiring, sockets, light fittings, consumer unit and permanently connected equipment such as electric showers. The electrician inspects and tests it against BS 7671, the national wiring standard published by the IET and the British Standards Institution. The current version is BS 7671:2018+A4:2026. Electrical Safety First says the inspection will reveal whether circuits are overloaded, find potential shock risks and fire hazards, identify defective work and highlight any lack of earthing or bonding.
Electrical Safety First recommends a periodic inspection before buying a previously occupied property, and every 10 years for an owner-occupied home after that. Ask the seller or the estate agent whether the electrics have been fully checked in the past ten years and, if so, ask for a copy of the EICR. If there is no report, or it is old, arrange your own once your offer is accepted and before exchange, so the findings can inform your decisions. You will need the seller's agreement for the electrician to visit, which the agent can arrange.
Use an electrician registered with a government-approved competent person scheme. GOV.UK points homeowners to the Electrical Competent Person Register to find one or to check that a firm belongs to a scheme. Prices vary, so ask more than one registered electrician for a written quote.
Each problem found is given a classification code:
Any C1 or C2 means the report will state that the installation is unsatisfactory for continued use. Electrical Safety First says the report records non-compliances with the present-day standard "that might give rise to danger", and the IET says the inspector makes an engineering judgement when choosing each code. The codes therefore tell you more than the age of the equipment does.
Since 1 January 2005, electrical installation work in homes in England and Wales has had to follow Part P of the Building Regulations. In England, the list of work that must be notified to building control was narrowed on 6 April 2013, and notifiable work is now:
Notifiable work must be self-certified by an electrician registered with a competent person scheme, checked by a registered third-party certifier appointed before work begins, or approved by a building control body. For work by a registered electrician, Electrical Safety First says the homeowner should receive an Electrical Installation Certificate or Minor Works Certificate confirming the work meets BS 7671, and a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate. Where the work was notified to the council instead, the council issues a completion certificate. In and around Cambridge, local authority building control is run jointly by Cambridge City Council, Huntingdonshire District Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council as 3C Shared Services.
The seller answers questions about electrical work and certificates on the Law Society TA6 Property Information Form, and the Law Society's notes say buyers can rely on that information. Read the answers with your conveyancer and ask about anything unclear, such as a new kitchen, an extension, a replacement consumer unit or a new electric shower with no certificate attached. If certificates are missing, your conveyancer will advise on the options. These can include the seller applying to the council for retrospective approval, known as regularisation, or an indemnity insurance policy, which the buyer's mortgage lender may want in some cases. A policy deals with the legal risk of missing approval. It does not inspect or fix the wiring, so an EICR is still worth having.
The consumer unit is where the circuits are protected, so it is one of the first things an electrician looks at. Two changes to the wiring standard are worth knowing about:
These rules apply to new work. Electrical Safety First says an older unit without RCDs or circuit breakers "does not necessarily mean they are unsafe or require upgrading", and that an EICR will tell you whether it is still safe. Where there is no RCD in the consumer unit, the charity advises using plug-in RCDs for sockets in the meantime, and you may want to consider adding RCDs to improve safety. Replacing a consumer unit is notifiable work, so if the seller has had one fitted, ask for the certificates.
More homes now have solar panels, battery storage, electric vehicle chargers and smart controls. Each adds something to check.
If you plan to let the property, or you are buying with tenants in place, the rules are stricter. Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, a landlord must have the installation inspected and tested before a tenancy starts and at least every 5 years, give the report to tenants, and complete any remedial work within 28 days. Councils can impose a penalty of up to £40,000. Our guide on whether you need an electrical certificate to sell a property sets out the landlord duties in full. The Law Society notes that a buyer of a let property will want to check there is a current EICR and that it has been given to the tenant, so ask for both. Our landlord services page explains how we help Cambridge landlords stay compliant.
An EICR with C1 or C2 items, or one that recommends a rewire, is information to act on before you are committed. Electrical Safety First recommends getting at least three quotes from different electricians before going ahead with any major electrical work. With the report and quotes in hand, you can decide whether to go ahead, ask the seller to arrange the work, or discuss the price. Tell your conveyancer what the report found. Our buying team can help you raise questions about a property's electrics with the seller early in the process.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Speak to a solicitor or licensed conveyancer about your own purchase, and to a registered electrician about a specific installation.
Not in the way an EICR does. Electrical Safety First says the standard home survey will not cover electrical safety, so arrange an EICR with a registered electrician if there is no recent report.
No. An EICR is not a legal requirement for selling a home in England. You can ask whether one exists, and if the property is let, the landlord should have a current one.
There is no legal interval for owner-occupied homes. Electrical Safety First recommends an inspection every 10 years, and also before buying a previously occupied property. Rented homes in England must be inspected at least every 5 years.
C1 means danger is present, C2 means potentially dangerous and C3 means improvement recommended. FI means further investigation: older reports say it is needed without delay, while reports to the 2026 edition of the wiring standard say it is advised. Any C1 or C2 makes the report unsatisfactory.
Not necessarily. Electrical Safety First says an older unit without RCDs is not automatically unsafe, and that the need to rewire depends on condition. An EICR will show whether the installation is still safe.
No document is officially called that. For notifiable work, such as a new circuit or a replacement consumer unit, the Building Regulations paperwork from a registered electrician is the Building Regulations Compliance Certificate. Ask for one for any such work done since 1 January 2005, or for the council's completion certificate if the work was notified to building control.
