The EICR for commercial premises: what it covers, how often, and what the codes mean

An Electrical Installation Condition Report is the document that shows the fixed wiring of a building is safe to keep using. Insurers ask for it, landlords' agents ask for it, the Health and Safety Executive can ask for it, and a buyer's surveyor will ask for it. Here is what the inspection involves, how often a commercial building needs one, and what the codes on the report mean when it arrives.

Where the duty comes from

The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require electrical systems in a workplace to be maintained so as to prevent danger. They do not say how often to inspect. BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations, recommends intervals, and an EICR to BS 7671 is the accepted way of showing the Regulations have been met. For rented homes there is a separate legal requirement for a report every five years; for commercial premises the interval is a recommendation backed by the general duty, and by whatever your insurer's policy says.

How often

The inspector can recommend a shorter interval on the report if the installation or the way it is used warrants it, and an insurer can require one. A change of use, a refurbishment or an incident is a reason to inspect regardless of the date.

What the inspection involves

A visual inspection of the installation: the intake, the boards, the wiring systems, the accessories, looking for damage, deterioration, wrong materials, missing covers, overloaded circuits, and anything that no longer complies with the current edition of BS 7671. Then testing: with the circuits dead, continuity of protective conductors, insulation resistance and polarity; with them live, earth fault loop impedance, prospective fault current and the operation of RCDs. Not every circuit has to be tested on every report; the standard allows sampling where the installation is large and uniform, and the report says what percentage was done.

It needs the power off circuit by circuit, so on a trading building it is planned in sections, out of hours, or in a shutdown. A typical office floor is a day; a factory is longer.

The result: satisfactory or unsatisfactory

The report ends with one word. Satisfactory means the installation can continue in use until the next inspection date. Unsatisfactory means something was found that must be put right. The individual observations that led to the verdict each carry a code.

The codes

• C1, danger present: a risk of injury exists now, for example a live part that can be touched. The inspector will make it safe on the spot if they can, and the report is unsatisfactory.
• C2, potentially dangerous: not dangerous at this moment but could become so, for example a missing earth to a circuit, or no RCD protection where one is now required and a fault would be dangerous. Urgent remedial work; the report is unsatisfactory.
• C3, improvement recommended: does not comply with the current edition but is not dangerous, for example an older board without RCDs in a low-risk location. Worth doing; does not by itself make the report unsatisfactory.
• FI, further investigation required: something could not be determined during the inspection and needs to be looked into without delay. The report is unsatisfactory until it is resolved.

A report with only C3 observations is satisfactory. A report with any C1, C2 or FI is unsatisfactory, and the remedial work should be done promptly and recorded; the installation is then usually certified by a Minor Works or Electrical Installation Certificate for the work done, rather than by a whole new report.

Reading a report critically

A good report has a clear list of observations with locations you can find, photographs where they help, the extent of the inspection and the percentage sampled stated honestly, and the limitations listed (areas not accessible, circuits not isolated). Be wary of a report that is all C2s with no explanation, or one that was done in an hour on a large building, or one that is satisfactory with no observations at all on an installation that is clearly old. The report is only as good as the inspection behind it.

What we do

We carry out EICRs on commercial, industrial and let residential premises across the West Midlands, price the remedial work item by item against the codes, and do it. For a portfolio we keep the schedule and write to you before a report falls due. Details on our electrical installations page.