Good morning

I am in the fortunate position of having a small flat that I let out. Due to Covid, my tenant wasn’t keen to have and EICR check done but in the end that happened last week (booked with a local company via British Gas Homecare).

I have had to chase to get the report and the result is ‘unsatisfactory’ with four C2s and four C3s. It was obviously disappointing to get this news a week after the test was done, but worse that it hadn’t been shared asap after the inspection as there is a timeframe for remedial action.

I’ve owned the flat for more than 20 years without issue, and the only big piece of work in that time was British Gas installing a boiler. The electrics have always been absolutely fine and to my understanding OK in terms of the regulations at the time it was installed.

The inspecting electrician has basically recommended that the entire flat needs to be rewired, along with a new consumer board and given me a one line cost estimate which looks two to three times the market rate (using the online cost guides as a reference).

TBH I don’t understand a lot of the terminology in the EICR report so it is hard to assess whether I am being taken for a ride – delaying the delivery of the report is putting me under time pressure and I feel as though I am being painted in to a corner…….

I’d be grateful if someone can suggest the best way for me to approach this problem please. E.g. should I be sending the report to other electricians to get a cross-quote, should I have a repeat EICR, or what?

Thanks in advance for any help as I’m trying to do the right thing but feel like my position isn’t the strongest and could be open to exploitation.

Can you list the faults found here?

It could be that the c2s can be sorted cheaper than a full rewire…

Although if you’ve had the place for 20 years and never had any upgrades I can think of a couple of the issues that might have been raised.

Hi, I just had an eicr done on a 1996 built flat. I was prepared for the worst having scanned landlordzone, however, I used an electrician who came via my usual handyman. He charged 190 inc vat and I got a good report, no advisories.

Common theme on ll zone is the cheap eicr s come with advisories.

Now you have eicr with advisories you have to get them addressed, where are you based? If I were you I would shop around, problem is all electricians are busy as eicr deadline looms, I asked 2 who I didn’t know and they blew me out, the one that came via contact got me in within a week.

Hopefully an electrician is on here and can advise on whether your advisories are genuine.

Electrician here.

if you send me a pm I can have a look at the report for you, obviously I didn’t inspect, but I can tell you in plain English what it means, and if the coding is correct, and an opinion on the recommended remedials (it’s a running joke in the industry that less than scrupulous sparks recommend a rewire for everything)

Hi C-B, thanks for the message, yes I would be very grateful if you are able to translate the report in to simple words. I’ve tried to message you but can’t get the dialogue box to open so maybe the ST site is having a problem? I’ll try again later in the day but if you are able to message me your email address then that might be simpler (assuming the messaging system is up and running again). Thanks again for the offer of help.

I own a company that does EICR reports, if you want to send me a message I’ll have a look for you too 🙂

Have a look at some of Dave Savery’s explanation / videos.

https://www.dses.co.uk/index.php/periodic-inspections-eicr

In particular “Why ‘unsatisfactory’ may itself be unsatisfactory…”

He goes into it in some of his videos in a reasonably entertaining manner (if you like that sort of thing).

Can’t we play guess the c2 coding of an ‘electrician’ whose probably doing 4-5 EICR a day!
I’m going for no RCD protection, undersized gas/water bond and non IP fitting in the bathroom

Can’t we play guess the c2 coding of an ‘electrician’ whose probably doing 4-5 EICR a day!

Plastic CU

Rather pleasingly mine came back with a bad earth, and the electrician turned off the power, but didn’t bother to tell the letting agency.. so I could be informed. So when I had time to check a few days later, luckily my pipes hadn’t frozen. Western power, after initially scaremonger down the phone it would be my fault & I’d pay, came out and fixed it for free.

Can’t we play guess the c2 coding of an ‘electrician’ whose probably doing 4-5 EICR a day!

Unfeasably low IR value.

Misidentified cable types / poor maths.

Not to mention the obligatory poor description on the report that makes it near impossible to work out what the tester actually thought was wrong.

Thanks for all the feedback, some of it has made me chuckle a bit which is a relief as I have been oddly anxious over this issue. The report is made up of DB codes with what look like standard phrasing to describe the problem. The codes that are flagged as C2 are: 3.8, 6.1, 6.4, 5.12.5, 5.12.1, 5.8 and 5.7. Most look like comments about levels of protection. In the supplementary notes there is reference to a lack of RCDs, lack of cross-bonding, a lighting circuit not earthed, and a concern that an electric oven is plugged in to a socket rather than an RCD (although the oven came new with a domestic plug on it).

I’m not doubting that work needs to be done, and I want my tenant to be safe of course. However, the accompanying quote is HUGE compared to what I can find online so my confidence in the process is limited, especially given the general coverage of the EICR cerification and remediation which seems to be being exploited by the less scrupulous.

I’m particularly aware of this as the company that arranged the checks haven’t even formally sent me the report yet (apparently they work on behalf of British Gas but BG doesn’t pass them customer’s email addresses! The obvious result is that by accident or design customers therefore don’t get the report, aren’t aware of an issue until they follow-up the report themselves by which time a lot of the 28 day remediation window could have passed and they are then under pressure to accept whatever quote they are given – a nice business to do people with!!).

The codes that are flagged as C2 are: 3.8, 6.1, 6.4, 5.12.5, 5.12.1, 5.8 and 5.7. Most look like comments about levels of protection. In the supplementary notes there is reference to a lack of RCDs, lack of cross-bonding, a lighting circuit not earthed, and a concern that an electric oven is plugged in to a socket rather than an RCD (although the oven came new with a domestic plug on it).

Those numbers are not the regulations. I think what he has done is to put the numbers from the EICR tick box section down as the faults. That is bolloc#s. there should be a regulation number that has not been met.
e.g, in my test report book, 3.8 references accessibility of earth bonding, but the Regs. associated are 543.1 and 543.3.
Lack of RCD for which circuits? It is still acceptable for there to be a lack of RCD on some circuits. Even if no RCD, it may be a five minute job to replace a circuit breaker with a RCBO.
Lighting circuit not earthed. A common thing with some 60’s houses. Not a problem at all, so long as all the lights and switches are plastic/double insulated, and, preferably RCD’d.
Electric oven not a problem on a socket. Would be better with RCD protection, but it is a fixed appliance, so it would not have needed to be RCD’d until quite recently. Again, if no RCD on the circuit, a RCBO fitted would take 5 minutes to fit, then 5 minutes to test the circuit afterwards.

alanl thanks for the feedback, I have a couple of people looking at the report now so I’m hoping that I can find a pragmatic approach to resolving the issues rather than a massive overhaul of a system that has worked 100% for years. There’s no doubt that some work is required and I’m OK with that, I just don’t want to pay for a Rolls Royce when a Mini will do.

It appears that the EICR has been done using the current regs as opposed to what was recommended at the time so obviously it’s going to be in an unsatisfactory condition, they could of to you that over the phone if they asked the age of the property and saved themselves a journey!
Id suggest getting a few recommendations for a local electricians to get a price to rcd protect all circuits which could mean a board change, but will mean your tenant is as safe as possible, and would clear all those C2 codes(if they actually exist)
They should then issue you with an installation certificate which is ‘above’ an EICR. Though if it was me undertaking the work I’d do a full test to make sure there’s no wiring faults before committing to the work

Just to add anyone replacing the distribution board has to do a full test of the installation to ascertain the type and size of protective devices, once they energise the circuit they are responsible for that circuit and only by testing will they know the circuit is safe. Anyone changing a distribution board and not issuing a certificate including the test results shouldn’t be paid 👍. Same goes for any electrical work always get a certificate

It appears that the EICR has been done using the current regs as opposed to what was recommended at the time so obviously it’s going to be in an unsatisfactory condition

That would mean that if EICR’s were carried out on about 75% of the electrical installations in the country, they would all come out as unsatisfactory.

The problem here is the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 are poorly written, and I quote: “Ensure national standards for electrical safety are met. These are set out in the 18th edition of the ‘Wiring Regulations’, which are published as British Standard 7671.”

However, BS7671 18th edition does state that while existing installations that were installed to previous editions of the regulations may not comply with the current regulations in every respect, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are unsafe for continued used or require upgrading.

EICR’s are very much based on the electrician’s experience level, if they are only trained to the latest 18th edition regs then they might not be able to confirm if your electrics are ok to the regs they were installed to (probably 16th edition). They then get a fail as they do not meet the latest regs. Also the report is open to the person carrying out the reports opinion (2 sparks have been known to argue over this onsite before).

Plus if your electrics are 20 years old then they could be coming to the end of their life (cable and accessories are normally warrantied for 20-25 years).

If you need quite a bit of work then it could be worth a full rewire as no one wants a fire from worn out sockets. Plus modern consumer units (fuse boards) are much safer than older ones.

Hi

I’m in the same boat

My EICR hasn’t been done yet but I’ve had a sparky in as they Tennant wanted an extractor fan in.

Been told he can’t fit the fan as the consumer unit as whilst its got breakers they’re not rcds.

Been told 350 for the unit plus EICR and then any additional work from there.

This sound about right

The problem here is ‘british gas homecare’ a scheme devised to extract as much dosh as poss from unsuspecting customers.
I’d find a locally recommended sparky and start again.

You do know about british gas and their pricing structure, to gain as much from customers as possible, been to numerous homes where they have done huge quotes for work, eg a vent in a attic door lid, cost 250 because the gas boiler need air in a 25 year old bungalow, moving a radiator, whole system condemed and new boiler and pipes required, a new boiler and rads when all thats need is a new boiler.

Luckily some of the abovee got more realistic estimates of work required, get a local tradesman in.

Nick Bundy and Artisan electrics have good humorous vids of actual EICR and the work they do.on Youtube

The bg homecare package is highly negotiable, my elderly mother was quoted c500 pa for some gold plated package. I got added to the policy so I could renegotiate, we took off the gas fire and got that sserviced locally for c80 GBP, opted for 100 gbp excess and the policy came down to 200 odd pa.

That was last year, cheeky s..s have put her back onto the default gold plated package at 500 odd.

I m fraid all utility and insurance companies do it, just 1 call to say you are off and you get a decent price.

Been told 350 for the unit plus EICR and then any additional work from there.

This sound about right

Ask them to do the EICR first then you will know what, if anything, extra needs doing on top of a board change. If he wants to do it all in one day then that leaves you open to the dreaded phone call telling you there’s loads of wiring faults that need sorting and it’s going to cost you!