EICR Testing in Kent

Pick your audience

EICR work for different audiences carries different drivers, paperwork expectations, and timing pressures. Tap your situation for the dedicated landing page and town-by-town index:

• Landlord EICR — five-yearly under the 2020 PRS regs, council enforcement, £30k penalties
• Letting agency EICR — portfolio-scale framework, void-week turnaround, single-inbox delivery
• HMO landlord EICR — five-yearly tied to the council’s HMO licence
• Estate agent / pre-sale — vendor-side for older stock, controls the survey narrative
• Pre-sale EICR — homeowner-vendor route, into the contract pack
• Pre-purchase EICR — buyer-side between offer and exchange
• Private homeowner EICR — IET ten-yearly for owner-occupied, peace of mind
• Developer EICR — refurbs, conversions, phased completions (EIC vs EICR distinction)
• Commercial EICR — Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, offices, retail, workshops
• Holiday let EICR — Airbnb, Sykes, holiday-let insurers, off-season scheduling

What’s actually checked during an EICR

An EICR is part visual, part electrical test. Both matter, and both are needed for a satisfactory report.

The visual inspection covers the consumer unit (fuse board) inside and out, every accessible socket, switch, and light fitting, the meter tails and main earth, and the route of any visible fixed wiring. We’re looking for damage, signs of overheating, missing or wrong-type accessories, and anything that doesn’t meet the current UK wiring regulations (BS 7671).

The electrical test covers every circuit. Dead testing — done with the supply isolated — measures continuity of conductors and protective earthing, polarity, and insulation resistance, which tells us whether a cable’s insulation is breaking down internally. Live testing — done with the supply on — measures earth fault loop impedance (how quickly a fault on a circuit will trip the protective device) and RCD operating times (whether the RCD will actually disconnect within the time required by BS 7671 if there’s an earth fault).

The report has three parts: the form itself with the observation codes, a schedule of the inspection, and a schedule of the test results circuit-by-circuit. All three are needed for a complete EICR.

What an EICR commonly finds in Kent housing stock

Most installations have at least one C3 observation — improvement recommended but not a fail. The bigger findings, the C2s and occasional C1s, follow patterns across Kent’s housing.

Out-of-date consumer units. The most common driver of an unsatisfactory EICR. Old wired-fuse and split-load consumer units without full RCD protection are no longer compliant for new installations and are a regular C2 or C3 observation depending on context. RCBOs — one device per circuit, combining MCB and RCD function — are the modern standard.

Lighting circuits without an earth. Common in housing wired in the 1960s and 1970s, before earth conductors became standard on lighting. Switching to a class-I metal fitting on a non-earthed circuit pulls this into a C2.

Borrowed neutrals. Where one circuit’s neutral is shared with another’s, often introduced during piecemeal additions over the years. RCD protection won’t work properly with a borrowed neutral.

Inadequate or missing main bonding. Gas and water service pipes need 10mm² main bonding back to the main earthing terminal. Older installations often have 6mm² or none, and councils do check this on a landlord EICR.

Bathroom installations not to current zones. Sockets in the wrong zone, missing supplementary bonding, IP-rated fittings missing in bath/shower areas — common in older homes that haven’t had a recent bathroom refit.

Damaged accessories and signs of overheating. Burnt back-boxes, cracked sockets, scorched terminals — usually indicates loose connections heating up over time and worth catching before they cause a fire.

How property age affects EICR findings

Across Kent’s housing stock, different vintages bring different findings. Worth knowing roughly what to expect before booking.

Victorian and Edwardian property. Common in Rochester, Chatham, Gravesend centre, and the older streets of Maidstone and Canterbury. Original wiring is long gone, but rewires are often done in pieces over decades. Expect a mixed picture — sound modern wiring on the rewired sections, dated installations in lofts and outbuildings, and a consumer unit that may or may not be current.

Inter-war and post-war housing. Inter-war semis and post-war estates dominate the periphery of the Medway towns and Maidstone. Wiring is usually solid copper and electrically sound, but consumer units fitted in the 1980s or earlier are routinely a C2 finding. RCDs retrofitted onto rewireable boards can pass; full RCBO replacement is the more durable answer.

1960s–80s estate housing. Significant stock across the Medway towns, Sittingbourne, and Maidstone. Original VIR (rubber-insulated) cabling occasionally still in service can fail insulation resistance testing — when that’s found, a partial or full rewire is the only fix. Lighting circuits without earth are common.

Period property in Canterbury and Faversham. Tudor and Georgian within the city walls, lots of listed and conservation-area constraints. EICRs on these often surface partial rewires done over the years where the original property made full compliance difficult.

Modern estate housing. Anything built after about 2000 is likely compliant or close to it. The most common observation here is missing surge protection (SPD), which has been required under amendments to BS 7671 since 2018.

What C1, C2, C3, and FI mean on the report

Every observation on an EICR gets a code:

• C1 — Danger present. Risk of injury or fire if not addressed. The electrician should make-safe before leaving site. The report is unsatisfactory.
• C2 — Potentially dangerous. Not immediately dangerous but unsafe in the medium term. The report is unsatisfactory until remedied.
• C3 — Improvement recommended. Not unsafe but doesn’t meet current best practice. A C3-only report is still satisfactory.
• FI — Further investigation required. Something visible during the inspection couldn’t be fully assessed without more invasive work. The report is unsatisfactory until investigated.

A satisfactory EICR is one with no C1, C2, or FI observations. C3-only is fine.

Landlord obligations under the 2020 regulations

Since 1 June 2020, every privately rented home in England must have a satisfactory EICR. Key points:

• Tested at least every five years, and at the start of any new tenancy
• Copy of the report supplied to existing tenants within 28 days, and to new tenants before they move in
• Copy supplied to the local authority within 7 days of being requested
• Where remedial work is needed, it must be carried out within 28 days of the report — the electrician confirms in writing once it’s done
• Local authorities can impose civil penalties up to £30,000 for non-compliance and serve remedial notices forcing the landlord to act

CJA Electrical issues reports in the standard EICR format that letting agents, councils, and the Private Rented Sector Database all accept.

How to prepare for an EICR visit

Most preparation is unnecessary — the inspection works around you. A few things help, though:

• Clear access to the consumer unit, the meter, and any sockets or switches that are normally behind furniture
• Loft access if you have one — we’ll often need to look at junction boxes and the route of cables in older properties
• A list of any known issues — if a particular socket has stopped working, or there’s a circuit that trips, that’s worth flagging up front so we test it properly
• Tenant arrangements, for landlord EICRs — booking via your letting agent is usually the easiest route

Power will be off briefly during testing, circuit by circuit. Most homes are completely back to normal within a couple of hours of the test finishing.