In January 2020, the UK government stated that electrical installation condition reports (EICRs) were mandatory for landlords and some homeowners.
While an EICR isn’t a compulsory check for all homeowners, landlords or letting agents must provide an EICR certificate prior to allowing any tenants to live on your property. At Datel Electrical, we offer a wide range of commercial and domestic electrical services, including EICR certificates and inspections from our team of highly qualified electricians.
Read on to find out what an EICR inspection is if you need one and how to book with our qualified team.
Sometimes known as a periodic inspection check, an EICR is always carried out by a qualified electrician to ensure a property is electrically safe. Designed to help ensure both the landlord and the tenant are protected against electrical wiring faults and issues.
Like most things, all electrical installations, circuit boards and wiring can begin to deteriorate. Like a regular MOT, an EICR check helps to keep on top of the deterioration before it gets too bad.
Electrical fires can easily start from faulty electrical wiring. Staying up to date with any electrical checks, tests and inspections is imperative to reduce detrimental consequences for your property.
An EICR test helps to identify issues such as:
Our team of electricians will examine and test all electrical wiring and wiring systems within your property and look for any faults, issues, deterioration or potentially dangerous conditions. Once completed, your certification will state if your electrics are satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and depending on the results of your EICR tests will depend if your certification will contain more information or advice for changes or repairs to be made on your electrics.
An EICR inspection can take several hours to complete, depending on the size of the property and the age of the electrics within it and has various stages that the engineer will need to complete before handing over your certification.
Normally an EICR inspection begins with a visual assessment. The visual survey is where your electrician will be assessing the overall quality, installation and appearance of your wires.
In the visual assessment, electricians will see if any cabling has broken, exposing the individual wires within. Or if any sockets, wiring or circuit breakers are out of date and need to be replaced with newer models.
Once the visual inspection is completed and your electrician has noted any visual faults or wiring issues, they will turn off the power at the mains. They then will test specific circuits to help determine if the wires are adequately connected.
Circuit testing happens while the electrics are disconnected, also known as a dead testing, this is a safe and reliable way to ensure all wiring has been correctly installed.
Once the wires have been tested in a dead test, the circuits are tested again whilst alive. The live testing will be within a ‘controlled environment’ with a timer set to kill the power if any issues occur. Arguably, live testing is the most important part of your EICR inspection – as this ensures the individual components are installed correctly.
Once all of your home electrical components have been checked and tested, your electric earthing and bonding are inspected.
Earthing – earthing pushes any unwanted energy to the ground. If an electrical failure occurs, earthing helps to protect the person from touching any metallic parts of the circuit by sending any additional power to the ground.
Bonding – by connecting bonding conductors between circuits or partial electrical areas, the bonding helps to ensure if too much energy or voltage is transferred to your electrical equipment, the voltage is reduced and moved away from anyone touching the electrical equipment.
Like an MOT, once your EICR inspection is complete, you will be handed a certificate stating if your property has passed or failed, along with recommendations on how to improve it. All issues found will be catalogued within the certification. The assessment can be requested by tenants or potential house buyers.
Landlords are requested to carry out an EICR between each new tenancy agreement or every five years, depending on which is closer. As well as landlords of domestic homes, any landlord or letting agent that rents out commercial properties, office spaces or warehouses are all required to regularly complete EICR tests.
When you’re looking for a commercial electrician in Newton Abbot, choose Datel Electrical for a variety of reasons. Not all electricians are qualified to carry out an EICR test, only qualified electrical engineers can conduct an EICR test for clients.
At Datel Electrical, our electricians have the correct EICR qualifications to provide you with your EICR certification. Your certification will come with an in-depth assessment, covering the standards of your electrics along with any changes, recommendations or faults which will need to be fixed.
We offer a wide range of benefits, including:
If you think your property is due an EICR test, contact our friendly team today for a non-obligation quote on 01803 874074 or email us at info@datelelectrical.co.uk.
Datel Electrical treat every electrical job with equal importance.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for a free, no obligation estimate or any other enquiries. We will respond to you as promptly as possible.
Datel Electrical Ltd
The Office
Torquay Road
Aller
Kingskerswell
TQ12 5AT
01803 874 074
07850 070 305 (24hr Emergency Line)
From domestic repairs to full-scale commercial projects, our expertise ensures safety and quality every step of the way.
