What reversed polarity at a socket means on an EICR

• The condition

  One socket is not the same observation as reversed polarity through a whole circuit.

• The place

  A socket in a bathroom or a kitchen is not described here as automatically worse. The report has to say where it is.

• The risk

  Whether a person can receive a shock, and from what, is part of the observation. This page does not score that for you.

• The extent

  A single transposed accessory is a different extent from a wiring error at the board.

• Judgement

  Software does not itself determine the observation classification. The inspector does.

• The repair

  Correcting polarity is electrical work. It is not a job for a householder with a screwdriver.

If the report already names the socket or the circuit, send that line when you ask for remedial work. Do not replace it with the words reversed polarity and expect one standard price. There is no universal repair price.

Do not treat the observation as permission to open the socket. Isolating and correcting conductors is for a person competent to do that work. This page does not publish a wiring diagram or a step-by-step repair.

It matters because a switch on that accessory may leave the line conductor connected when the switch is off. An appliance can still be live. That is why the observation is corrected rather than left as a label. How widely it matters depends on whether it is one accessory or the circuit feeding it, and on the risk the inspector recorded. This page does not score that risk.

After the correction, keep the paperwork for the work that was done. An Electrical Installation Condition Report describes an existing installation at the time of the inspection. It does not replace the paperwork for that correction, and the correction does not by itself mean a new condition report is required.

Ask about the observation through remedial work. Code definitions stay on the code guide.