EICR and electrical safety certificate: the difference

EICR means Electrical Installation Condition Report. It is the periodic inspection report: extent, limitations, observations and the overall assessment. Landlords and customers often call it an electrical safety certificate. That shorthand is understandable. It does not make the report into a certificate for new work.

An Electrical Installation Certificate is issued for new installation work or a rewire, or for work that is large enough to need that certificate. A Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate is for smaller alterations, such as an added circuit or a like-for-like replacement where that certificate is the right one. Neither document is a survey of the whole existing installation.

If you need the condition of the installation you already have, book an EICR. If an electrician has just altered the installation, ask for the certificate that belongs to that alteration. Sending a minor works certificate when a landlord asked for an EICR does not answer the condition-report question.

After remedial work, you may hold both: the original condition report, and a certificate for the circuits that were repaired or altered. The certificate does not delete the earlier observations. It records the work that followed.

For a specified tenancy in England, the regulations speak about inspection and testing and about the report. They do not rename the EICR as an installation certificate. If a form, a lender or a managing agent has asked for a named document, match the request to the document type rather than to the nickname.

• An EICR, after a periodic inspection of an installation that is already there. Landlords are often handed this when they asked for an electrical safety certificate.
• An Electrical Installation Certificate, after a new installation, a rewire, or other new work large enough for that certificate.
• A Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate, after a smaller alteration, such as an added point or a like-for-like replacement where that is the certificate for the work.
• More than one document, when an older condition report is followed by remedial work. The later certificate does not replace the earlier report.