EICR certificates in Norbury, SW16

Upper Norwood is the census area used for these figures, and flats are a minority in it: 28% of homes, against 54% across London. Council tax records date 15% of homes to before 1919 and 9% to the years since 2000. The years between the wars account for most of the rest. A house of that age has normally been through at least one full rewire, followed by smaller additions. The inspection tends to centre on the consumer unit: whether it gives RCD protection where the current standard expects it, and whether later additions were brought into it safely.

Homes are large and mostly owner-occupied. 17% are detached, almost three times London's 6%, and 32% have four or more bedrooms, against 18%. Only 19% of households rent privately, while 71% own their home. Larger houses often have more beyond the back door: garden rooms, workshops and outbuildings fed by a cable from the house. Those supplies are part of the fixed installation and are inspected with it. A cable to an outbuilding needs to be of a suitable type and properly protected, whether it runs overhead, along a wall or underground.

Houses of this age usually keep the meter and consumer unit in the hall or under the stairs. A replacement board tends to stay in the same place. Clear access there, and to the loft hatch, helps the visit run to time. Bonding to the gas and water pipes is checked where they enter the house. In an older semi, that can be under the stairs or inside a kitchen cupboard. Where an extension or loft conversion added a second board, mention it at booking so the time allowed covers both.