UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hiya,

I believe this is correct, by all means correct me if I'm wrong.
So, when a consumer unit is changed the electrician has to ensure all wiring connected to the new consumer unit is adequate and meets the minimum standards. The electrician will then provide an Electrical Installation Certificate to cover the work he has done and has to acquire a Certificate of Compliance. Is such a certificate adequate to cover the Landlord's installation for 5 years or do they then also have to obtain an EICR?

Likewise, if a property is completely rewired then once again the electrician provides an electrical installation certificate and again has to obtain a Certificate of Compliance.
Does the landlord have to obtain an EICR in addition to Installation Cert and the compliance cert?

I hope someone can answer as the information I have been receiving isn't particularly consistent.

Many Thanks
Darren

The requirements (for the purpose of what you're thinking of and the purpose of this discussion) is as set out under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. Regulation 3(1) requires that electrical safety standards pursuant to BS 7671:2018 are met, and that every electrical installation is inspected and tested at regular intervals by a qualified person. There is no requirement that all the electrical installation is inspected in the same inspection or by the same person. So if the Electrical Installation Certificate  and Certificate of Compliance was issued by a qualified person and constitute an installation and testing report for the new installation, then you're fine.

What you didn't ask. If you have an old EICR, is it actually valid? The EICR need to have been conducted under the 2018 version of the BS 7671, which came into force in January 2019. If your report was from before then, you probably need a new inspection anyway.

That's very informative and sounds the most sensible response I've had yet.
Most of the consumer unit replacements I've sorted were in preparation for the new Regs and were done in 2019, so should be OK for most of them.
Many Thanks for taking the time to reply.

But you haven't implied that you know why the consumer units are being replaced... just that they are. I have read into the comments here that you are replacing consumer unit with consumer unit (that might not be the case). There's no requirement to retrospectively rip out every non-metal-clad consumer unit and replace it with a metal-clad one. I just hope that is clear? I mention it because it's unclear whether this is known. It might be.