Your landlord must give you a copy of the property's electrical safety certificate within 28 days of the inspection. If you've never seen one, that's already a problem worth knowing about.
The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 require most landlords in England, private and social, to have the electrics inspected and tested at least every five years, or sooner if the last report says so. Most people call the result an electrical certificate. Its formal name is an Electrical Installation Condition Report, or EICR.
This guide covers England. In Wales, the landlord must give you the electrical condition report within 14 days of you moving in, or of any later inspection. Until they do, the home is treated as unfit to live in, and they cannot give you a section 173 notice, the Welsh no-fault notice to leave. Our guide to fitness for human habitation in Wales explains what follows from that.
What does the EICR law require landlords to do?
Under regulation 3, a landlord must have a qualified, competent person inspect and test the electrical installation against BS 7671, the national wiring standard. The law asks for competence, not membership of any particular scheme.
Once the report is done, the landlord must give a copy to each existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection. A new tenant must get it before moving in. A prospective tenant who asks in writing must get it within 28 days of the request, and the landlord must give the council a copy within 7 days of a written request.
The five-year clock runs from the date of the latest inspection, and the report itself can set an earlier date for the next one. Your landlord cannot charge a private renter for it, because the Tenant Fees Act 2019 does not allow that fee.
What does a landlord have to do after a failed EICR?
An EICR codes each problem it finds. C1 means danger present, C2 means potentially dangerous, FI means further investigation is needed without delay, and C3 means improvement recommended. A C3 on its own needs no action. C1 and C2 require the landlord to act, and so does FI on a report from an inspection before 30 November 2026.
The landlord must have a qualified person do the remedial work or investigation within 28 days of the inspection, or sooner if the report says so. They must then get written confirmation that the work is done and, within 28 days of finishing it, give that confirmation and the original report to each tenant and the council. If the investigation turns up more work, the same steps repeat.
A landlord who says "I got it fixed" but cannot produce that confirmation has not met the rule. Push for the paperwork.
Parliament approved amending regulations in October 2026 that are due to come into force on 30 November 2026. For inspections completed from that date, the 28-day duty covers remedial work only, and the repeat step goes. Reports from earlier inspections stay under the rules above.
What counts as a landlord electrical safety breach
No EICR at all. Either the landlord never had an inspection done, or the last report's next-inspection date has passed.
EICR not given to you. The landlord has a valid report but never handed it over. Sharing it is a separate duty from having the inspection, and both must be met.
Work not done within 28 days. The report flagged a C1 or C2 item (or FI, for an inspection before 30 November 2026) and the deadline passed without a qualified person dealing with it. This is its own breach, even if the inspection was on time.
Unqualified inspector. A report from someone who was not competent to do it does not satisfy the regulations.
A landlord is not in breach of the duties to have the inspection or the work done if they can show they took all reasonable steps. If a tenant refused access, the landlord does not have to go to court to get in. The defence does not cover handing you the report.
None of this is a reason to keep quiet about a missing EICR. If you rent privately, Section 21 no-fault evictions ended on 1 May 2026, so a landlord who wants you out has to prove a Section 8 ground in court, and your complaint about electrical safety is not one of them. See what the end of Section 21 means for you.
How do I check my landlord's electrical safety certificate?
Ask your landlord in writing for the current Electrical Installation Condition Report. When it arrives, check three things.
- The date. Check that the next-inspection date the report gives has not passed.
- The codes. If it records any C1 or C2 item, or FI on a report from before 30 November 2026, ask for the written confirmation that the work was done.
- Who did it. You can look the inspector up on the Registered Competent Person Electrical register. Not being on it does not by itself make the report invalid, but it is worth asking about.
If the landlord doesn't respond, says they don't have one, or sends a report that looks out of date, keep every message. That is your evidence.
How the council deals with a missing EICR
If you rent privately, your local council enforces these regulations. Where it has reasonable grounds to think the inspection or the required work has not been done, it must serve a remedial notice, and where the report shows urgent work is needed, it can arrange that work itself with your consent. If the landlord has a report but has not given it to you, the council can impose a financial penalty instead. If your landlord is the council or a housing association, use its complaints process and then the Housing Ombudsman. Our guide to reporting a landlord to the council sets out the steps.
The council can also impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000, a ceiling the 2025 amendment regulations raised from £30,000 on 1 November 2025. The landlord can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. The penalty is paid to the council, not to you.
What tenants can claim for electrical safety failures
The regulations give tenants no direct compensation claim for a missing EICR. That is a matter for the council.
If faulty electrics damaged your belongings or hurt you, you may have a claim under the repairing duty in section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which covers keeping the electrical installations in repair and proper working order, or under the section 9A duty to keep the home fit to live in. Keep photographs of damaged appliances, medical records if you were hurt, and any reports you've received.
A missing EICR does not, by itself, support a rent repayment order. Running an HMO without a required licence does, and our guide to rent repayment orders for an unlicensed HMO covers that claim.
Not sure your landlord has a valid EICR? Remedy can help you ask for it in writing and, if it never arrives, report a private landlord to your council's private housing team.
