Two different questions get asked in the same words. One is the length of the VISIT, which is set by the number of circuits and how much of the installation can be reached. The other is the length of the CYCLE, which is set by who lives in the property and what it is used for. The answers have nothing to do with each other, and the second one is where money and compliance actually sit.
How long does EICR work take on site, and what makes it longer
The honest unit is the circuit rather than the property. Every circuit is inspected, disconnected where necessary and tested for continuity, insulation resistance, polarity, earth fault loop impedance and the operation of its protective device, and the readings are written down one line at a time. A small flat with half a dozen circuits is usually a morning. A three bedroom house with a dozen is most of a day. A commercial board with fifty runs across days and is normally sampled rather than tested at one hundred per cent, with the sampling rate stated on the report. What lengthens it is almost never the electrician: no board schedule so every circuit has to be identified from scratch, a board behind a fitted cupboard, no agreed isolation so nothing can be switched off, rooms in use, and old wiring where a poor reading has to be chased to its cause rather than recorded as a fail.
EICR how often: the interval by property type
There is no single number. A privately rented home in England, Scotland and Wales is on a five year cycle, set by three different pieces of law that happen to agree. An owner occupied home has no legal interval at all and the widely used recommendation is ten years, or sooner on change of occupancy, which is why a report is so often commissioned at sale. A commercial or industrial installation has no statutory interval either: the duty is to maintain the installation so far as is reasonably practicable to prevent danger, and the interval is set by risk. The commonly recommended periods run from five years for an office or a shop down to three years for industrial premises, a year for a swimming pool or a caravan park, and three months for a construction site installation, which is the one people are most often unaware of.
How long do EICR certificates last once the report is signed
A report does not expire the way an MOT does. It records the condition of the installation on the day it was inspected and it RECOMMENDS a date for the next inspection, which the inspector can set earlier than the default where what they found justifies it. That recommended date is what a letting agent, a licensing officer or an insurer treats as the expiry, so a five year report with a two year recommendation on it is a two year report in practice, and reading that box is the single most useful thing a landlord can do with the document. The other thing to know is that the date is not extended by anything: a satisfactory report stays satisfactory until its recommended date or until the installation is altered.
How long is an electrical certificate valid for, by document
Three documents get called a certificate and only one of them has anything resembling an expiry. An installation certificate for new work does not expire at all: it certifies that the work done on that date was designed, built and tested properly, and it remains true about that work for ever. A minor works certificate behaves the same way for a smaller job. A condition report is the one with a date attached, and even then it does not expire so much as recommend: the inspector enters the date by which the next inspection should happen, and that is the date every agent, insurer and licensing officer treats as the deadline. A PAT register is a fourth thing again, with a next test due date per item rather than for the property.
How long does EICR certificate last against the date on the front
Two dates sit on the document and people quote the wrong one. The inspection date is when the work was done. The recommended date for the next inspection is the one that matters, and it is a judgement rather than a formula: the default for a rented home is five years, but an inspector who found an old board, evidence of DIY alterations or a property that will be worked on can and should set it sooner. So a report can be eleven months old and out of date if it recommended a twelve month re inspection, and a four year old report with a five year recommendation is still current. Read the summary box before diarising anything, and diarise the recommended date rather than five years from the inspection.
Other questions people ask
How often is EICR required in a rented home?
Every five years, and before a new tenancy starts if the existing report has run out. In England that comes from the 2020 private rented sector regulations, which also require the landlord to give a copy to the tenants, to a new tenant before they occupy, and to the local authority within seven days of a request. Scotland reaches the same interval through the repairing standard and Wales through the fitness for human habitation regulations. A report whose own recommended date is sooner than five years overrides the five years.
How often does an EICR need to be done in a commercial building?
There is no statutory interval, which surprises people who expect one. The duty is to maintain the installation to prevent danger, and the interval follows the risk: an office or a shop is commonly inspected every five years, industrial premises every three, and environments with water, weather or a transient public every year or sooner. The interval should be recorded as a decision with a reason rather than inherited from the last contractor, because the reason is what an inspector or an insurer asks for after an incident.
How often is an EICR required when a property changes hands?
There is no legal requirement on a sale, and no seller has to produce one. What happens in practice is that a buyer's surveyor recommends one on anything with an older board or visible alterations, and the buyer commissions it, because a report is the only document that assesses the installation as a whole. The recommendation is also a change of occupancy trigger in the widely used guidance, which is why the sensible time to have one done is before marketing rather than during a chain.
EICR certificate how long does it last after remedial work?
The remedial work does not restart the clock. Fixing the C1 and C2 items produces its own paperwork, a minor works certificate or an installation certificate for the work done, plus written confirmation that the remedial work is complete, and in England that confirmation is what a landlord supplies to the tenants and the council. The original report keeps its own recommended date for the next full inspection. Where the whole board has been replaced the installer's own certificate covers the new work, and the next inspection date on the report still stands unless the inspector sets a new one.
Can an inspection be done while the property is occupied?
Yes, and most domestic ones are, but it means the power goes off circuit by circuit for a total of a few hours. Agree in advance what must not be switched off, which in a home usually means a freezer and any medical equipment, and in a business the servers, the tills and anything with a start up sequence. Where nothing can be isolated the inspection becomes a limited one, and the report has to say so in the extent and limitations box, which is the box most worth reading on somebody else's report.