The test itself is the same in Shoreditch as in Shrewsbury. What is different in London is who owns the equipment and when anybody can get at it. A serviced floor holds appliances belonging to the operator, the tenants and a few people who left, in a building whose access window is somebody else's decision. Sorting that out before a tester is booked is most of the job.
Who owns the appliance decides who owes the test
The duty sits with the employer or the person in control of the premises for the equipment they provide. In a serviced office the kettle in the shared kitchen is the operator's, the monitors on a desk are usually the tenant's, and a fridge nobody claims is the one that gets missed. Write the split down before the visit, because a tester will test what is in front of them and invoice for all of it.
Access is what actually schedules the visit
A managed building sets the hours, the goods lift has to be booked, and testing needs each appliance unplugged in turn, which a trading floor will not allow at eleven in the morning. Out of hours attracts a different rate. Agree the window with the building manager first; a tester turned away at reception is a charged visit with nothing tested.
The minimum charge, and why a small London office pays near a large one
Travel across the city and the time to reach a floor cost the same whether there are twenty items or two hundred. So the first fifty or so items on a London round are covered by a minimum, and the marginal rate after that is small. Two sites in the same building on the same visit is the only reliable way to make a small job cheap.
Where London EICR work sits beside the portable testing
The fixed installation is a separate exercise with its own report, and the two are commonly bought from the same firm in one attendance. Doing so saves a mobilisation and puts both records in one place; it does not merge the documents, and a quote that offers one figure for both should still itemise them.
What an EICR certificate cost London landlords meet adds to the same visit
A condition report on the fixed wiring is priced by circuits rather than by items, so adding it to a portable testing round changes the quote by a fixed amount rather than a proportional one. For a small flat or office that is often the cheapest way to hold both records, provided the supply can actually be switched off for part of the day.
PAT testing Croydon and the outer London borough
An outer borough is the easiest case in London to buy well, and for a dull reason: the engineer can usually park. Central sites carry a congestion charge, a loading bay to book, a goods lift and often an out of hours window, and all of that is hours rather than rate. A Croydon office block with its own car park is a straightforward visit at the standard rate. What does not change is the test, the interval or the register, so compare the hours and the assumed item count between a central and an outer quote and the difference stops looking like a London premium.
PAT test certificates, and what the landlord actually receives
There is no legal document called a PAT certificate, which surprises people who have been asked for one. What a competent tester gives you is a register of every appliance tested with its identification, the visual inspection result, the electrical test readings, the pass or fail and the date, usually with a summary sheet signed by the tester and a label on each item. That register is the evidence of maintenance, and it is what a letting agent, an insurer or an HMO licensing officer is really asking to see. A one page certificate with no register behind it evidences nothing, and a register listing sixty items in a flat that holds twelve is the other tell.
PAT tested meaning, on a label and on an invoice
On a label it means that on that date the item passed a visual inspection and the electrical tests appropriate to its class, and that the next inspection is due on the date shown. It does not mean the item is safe today, which is why the visual check before use remains the user's job and is where most faults are actually found. On an invoice it should mean the same work, and the way to check is to ask for the register: a price per item with no readings recorded is a sticker rather than a test. The phrase itself is informal shorthand; the standard the work should follow is the IET code of practice for in service inspection and testing.
PAT testing landlord duties in a London let
The hard duty in England is the five yearly inspection of the fixed installation and its report, which is a different job from appliance testing. For appliances the duty is the general one to supply goods that are safe, so the practical position for a furnished let is that anything you provide, the kettle, the fridge, the washing machine, the lamps, is inspected and tested at a sensible interval and the register kept with the tenancy file. Where the property is a licensable HMO the licence conditions usually say so explicitly and ask for the records at renewal, which is the point at which most landlords discover the previous tester never left a register. Appliances the tenant owns are not yours to test.
Questions people ask about London pat testing
Who is responsible for testing in a serviced office?
Whoever provides the equipment. The operator owns the shared kitchen and common area appliances, the tenant usually owns what is on their own desks, and the split should be agreed in writing before a tester attends.
Why is a small London office quoted so much?
Because the minimum charge covers travel and the time to reach a floor, which is the same whether there are twenty appliances or two hundred. The per item rate above the minimum is small.
Can testing happen during working hours?
Partly. Each appliance has to be unplugged in turn, so a trading floor normally wants it out of hours, and a managed building will set the window in any case. That window is agreed with the building manager, not the tester.
Should the fixed wiring report be bought at the same time?
Often yes, since one attendance covers both and the records end up in one place. They remain two documents with two scopes, and the quote should itemise them.
Is an EICR test certificate a different document from the report?
No, the condition report is the document. What is separate is the installation certificate you get for work carried out, so a building that has had remedials done holds both: the report that found the fault and the certificate for the work that fixed it.
What does a portable appliance testing certificate cover?
The items on the schedule attached to it, on the date shown, and nothing else. The schedule is the useful half: a certificate without an item list cannot be checked against the equipment actually in the building.