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An Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) and an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) are two distinct documents with different purposes. The EIC certifies that new electrical work has been designed, installed, and tested in accordance with BS 7671. The EICR reports on the condition of an existing installation – whether it’s still safe for continued use.
If you’re an electrician working in the UK, you’ll be issuing both regularly. But the number of times customers (and even some contractors) mix them up is remarkable. “Do I need an EIC or an EICR?” is one of the most common questions property owners ask – and getting the answer wrong creates problems for everyone.
Here’s a clear breakdown of when each document is required, who can issue them, and where the Minor Works Certificate fits in.
An EIC is a formal certificate confirming that new electrical installation work – or a significant alteration to an existing installation – has been designed, constructed, inspected, and tested in line with BS 7671 (the IET Wiring Regulations). It’s essentially a sign-off: the person issuing the certificate is declaring that the work meets the current standard and is safe to use at the point of completion.
An EIC has three signatories: the designer, the installer, and the person who carried out the inspection and testing. On smaller jobs, one person might fill all three roles. On larger projects, they’re often different people.
You need to issue an EIC after any of the following:
New electrical installations. A full rewire, a new-build fit-out, wiring for an extension, or any job where you’re putting in a completely new installation.
New circuits. Adding a new ring final, a new radial circuit, a dedicated cooker circuit, an EV charger circuit – anything that creates a new circuit.
Consumer unit replacements. Swapping out a fuse board is always notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations and requires an EIC, even if it’s a like-for-like replacement.
Significant alterations. Major modifications to existing circuits that go beyond a simple addition – for example, rewiring a kitchen or splitting an existing circuit into two.
The certificate itself includes details of the installation address, the extent of the work covered, the design and installation information (earthing arrangement, type of supply, protective devices), a full set of test results (insulation resistance, earth fault loop impedance, polarity, RCD tests), and the declaration signed by all three parties.
It also includes a recommended interval for the first periodic inspection, which is where the EICR comes in later.
An EICR is a report – not a certificate – that assesses the condition of an existing electrical installation. It’s a health check. The electrician inspects and tests the fixed wiring, distribution boards, protective devices, earthing, and bonding, then produces a written report stating whether the installation is satisfactory or unsatisfactory for continued use.
Unlike the EIC, which looks at new work, the EICR looks at what’s already there. It identifies deterioration, damage, defects, wear and tear, and anything that no longer meets current safety standards.
Rented properties. Since April 2021, landlords in England have been legally required to obtain an EICR before a new tenancy begins and at least every five years thereafter, under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020.
Commercial properties. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require employers and building controllers to maintain safe electrical systems. An EICR is the accepted way to demonstrate compliance. For more on this, see our guide to commercial EICRs.
Property sales. Not legally required for owner-occupiers, but mortgage lenders and solicitors increasingly ask for a current EICR during conveyancing.
Change of use or occupancy. When a property changes hands or changes use, an EICR confirms the installation is safe for the new context.
At the recommended retest interval. The previous inspector will have specified a recommended date for the next inspection. For domestic properties, this is typically every 10 years for owner-occupied homes and every 5 years for rentals. For commercial premises, it’s usually every 3–5 years, depending on the property type.
The report includes details of the installation, the extent of the inspection (which circuits were tested and any limitations), the test results, and a list of observations coded by severity:
C1 – Danger present. Immediate risk. Must be made safe on the spot.
C2 – Potentially dangerous. Requires urgent remedial work.
C3 – Improvement recommended. Safe to use, but falls short of current standards.
FI – Further investigation. Couldn’t be fully assessed; needs follow-up.
Any report containing C1, C2, or FI codes is classified as unsatisfactory. Only reports with no codes or C3 codes are satisfactory.
| EIC | EICR | |
| What is it? | A certificate | A report |
| Purpose | Certifies new work is safe and compliant | Reports on the condition of existing work |
| When issued | After new installation or significant alteration | Periodically, to check ongoing safety |
| Who signs it | Designer, installer, and inspector (3 signatories) | Inspector only (1 signatory) |
| Covers | Only the new work that was carried out | The whole existing installation |
| Outcome | Declaration of compliance with BS 7671 | Satisfactory or unsatisfactory verdict with coded observations |
| Frequency | Once, at the point of completion | Recurring – every 5–10 years (domestic) or 3–5 years (commercial) |
| Part P notification | Required for notifiable domestic work | Not applicable |
| Legal requirement | For all new installations and notifiable alterations | For rented properties (England, every 5 years) |
The simplest way to think about it: the EIC proves new work was done right. The EICR checks whether existing work is still in good shape.
There’s a third document that frequently appears alongside the EIC and EICR: the Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate (MEIWC).
The Minor Works Certificate is a simplified version of the EIC. It’s used for small additions or alterations to an existing circuit that don’t involve creating a new circuit. Think: adding a socket to an existing ring final, extending a lighting circuit to add a new light point, or fitting a fused connection unit onto an existing radial.
It has a single signatory (unlike the EIC’s three) and a reduced scope of test results because the work is limited to a modification of an existing circuit rather than a new installation.
| Use a Minor Works Certificate | Use a Full EIC |
| Adding a socket to an existing ring final | Installing a new ring final circuit |
| Adding a spur from an existing circuit | Installing a new radial circuit (e.g., cooker, EV charger) |
| Extending a lighting circuit to add a new point | Full or partial rewire |
| Fitting a fused connection unit on an existing radial | Consumer unit replacement |
| Replacing a single circuit breaker (if it changes the protection characteristics) | Any work in a special location that requires a new circuit |
The key distinction: if you’re creating a new circuit, it’s a full EIC. If you’re modifying or extending an existing circuit, it’s a Minor Works Certificate. If you’re inspecting an existing installation, it’s an EICR.
All three documents require the person carrying out the inspection and testing to be qualified and competent. In practice, this means holding the City & Guilds 2391-52 (Inspection and Testing) qualification or equivalent, plus the current edition of BS 7671 (the 18th Edition, City & Guilds 2382).
For an EIC: the designer, installer, and inspector all sign the certificate. On most domestic and small commercial jobs, one electrician fills all three roles. For notifiable work under Part P, the certificate should be issued through a competent person scheme (NICEIC, NAPIT, etc.) – or the work must be separately signed off by building control.
For a Minor Works Certificate: a single signatory who designed, installed, inspected, and tested the work.
For an EICR: a qualified inspector. For rented properties, the regulations define this as a “qualified and competent person,” which, in practice, means someone with 2391-52 and, ideally, registered with a competent person scheme.
Even experienced electricians trip up on certification from time to time. Here are the ones that cause the most problems:
Issuing the wrong document. The most common error. A consumer unit swap gets a Minor Works Certificate instead of an EIC. Or a landlord gets an EIC after a rewire and assumes they don’t need an EICR for five years (which is correct – but only if the EIC covers the full installation, which a partial rewire wouldn’t).
Missing the Part P notification. Issuing an EIC doesn’t automatically satisfy Part P. Notifiable work in domestic properties also needs a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate, which is a separate document issued through your competent person scheme or building control. The EIC records the technical details; the compliance certificate is the legal notification. Both are required.
Not specifying the extent of the installation covered. An EIC that says “new kitchen circuit” doesn’t cover the whole house. When the property is later sold and a solicitor asks for certification, the buyer’s surveyor may still flag the rest of the installation as unverified. Be precise about what your certificate covers.
Using an EICR to sign off new work. An EICR reports on existing installations. It cannot certify new work. If you’ve done new installation work and then carry out an EICR on the whole property, the new work still needs its own EIC or Minor Works Certificate.
Forgetting to set the recommended retest date. Both the EIC and EICR include a field for the recommended date of the next inspection. Leaving it blank means the property owner has no guidance on when to get the installation checked again – and you’ve missed a straightforward way to generate future work.
This is one of the most frequently asked questions, and the answer is: it depends on the scope.
Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, landlords need an EICR every five years. However, if the property has a valid EIC that is less than five years old and covers the entire installation (i.e., it was a full rewire or new build, not a partial job), then the landlord does not need a separate EICR until that five-year period expires.
The catch: most EICs don’t cover the full installation. If an electrician rewired the kitchen and issued an EIC for those circuits only, the rest of the house’s wiring hasn’t been inspected or tested. In that scenario, the landlord still needs an EICR for the remaining installation.
When in doubt, advise the landlord to get a full EICR. It’s the safest and simplest approach – and it removes any ambiguity about whether the EIC’s scope was sufficient.
If you’re an electrical contractor running a team, the certification itself isn’t the hard part. The hard part is keeping track of all the admin that wraps around it: which jobs need an EIC, which need a Minor Works, which landlords are due an EICR renewal, and making sure the right document gets to the right customer at the right time.
That’s the kind of thing Fergus electrician software is designed to handle.
Fergus is a job management software built specifically for trade businesses. It’s not a certificate generator — you’ve got your own systems for producing the actual EIC, EICR, and Minor Works documents. What Fergus does is manage everything else: the scheduling, quoting, job tracking, invoicing, and customer communication.
Here’s how it fits:
Track every job type in one place. Each job in Fergus gets its own digital job card with photos, notes, customer details, site hazards, and full job history. Tag jobs by type – EIC, EICR, Minor Works – so you can see at a glance what’s been done and what’s outstanding.
Set up recurring EICR inspections. For landlord clients with multiple properties, use recurring job scheduling to automatically create EICR renewal jobs when they’re due. No spreadsheets, no forgotten properties.
Quote remedial work on the spot. When an EICR turns up C1 or C2 issues, build and send a professional quote from site. When the customer approves, it becomes a new job in a couple of clicks.
Invoice immediately. Fergus pre-populates your invoice from the job card. With Fergus Pay, your customer can pay on site via card or QR code.
Keep your team in the loop. The Fergus Go mobile app gives electricians their schedule, job details, and site notes from their phone.
UK electrical contractors like Waterlip Electrical Contracting have used Fergus to cut their admin time in half. Fewer spreadsheets, fewer missed follow-ups, more time on the tools.
Want to see how it works? Start a free 14-day trial – no credit card needed.
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