Certificates and condition reports: record the right evidence

An Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) records verification of new installation work, including a new circuit. A Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate (MEIWC) may cover eligible additions or alterations to an existing circuit; it cannot cover provision of a new circuit or replacement of a consumer unit. A full EIC remains an option for minor work.

An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) assesses an existing installation within its stated extent and limitations. It does not replace certification of new work.

Record what was established

Include the appropriate inspection and test results, the circuit and protective-device details, and the scope of the work. A shorter certificate does not mean testing can be omitted.

Condition reporting requires judgement

C1 identifies danger requiring immediate action; C2 identifies a potentially dangerous condition requiring urgent action. Either makes the overall assessment unsatisfactory. C3 recommends improvement, and a report whose only codes are C3 can still be satisfactory. These codes classify the observed condition: C2 is not reassurance that continued use is safe, and C3 does not guarantee the condition of every part of the installation or its future safety. FI identifies a need for further investigation; it is not a substitute for investigating something that can be resolved during the agreed inspection.

Decision check: adding a socket spur creates no new circuit. Consider a MEIWC, complete the relevant verification and describe the alteration accurately. Do not issue an EICR as if it certified that new work.

Certificates and their schedules

• An EIC records responsibility for design, construction, and inspection and testing. Each part is certified by the competent person responsible. One person may cover all three, including through an appropriate single-signature certificate.
• An EIC comes with two schedules. The inspection schedule records the relevant examination findings, including safe physical checks where appropriate. The test-results schedule carries the applicable measurements or properly derived values, such as continuity, insulation resistance, loop impedance and RCD results.
• Record actual measured or properly derived values, traceable to the right circuit, with the instrument's identity and calibration status, so a questioned reading can be checked.
• A Minor Works certificate still records the test results for the circuit that was altered or extended.
• The original signed certificate or report goes to the person who ordered the work; the contractor keeps a copy.
• In England, replacing a consumer unit in a dwelling is notifiable under Part P. Notification is a building control matter and sits alongside the electrical certificate, not instead of it.
• After remedial work, inspect what was altered, repeat the relevant tests and record them. A missing circuit schedule at a board is recorded as a defect, and circuits are confirmed before any work.
• The City & Guilds 2391 pathways divide by task: 2391-50 covers initial verification of new installations, 2391-51 periodic inspection of existing ones, and 2391-52 both.

Judgement in a periodic inspection

• Gather the client's information first: how the building is used, what has been altered and what faults they have noticed. It shapes the scope and the sampling. If sampling finds several similar defects in similar circuits, widen the sample.
• Previous certificates are background showing what changed; the report still describes the installation as it is now. An older installation is judged on whether it remains safe for continued use.
• Agree justified limits before the inspection. Record and explain any additional operational limitation encountered during the work, including who agreed it where applicable. A limitation must never hide a known danger. Read the extent and limitations before relying on any report, because its result applies only within them.
• Write observations that name the defect, its location and why it matters, and code them on the safety risk, never on the cost or ease of the repair. A C3 is still recorded, so a satisfactory report can carry recommendations. For a C1, make it safe if you can and tell the responsible person at once, before the paperwork.
• Under BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, FI means further investigation is advised, and it does not make a report unsatisfactory by itself. Use the forms and coding guidance for the edition being applied. Periodic inspection and testing sits in Chapter 65 of BS 7671.
• Where PV, batteries, a generator or powered data cabling are present, plan the isolation around every source and state the sources, isolation arrangements and limitations in the report. In a medical location, record the resistance of the supplementary bonding conductors, and follow the current edition whether or not a patient is present.
• In England, a private landlord must have the electrical installation inspected and tested at least every 5 years, or sooner if the latest report says so, and give existing tenants a copy of the report within 28 days. Where the report requires investigative or remedial work for a breach or potential breach of the standards, the landlord must arrange completion within 28 days of the inspection or the shorter period specified. This is not a deadline for every optional C3 improvement. Covered social tenancies also have electrical-safety duties; for those granted before 1 December 2025, the transitional first-inspection deadline is before 1 November 2026.