Commercial EICRs: Who Is Responsible and How Often?

Quick answer: No law requires a commercial EICR by name, but the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require every electrical system at work to be maintained to prevent danger, and an EICR is the usual way to show you’ve done it. The duty sits with whoever controls the installation: you, if you occupy your own premises, or the landlord or the tenant in let premises, depending on who the lease makes responsible for maintenance. The IET’s Guidance Note 3 has long given five years as the maximum starting interval for offices, shops, hotels and pubs and three years for industrial premises. Its 2026 edition updates the recommended frequencies, so check the current figure with your inspector, who can also set an earlier date.

This is general information for businesses and commercial landlords in England, not legal advice. Where your lease wording matters, ask your solicitor.

What the law requires

Two laws carry the main duty for business premises.

The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. Regulation 4(2) requires every electrical system to be maintained so as to prevent danger, so far as is reasonably practicable, wherever that’s needed. Regulation 3 puts the duty on employers and the self-employed for matters within their control. The regulations don’t mention an EICR, and they don’t set an interval.

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Section 2 requires an employer to provide and maintain plant and a workplace that are, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health. Section 4 places a similar duty on anyone who controls non-domestic premises that other people use as a place of work. That’s the section that reaches a commercial landlord.

The HSE’s guidance on the 1989 Regulations (HSR25, 2015) calls inspection and, where necessary, testing an essential part of any preventive maintenance programme, and leaves the frequency to the dutyholder’s judgement. Keeping records isn’t a legal requirement, it says, but records help show compliance, and maintenance records, including test results, let you monitor the installation’s condition. Without effective monitoring, it adds, a dutyholder can’t be certain the maintenance duty has been met. It also says that an installation complying with BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations, is likely to comply with the relevant parts of the 1989 Regulations. The EICR is the BS 7671 report on an existing installation’s condition.

Who is responsible for the EICR on commercial property

It depends on who controls the installation, and in let premises that usually comes down to the lease.

• You own and occupy the building. You’re the employer and the person in control, so the duty is yours.
• You’re a tenant. If the lease makes you responsible for repairing or maintaining the premises or their services, section 4(3) of the 1974 Act treats you as being in control of those matters. On a full repairing lease of a whole building, that’s often the tenant.
• You’re the landlord. Where you keep the repairing obligation, or control of parts of the building, the duty for those parts stays with you. In a multi-let building, the landlord may keep the common parts, the incoming supply and the risers, with each tenant looking after the installation inside its own unit. Check the lease wording rather than assume the split.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 takes the same approach. Article 5(4) treats anyone with a contract or tenancy obligation for maintenance or repair as having control of the matters it covers.

Even where the lease puts testing on the landlord, a tenant who employs staff still owes them a safe workplace under section 2, so ask for a copy of the report. And put the split in writing: who commissions the inspection, who gets the report, and who arranges and pays for remedial work.

How often does a commercial property need an EICR?

The law doesn’t fix an interval. The HSE’s answer is that installations should be tested often enough that deterioration is unlikely to lead to danger. In practice, the starting point is a table of recommended maximum periods in Guidance Note 3, Inspection and Testing, published by the IET. The figures below are the ones FMLink listed in 2009, when an earlier edition was current. The IET published a 10th edition in 2026 that updates its recommended inspection frequencies, so ask your inspector to work to that.

Source: intervals as listed by Tim Beardsmore, FMLink, 26 November 2009, which refers readers to Guidance Note 3 for full details. Ecclesiastical Insurance’s 2024 guidance gives the same five-year figure for commercial premises. The current 10th edition (IET, 2026) is the definitive text.

These figures are a ceiling, not a target. On a new installation, the designer sets the first inspection date on the Electrical Installation Certificate. After that, the inspector recommends the next date from the type of installation, its use, its maintenance and the conditions it works in. The Ministry of Defence’s 2017 guide for its own estate works this way, putting shops, offices and restaurants in the “commercial” row and workshops and plant rooms in “industrial”.

Expect a shorter date where an installation is old, heavily loaded, damp, dusty or open to the public. The same 2009 list gives one year for some special installations, such as swimming pools, petrol stations and caravan parks. Ecclesiastical Insurance’s guidance also says the installation should be inspected when there is a change of occupation.

Where fire safety law comes in

Under the Fire Safety Order, the “responsible person” is the employer for a workplace they control, or otherwise whoever controls the premises in connection with a business (article 3). Article 14 requires emergency lighting on emergency routes and exits that need lighting, in case the normal lighting fails. Article 17 requires equipment provided under the Order to be kept on a suitable system of maintenance and in good repair.

Emergency lighting and fire alarms have their own test routines, and a satisfactory EICR doesn’t replace them.

What a commercial EICR covers

An EICR combines a visual inspection of everything that can be seen and reached with circuit-by-circuit tests of what can’t. On a commercial installation that usually covers the main switchgear, distribution boards and sub-mains, final circuits, earthing and bonding, and RCDs.

The extent of the inspection and any limitations should be agreed before work starts and written into the report. On a large site that includes the sample: what share of circuits will be opened up and tested, and what happens if the sample turns up defects. The MOD’s guide treats some limitations as unreasonable where the equipment can be reached safely, such as leaving out the main switchgear, the sub-mains or anything more than three metres up. Check for exclusions like these when you compare quotes.

Portable appliances aren’t part of an EICR. Testing them is a separate routine with its own records, and our guide to electrical compliance for commercial property covers it alongside emergency lighting. Our EICR inspection page shows what you should be handed at the end, including the schedule of test results.

C1, C2, C3 and FI: what the codes mean

Each defect the inspector records gets a code:

• C1, danger present. There’s a risk of injury now, and action is needed immediately.
• C2, potentially dangerous. Not dangerous this minute, but it could become so. Remedial work is urgent.
• C3, improvement recommended. A departure from the current standard that isn’t dangerous.
• FI, further investigation. Something the inspector couldn’t resolve within the agreed scope.

Any C1 or C2 makes the overall report unsatisfactory. Under BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, an FI no longer does so on its own: the IET’s Wiring Matters (July 2026) explains that FI and C3 have been separated from C1 and C2, and that an FI now means further investigation is advised. Reports written to earlier editions usually treated an FI as unsatisfactory, so older reports may read differently. BSI set 15 October 2026 as the withdrawal date for the previous edition, BS 7671:2018+A2:2022+A3:2024.

What to do after a C1 or C2

The workplace rules don’t set a number of days. The duty is to prevent danger, and a C1 is danger now.

• C1: the inspector should tell you on the day rather than wait for the written report. If it can’t be put right straight away, the affected part should be made safe, for example by isolating it, until it is. On the MOD’s estate, isolation is the rule.
• C2: treat it as urgent. The MOD’s guide, as one example of how a large estate handles it, says C2s should be put right within four weeks of the report where practicable, with a risk assessment and interim measures if that slips.
• FI: agree what the further investigation involves and book it, rather than leaving it open on the file.

Ecclesiastical’s guidance takes the same line: C1 work without delay, C2 work as a matter of urgency. Once the work is done, keep its certificate (an Electrical Installation Certificate or a Minor Works certificate) with the report, so the two together show the installation has been put right.

At Coutts Electrical, remedial work is quoted separately once you’ve seen the findings, never assumed in the inspection price.

Insurers, lenders and buyers

Insurers may set their own expectations. Ecclesiastical’s guidance says commercial installations are generally recognised as needing inspection and testing every five years, more often for some occupations. It says the certificate must be obtained and kept, and that commercial work should go to contractors with full-scope registration with NICEIC, the ECA, SELECT or NAPIT, not domestic-only registration. Check your own policy for any condition on electrical testing.

When a property changes hands, a buyer’s solicitor, a lender or an incoming tenant may ask for the current EICR and the certificates for any work done since.

How commercial lets differ from rented homes

An EICR at least every five years and a financial penalty of up to £40,000 are the rules for rented homes. They come from the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, which apply to tenancies of residential premises that someone occupies as their only or main home. Among other duties, a landlord must:

• have the installation inspected and tested before a new tenancy starts
• have it inspected and tested at least every five years, or sooner if the report says so
• give each existing tenant a copy of the report within 28 days
• give the council a copy within 7 days of a written request
• keep a copy of the report until the next inspection
• finish any remedial or further investigative work within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so

The local housing authority can impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000 for a breach, a limit set by SI 2025/1043, which also extended the rules to social housing.

None of that applies to an office, shop or industrial lease. A commercial let comes under the workplace and fire safety law above, which sets no fixed interval or deadline. It still has teeth: the HSE publishes case studies of workers and companies prosecuted after electrical injuries during maintenance work. If you let a flat above a shop to someone who lives there as their only or main home, though, that tenancy falls under the domestic rules, which our guide to landlord electrical checks covers.

How long it takes and what drives the cost

There’s no standard duration or price, because commercial installations vary so much. These decide both:

• Size. The number of distribution boards, sub-mains and circuits, and whether the supply is three-phase.
• Access. High-bay lighting, ceiling voids, risers and locked plant rooms take time to reach.
• When the power can go off. The dead tests need circuits isolated, and doing that at night or in phases around trading takes longer.
• Records. Current board schedules and the last report speed things up. Unlabelled circuits have to be traced first.
• The agreed sample. A larger sample takes longer but tells you more.

When you compare quotes, compare the scope first, then the price.

Our commercial electrician team programmes work outside business hours where needed and includes High Voltage Authorised Persons. We’re an NICEIC Approved Contractor, SafeContractor accredited and a Which? Trusted Trader, and our TrustMark licence number is 2677315. From our office in Biggin Hill we carry out commercial inspections across Bromley, Croydon, Beckenham, Orpington, Sevenoaks and north-west Kent.

Getting ready for the inspection

• Find the last EICR and the certificates for any work done since.
• Make sure every distribution board, riser and plant room can be reached, with keys on the day.
• List anything that can’t lose power without warning, such as servers, freezers, alarms, lifts and process equipment.
• Agree the extent, limitations and sample in writing beforehand, and tell staff and tenants when circuits will be off.

To book a commercial inspection, or to ask about an existing report, contact us or call 0800 112 5050.

Questions people ask

Is an EICR a legal requirement for commercial property?

The law doesn’t name it, but the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require systems to be maintained to prevent danger, and an EICR is the usual evidence that you have.

Who pays for a commercial EICR, the landlord or the tenant?

Whoever the lease makes responsible for maintaining the installation. On a full repairing lease that’s often the tenant. In a multi-let building, the landlord’s share may be recovered through the service charge.

How often does an office need an EICR?

The IET’s Guidance Note 3 has long given a maximum of five years for offices, but the date recommended on your last report is the one to work to.

Does an FI code mean my property has failed?

Not under BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, where only C1 and C2 make a report unsatisfactory. You should still arrange the investigation it recommends.

Does the £40,000 penalty apply to commercial landlords?

No. It applies to residential tenancies under the 2020 rented-sector regulations, not to commercial lets.

Sources

• legislation.gov.uk, The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, regulations 3 and 4, accessed 15 October 2026: regulation 3, regulation 4
• legislation.gov.uk, Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, sections 2 and 4, accessed 15 October 2026: section 2, section 4
• legislation.gov.uk, The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, articles 3, 5, 14 and 17, accessed 15 October 2026: article 3, article 5, article 14, article 17
• HSE, “The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989: Guidance on Regulations” (HSR25), third edition, 2015, paragraphs 9 and 66–70: hse.gov.uk
• HSE, “Electrical safety: frequently asked questions”, updated 7 May 2026: hse.gov.uk
• HSE, “Electrical maintenance” case studies, updated 16 March 2023: hse.gov.uk
• FMLink, Tim Beardsmore, “Electrical Safety: Knowing what to test and when to test it”, 26 November 2009 (lists the intervals and refers readers to IEE Guidance Note 3, Inspection & Testing, for full details): fmlink.com
• IET, Guidance Note 3: Inspection & Testing, 10th edition, 2026, updated to BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 including recommended initial frequencies of inspection, accessed 15 October 2026: shop.theiet.org
• Ministry of Defence, “PG 2017/02: The Inspection, Testing and Certification of Low Voltage Electrical Installations on the Defence Estate”, September 2017, sections 9 and 10: gov.uk
• IET, Wiring Matters issue 110, Michael Peace, “Further investigation”, July 2026: electrical.theiet.org
• BSI Knowledge, “BS 7671:2018+A4:2026: get the latest amendment to the UK’s wiring regulations”, 15 April 2026: knowledge.bsigroup.com
• Ecclesiastical Insurance, “Electricity” guidance note, June 2024 (PD5151): ecclesiastical.com
• legislation.gov.uk, The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/312), regulations 2, 3 and 11, as amended by SI 2025/1043, accessed 15 October 2026: regulation 2, regulation 3, regulation 11
• TrustMark, register entry for Coutts Electrical Contractors Ltd, licence 2677315, accessed 15 October 2026: trustmark.org.uk