Bickley EICR testing
EICR in Bickley for Landlords, Large Detached Houses and Pre-1919 Homes
In Bickley & Sundridge ward 16.7% of households rent privately and 7.6% from a social landlord, and most of those tenancies must have the electrics inspected and tested at least once every five years; Bromley council can impose a penalty of up to £40,000 on a landlord who does not comply. The 75.3% who own their home have no legal deadline, but a third of the ward's households (33.8%) live in a detached house, nearly twice Bromley's 18.1%, and 22.5% of properties in the best-fit census areas predate 1919, so the installation to inspect is often large, old or both. Coutts Electrical inspects from Keston, 3.7 miles south in a straight line, as an NICEIC Approved Contractor, explaining every code and quoting remedial work separately.
Bickley at a glance
| Local fact | Source | Bickley |
|---|---|---|
| Households renting | ONS Census 2021 (21 March 2021), TS054 Tenure, via Nomis NM_2072_1; Bickley & Sundridge ward E05013988 on 2022 boundaries (it includes Sundridge) and Bromley E09000006; read 15 October 2026 | 16.7% rent privately (1,194 of 7,149 households) and 7.6% from a social landlord (545: 30 from the council, 515 from other social landlords); 75.3% own their home, 36.8% outright. London Borough of Bromley: 17.4% private, 13.2% social, 68.5% owned |
| When the homes were built | Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties 2026, table CTSOP4.1 (band All), at 31 March 2026 (published 24 September 2026); the 11 LSOAs that ONS assigns to ward E05013988, about 7% larger than the ward; counts rounded to the nearest 10 and one 1965-82 cell suppressed, so shares are approximate | 1,840 of 8,190 properties (22.5%) built before 1919, 1,300 of them before 1900; 1,400 (17.1%) from 1919 to 1939; at least 1,940 (23.7%) from 1965 to 1982. Bromley: 17.0%, 29.7% and 16.9% |
| Type of home | ONS Census 2021, TS044 Accommodation type, via Nomis NM_2062_1; ward E05013988 and Bromley E09000006; read 15 October 2026 | Detached 33.8% (2,413 of 7,147 households), semi-detached 19.7%, terraced 18.2%; flats and maisonettes 28.2%: 19.4% in purpose-built blocks, 7.2% (512) in converted or shared houses, 86 households in other converted buildings and 36 in commercial buildings. Bromley: detached 18.1%, flats 31.3% |
| Conservation areas and listed buildings | LB Bromley Local Plan, Appendix 10.16 List of Conservation Areas; designation years as recorded for Bromley CA6 and CA28 in the planning.data.gov.uk conservation-area dataset; Historic England NHLE listed building points; each tested against the ONS December 2022 boundary of ward E05013988 | Bickley Park (designated 1986) and Mavelstone Road, Bickley (1987) lie wholly inside the ward, as do Sundridge Avenue and Garden Road; 27 National Heritage List entries in the ward, including Grade II Bickley Court, the Church of St George and Bickley War Memorial |
| Enforcing council and HMO licensing (borough-wide) | LB Bromley, 'Apply for a HMO licence' and 'HMO advice for landlords' pages; read 15 October 2026 | London Borough of Bromley operates only the mandatory HMO licensing scheme (5 or more tenants in 2 or more households, 4 or more with a live-in landlord); licences last 5 years; its HMO standards require an EICR no older than 5 years; borough-wide Article 4 Direction removing permitted development rights for HMOs from 1 September 2022 |
| Network operator | Elexon GSP group via the Octopus Energy industry lookup, read 6 October 2026 (src/data/local-data.ts); Ofgem, 'Check if you can get a payment for a power cut', read 15 October 2026 | UK Power Networks, London Power Networks area: BR1 2AA, inside the ward, returns grid supply point group _C (West Wickham and Orpington are in South Eastern Power Networks). Power cuts: 105, free |
| Distance from the Coutts office | Great-circle distance from the registered office (51.348, 0.0338) to Bickley (51.4014, 0.043), src/data/areas.ts | 3.7 miles (6 km) in a straight line from Glebe Farm Business Park, Keston; not a road distance or a response time |
Bickley & Sundridge: who owns and who rents
The census figures on this page describe Bickley & Sundridge, the London Borough of Bromley ward on its 2022 boundaries, so Sundridge is counted with Bickley. On Census Day 2021 the ward held 7,149 households, and 75.3% owned their home, against 68.5% across the borough. No law gives those owners an inspection date. The duty falls on landlords: 1,194 households (16.7%) rented privately, close to Bromley’s 17.4%, and 545 (7.6%) from a social landlord, just over half the borough’s 13.2%. Only 30 of those 545 rented from the council; the other 515 rented from a housing association or another social landlord.
The rules on a Bickley let
Most of those 1,739 rented homes come under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, though some arrangements, such as a lodger sharing the landlord’s own home, fall outside them. SI 2025/1043 extended the regulations to social landlords and raised the maximum penalty to £40,000. The inspection and test must be done by a qualified person, at intervals of no more than five years. Copies go to each existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection, to any new tenant before they move in, and to Bromley council within 7 days of a written request.
A C1 (danger present) or C2 (potentially dangerous) observation makes the report unsatisfactory and calls for remedial work, and an FI calls for further investigation. On a let, that work has a 28-day deadline, or the shorter one the report sets. A C3 recommends an improvement and leaves the report satisfactory on its own. Our guide to landlord electrical checks lists every copy to keep.
Large houses from three eras
Detached houses held 33.8% of the ward’s households in 2021, close to double the borough’s 18.1%. Bromley’s Bickley Area of Special Residential Character, which spans Pines Road to Station Approach, is described by the council as essentially spacious inter-war development with large houses in substantial plots, and its description leaves out the 1960s redevelopment of the former Bickley Hall. On an EICR, size shows up as time: more circuits to test, perhaps a second board for an extension, and cables run out to a garage or garden room, all of which belong in the agreed extent before testing starts.
The ward’s housing is older and more mixed than that description suggests. Valuation Office Agency counts for 31 March 2026, across the 11 LSOAs (small census areas) that ONS assigns to the ward, together slightly larger than it, date 1,840 of 8,190 properties (22.5%) to before 1919, against 17.0% across Bromley, and 1,300 of those to before 1900. Only 17.1% are inter-war (Bromley: 29.7%), while at least 23.7% date from 1965 to 1982 (Bromley: 16.9%).
Each era gives the inspection a different job. In a house built before 1900 the wiring is decades younger than the walls, so the inspection has to establish what has been added since and whether it was ever certified. In an inter-war house the inspector looks for rubber-insulated or lead-sheathed cable still in service. A house from 1965 to 1982 that keeps its original board will lack the RCD protection now expected on most socket circuits, and the report records that. Mains gas is the only heating for 84.4% of the ward’s households, so the main bonding to the incoming gas pipe is part of most inspections here.
Listed houses and conservation areas
Two conservation areas carry Bickley’s name and lie wholly inside the ward: Bickley Park, designated in 1986, and Mavelstone Road, designated in 1987. The ward also holds 27 National Heritage List entries, among them Grade II Bickley Court, the Church of St George and 17 Bickley Road. Testing changes nothing, but remedial work can, so on a listed house ask Bromley about consent before a new cable run crosses historic fabric.
Converted flats, HMOs and flats over shops
In 2021, 512 of the ward’s households (7.2%) lived in part of a converted or shared house, where each flat with its own board gets its own report. Bromley licenses HMOs under the national mandatory scheme alone, and its HMO standards ask for an EICR no older than five years. Since 1 September 2022 a borough-wide Article 4 Direction has taken away permitted development rights for HMOs, so dividing a large Bickley house among sharers starts with a planning application.
Only 36 households lived in a commercial building, the census heading that covers homes over shops; 86 more lived in another converted building, such as a former school, church or warehouse. Where a shop or office sits below a let flat, the flat follows the rented-sector rules, while the shop’s installation falls under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, which require it to be kept safe but fix no inspection interval. Our guide to EICRs for business premises covers who arranges that inspection.
From Keston to BR1
Our office at Glebe Farm Business Park, Keston is 3.7 miles (6 km) south of Bickley in a straight line. BR1 2AA, a postcode inside the ward, sits in grid supply point group _C, the London Power Networks area of UK Power Networks, whereas West Wickham and Orpington are served from its South Eastern Power Networks area. The sealed cut-out and the service cable feeding it belong to the network, so a defect there is noted in the report and referred to UK Power Networks; in a power cut, 105 is free. Our inspections are carried out as an NICEIC Approved Contractor, and TrustMark’s register (licence 2677315) names NICEIC among our scheme providers. Every code is explained, and remedial work is quoted separately. The tests are set out on our EICR testing service page; for other work, see our electrician in Bickley page.
What every EICR job includes
- NICEIC Approved Contractor
- Domestic, landlord and commercial inspections
- Findings explained, not just coded
- Remedial work quoted separately — never assumed
02 Questions from Bickley
EICR testing,
answered for Bickley.
We let two flats in a converted Bickley house. Is one EICR enough?
Usually not. Where each flat has its own meter and consumer unit, each is a separate installation, with its own report, its own next-inspection date and its own copy for that tenant. A landlord's supply feeding the hall and stair lights is another installation again, so list every meter when you book. At the 2021 Census 512 households in Bickley & Sundridge ward, 7.2%, lived in part of a converted or shared house.
Does an EICR on a house in the Bickley Park or Mavelstone Road conservation area need the council's consent?
The inspection does not: it records and tests, and alters nothing. Remedial work inside an unlisted house is not normally a planning matter, though anything that would change the outside, such as cable clipped along a front wall, is worth raising with the London Borough of Bromley first. Listing is different. The ward holds 27 National Heritage List entries, among them Bickley Court and the Church of St George, and on a listed building you should ask about listed building consent before work disturbs historic fabric.
Our house was built in the 1970s and still has its first consumer unit. Is that an automatic fail?
No. A report is coded on what the inspection finds and the tests measure, not on the year: the earthing, the main bonding to the gas and water pipes, insulation resistance, and which circuits have RCD protection. A board fitted when the house was built will predate the RCD protection now expected on most socket circuits, and the report records that and codes it on the risk found. Homes of that age are common here: Valuation Office Agency records date at least 23.7% of properties across the ward's 11 best-fit census areas to 1965-1982, against 16.9% across Bromley.
We want to let rooms in our large Bickley house. When would it need an HMO licence?
Bromley operates only the national mandatory HMO licensing scheme, with no additional HMO licensing. A licence is needed once 5 or more tenants from 2 or more households share the house, or 4 or more if you live there too. It lasts five years, and the council's HMO standards require an EICR no older than five years. Planning comes first, though: under a borough-wide Article 4 Direction in force since 1 September 2022, turning a family house into an HMO needs planning permission.
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