Do I need an EICR when moving house?
If you are selling or buying a home to live in, no law says you need an Electrical Installation Condition Report. The legal duty sits with landlords, not with homeowners. That is the whole answer.
It is still worth knowing where the rule does apply, because the letters “EICR” come up a lot during a sale and it is easy to assume someone is quoting a requirement at you when they are not.
Where the legal duty applies
In England, landlords letting privately have to have the electrical installation inspected and tested at intervals of no more than five years, under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. The report goes to the tenants. If it calls for remedial work or further investigation, that has to be done within the period the report specifies and in any case within 28 days. A council can ask to see the report and the landlord has seven days to supply it. Penalties run up to £30,000 per breach.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own electrical safety rules for rented homes, so check the position for the nation the property is in rather than assuming the English regulations apply.
None of that reaches an owner-occupier. Electrical Safety First is clear that an EICR is not a legal requirement when you sell, and recommends owner-occupiers have one done roughly every ten years as good practice.
Selling, and the paperwork that does matter
The thing that actually holds sales up is not a missing EICR. It is missing certification for electrical work that was notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations.
If someone rewired, added a circuit, or did work in a bathroom or outdoors, that work should have been either signed off by a registered competent person or notified to building control. The buyer’s conveyancer will ask about it on the property information form, and if the paperwork is not there you are into indemnity insurance or a retrospective inspection, both of which take time you would rather spend on the move.
So the useful question before you market the house is not “do I need an EICR” but “can I lay my hands on the certificates for the work we had done”. Gather that early. It is the same advice as for guarantees and building regulations certificates generally, and getting it together before offers come in takes weeks off the timeline. See how long conveyancing takes for where the other delays come from.
Buying, and what a survey will not tell you
A survey is not an electrical test. Even a detailed RICS Level 3 survey is a visual inspection, and a surveyor will flag an obviously old consumer unit or perished cabling without testing anything. If you want to know the condition of the installation, that is a separate job for a qualified electrician.
Worth commissioning after you move if the house has an old fuse box, no recent certificates, or the seller could not say when the wiring was last looked at. It is not something you need before exchange, and nobody will require it of you. See what a survey covers and what it does not for how the levels differ.
What the report gives you
An EICR records what the electrician found, classifies each issue by how serious it is, and reaches an overall verdict of satisfactory or unsatisfactory. An unsatisfactory result does not mean the house is dangerous to live in. It means something needs attention, and the report says what.
Treat it as information rather than a pass or fail. A 1970s installation that has been maintained can come back satisfactory, and a newer one that has been meddled with can come back unsatisfactory.
Frequently asked questions
I am selling a property I rent out. Do I still need one?
Yes, while it is tenanted. The duty attaches to letting the property, not to selling it, so it continues until the tenancy ends. If you are selling with tenants in place the buyer inherits that duty, and their conveyancer will ask to see the current report.
Does the buyer’s mortgage lender require an EICR?
Not as standard. A lender’s valuation is for its own security and does not include electrical testing. A valuer who sees something obviously alarming may make the offer conditional on further inspection, but that is a judgement on the day rather than a routine requirement.
How often should an owner-occupier get one?
About every ten years is the usual recommendation, and sooner if you have just moved into a house whose history you do not know, or if anything about the installation worries you.
Electrical safety aside, the cost of moving is mostly legal fees, searches and tax. You can compare conveyancing quotes from regulated firms and see the full breakdown before you commit to anyone.