EICR software for UK electrical contractors, built around BS 7671

What an EICR is

An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is a periodic assessment of a fixed electrical installation against BS 7671, the UK wiring regulations. It records the condition of the installation at the time of inspection: what was tested, what was found, and whether the installation is safe to continue in use. It is not a certificate that the installation is new or compliant with current design rules — it is a condition report on an existing installation, which is the distinction that separates it from an EIC or EIC-D.

Findings are recorded against the standard observation codes (the codes explained):

• C1 — danger present, risk of injury, immediate action required
• C2 — potentially dangerous, urgent remedial action required
• C3 — improvement recommended (not a failure code)
• FI — further investigation required without delay
• plus N/V (not verified), LIM (limitation) and N/A where a section does not apply

An EICR with any C1 or C2 observation is recorded as unsatisfactory.

Who has to have one, and when

Landlords in the private rented sector in England must have an EICR on every fixed installation at least every 5 years, carried out by a qualified person, under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. The report goes to the tenant within 28 days of the inspection, and to the local housing authority within 7 days of a request. Enforcement breaches carry a civil penalty of up to £40,000, raised from £30,000 by SI 2025/1043 (in force 1 November 2025). Social housing lands on the same regime on a later timetable: tenancies granted on or after 1 December 2025 from the start of the tenancy, earlier tenancies from 1 May 2026, with the first inspection due before 1 November 2026.

This section describes the regulation as public law. It is general information, not advice on whether a specific installation or property complies — that is a decision for the qualified person carrying out the inspection.

How NexCert issues an EICR

NexCert issues EICR — domestic (up to 100 A supply) and EICR — commercial from the same workspace as the rest of your certificate types. The engineer completes the 12-section schedule and records observations against the standard codes on a phone or tablet, on site, with the form working offline and resuming if signal drops. Where a supervisor needs to sign off the report before it goes out, that sign-off happens remotely, from a desktop, without the supervisor needing to be on site or the report waiting for them to get there. The finished report is delivered with an evidence trail: what was inspected, by whom, what was found, and when it was signed off.

There are fields for your own NICEIC, NAPIT, SELECT or Gas Safe registration number, at both company and individual engineer level, on every certificate NexCert issues.

EICR and the rest of the electrical family

An EICR is one of six electrical certificate types NexCert ships under BS 7671:2018+A4:2026: EIC (full form), EIC-D (domestic short form), EICR domestic, EICR commercial, Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate (MW), and Visual Inspection (VI). If the job is new work rather than a periodic condition report, that's an EIC or EIC-D, not an EICR — see the full certificate catalogue or which certificate do I need, which lists all fifteen types NexCert ships.

Running an EICR programme across more than one property

A single EICR is one report. A landlord, managing agent or housing provider running EICRs across dozens or hundreds of properties has a different problem: knowing what's due, what's done, what access was refused, and what's outstanding, with evidence for all of it. That's a different page — see Portfolio compliance — built for that audience specifically rather than folded into this one.