EICR rules for rental properties: when yours expires
A wave of five-year EICRs from the 2020-21 boom starts expiring through 2026. Here's how to tell if yours is one of them.
Last reviewed 5 July 2026 · England
Enter the date and the record is checked against the five-year rule.
An EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) tests the wiring, sockets and consumer unit in a rental property. Every landlord in England needs one, and every one of them has an expiry date that catches people out.
The five-year rule
An EICR is valid for five years from the date of inspection. That is the default. It is not always the real deadline.
Read your report. Electricians can set a shorter re-inspection interval if they find something that needs an earlier check, such as ageing wiring or a heavily used installation. When they do, that date on the report is the one that counts, not the five-year mark. Landlords who file the certificate and wait five years without reading it can miss this by months or years.
What it costs to miss
Local councils can issue civil penalties of up to £40,000 for electrical safety breaches. This power sits inside the Renters’ Rights Act, in force since 1 May 2026, which also removed Section 21 evictions and made compliance evidence part of a landlord’s legal defence.
An expired EICR does more than expose you to a fine. It weakens your position if a tenant raises a complaint or a dispute reaches a tribunal, because you can no longer show the property met the standard.
The 28-day rules
Two deadlines run alongside the five-year cycle. Give your tenants a copy of the EICR within 28 days of the inspection. If your council requests a copy, for any reason, you have 7 days to hand it over. Miss either and you are in breach regardless of whether the electrics themselves pass.
What to do now
- Find your current EICR and read the re-inspection date on the report, not just the issue date.
- Put that date, not a generic five-year guess, into your calendar.
- Keep the certificate and the date somewhere you will actually check. CertSorted stores both and reminds you at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days before the date on the report.