EICR unsatisfactory: what a landlord does next
An EICR marked unsatisfactory is not automatically a crisis. Reading the codes wrong is. Most landlords in England have never seen a C1 or C2 before the day one turns up on their own report.
Last reviewed 29 July 2026 · England
A landlord who books the EICR, pays for it, and lets the electrician in has done the responsible thing. The report comes back marked unsatisfactory, and the responsible thing suddenly reads like a failure. It isn’t. Unsatisfactory is a category, not a verdict, and what it actually asks of you depends entirely on the codes sitting inside it.
Why one item makes the whole report unsatisfactory
An EICR can flag dozens of observations, most of them C3s that change nothing. The overall result still turns unsatisfactory the moment a single C1, C2 or FI appears anywhere on the report, because that single item is the one a council or an incoming tenant would want fixed. The rest of the wiring can be sound and the summary line still reads unsatisfactory. That mismatch, between one flagged circuit and a report that sounds like the whole property failed, is where landlords misread what’s actually required.
What each code requires
Every observation on the report carries a code. The code, not the word “unsatisfactory” itself, tells you what has to happen and how fast.
| Code | Meaning | What it requires |
|---|---|---|
| C1 | Danger present, risk of injury | Immediate action, ideally before the electrician leaves the property |
| C2 | Potentially dangerous | Urgent remedial work, commonly recommended within 28 days |
| FI | Further investigation needed | Investigation before the report can confirm the circuit is safe |
| C3 | Improvement recommended | Not mandatory, kept on record for the next inspection |
What it does not mean
An unsatisfactory result is not the same as the certificate expiring, and it doesn’t reset the five-year EICR clock. It also isn’t, by itself, the electrical safety breach that carries a civil penalty of up to £40,000 under the Renters’ Rights Act. That penalty sits at the end of a chain that starts with a C1 or C2 being ignored, not with the report simply recording one.
What to do once the codes are in front of you
- Read the codes on each observation before reacting to the word unsatisfactory.
- Book the remedial work for any C1 or C2 straight away. Waiting for a chaser email turns a manageable job into the gap a council eventually asks you to explain.
- Keep the minor works certificate the electrician issues once the fix is done, alongside the original EICR. Together they’re the record that shows the property was made safe, which is exactly the evidence behind a reasonable steps defence.
- C3 items need no action now, only a note for the next inspection. CertSorted keeps that note, the remedial certificate and the original report against the same property, so none of it is buried in a folder by the time it matters.
This applies to rental properties in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run separate electrical safety regimes.