Landlord Guide: Electrical Safety Standards 2020 in London

What the Regulations Require

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 came into full force for all privately rented residential properties in England on 1 April 2021. They apply to assured shorthold tenancies, assured tenancies, and licences to occupy (including HMOs and houses let under selective licensing schemes).

The core obligations are:

• The electrical installations in the property must be inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every five years
• The landlord must obtain a written report of the inspection and testing — an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)
• The EICR must be provided to the existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection
• New tenants must receive a copy of the current EICR before they move in
• Prospective tenants must receive a copy of the current EICR within 28 days of a written request
• The local housing authority must receive a copy of the EICR within 7 days of a written request
• Where the EICR identifies any work as necessary, the landlord must ensure that work is completed within 28 days (or within the period specified in the EICR if shorter)

What the EICR Covers

The EICR is an assessment of the condition of the fixed electrical installation within the property — the wiring, consumer unit (fuse box), sockets, switches, light fittings and earthing arrangements. It does not cover portable appliances (these are tested by a separate PAT test) or the electricity supply from the distribution network.

The qualified person conducting the inspection must be a competent electrician — in practice, this means someone registered with a competent persons scheme such as NICEIC, NAPIT, or Electrical Safety First's recognised contractors. Using an unregistered electrician does not produce a legally valid EICR.

The report classifies any deficiencies as:

• C1 (Danger present): Risk of injury or death. Immediate remedial action required — the inspector should advise the landlord not to use the affected circuit until rectified.
• C2 (Potentially dangerous): Not immediately dangerous but at risk of becoming so. Must be remedied within 28 days.
• C3 (Improvement recommended): Not a failure — no mandatory remediation required, though the improvement is recommended. The EICR can still be marked Satisfactory with C3 observations.
• FI (Further investigation required): Requires investigation before the installation can be declared satisfactory or not.

An EICR with only C3 observations is considered Satisfactory. One with C1 or C2 observations is Unsatisfactory and requires remediation before it can be considered compliant.

Remediation Deadlines

Where the EICR identifies C1 or C2 deficiencies:

• The landlord must arrange all necessary work within 28 days of receiving the report (or within any shorter period specified in the report for C1 items)
• The landlord must obtain written confirmation from the electrician who carried out the work that the deficiencies have been rectified
• This written confirmation must be provided to the tenant within 28 days of the original EICR
• Where the local housing authority requests evidence of remediation, the landlord must provide it within 28 days

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Local housing authorities enforce the Regulations. The maximum civil penalty for failing to comply is £30,000 per breach. In London, enforcement activity has been most concentrated in boroughs with active private rented sector inspection programmes — including Newham, Southwark, Hackney and Tower Hamlets.

A landlord who cannot serve a valid Section 21 notice is also more exposed to difficulty recovering possession in borderline cases — while the Regulations do not currently make the EICR a pre-condition of a valid Section 21 (unlike the EPC and Gas Safety Record under the Deregulation Act 2015), courts have shown willingness to look holistically at a landlord's compliance record.

London-Specific Considerations

A significant proportion of London's rental stock is Victorian and Edwardian — properties that may have wiring installations from the 1960s or 1970s that have not been updated. These older installations frequently fail EICR inspections on earthing arrangements, lack of RCD protection and outdated wiring methods. Landlords who have not previously had an EICR should budget for the possibility that remedial work will be required, particularly on:

• Properties with a rewireable fuse board rather than a modern consumer unit with MCBs and RCDs
• Properties with rubber-insulated wiring or early PVC wiring showing signs of degradation
• Properties where multiple extensions and additions to the wiring have been carried out over decades without updating the consumer unit

A full rewire in a typical London two-bedroom flat costs approximately £2,500–£4,000 and should be planned during a void period or alongside a broader renovation to minimise disruption and cost.