A landlord's year of electrical safety
The five-year EICR is the headline. These are the smaller jobs that keep a rental safe and a tenancy uneventful.
18 May 2026 · 4 min read · 5-point checklist
The legal minimum for a rental in England is a satisfactory EICR every five years, a copy for the tenant, and remedial work done within 28 days. That is the floor. These are the habits that keep a property off the phone.
At every change of tenancy
Walk the property with the inventory clerk and look at every socket and switch. Cracked faceplates, scorch marks and loose switches are cheap to fix now and expensive to explain later. Press every smoke alarm test button and write down that you did.
Once a year
Press the test button on the RCD in the consumer unit. It should trip straight away. If it does not, call an electrician. It is the one device standing between a tenant and a shock.
Every five years
Book the EICR a couple of months before it is due, not the week after. It gives you time to fix any C2s without breaking the 28-day rule. We diary the next one for our landlords and send a reminder.
