Electrical safety: what tenants are entitled to

If you rent your home in England, your landlord must have the electrical installation inspected and tested at least every five years, give you a copy of the report, and put right anything dangerous within 28 days. These rights come from the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, and your council can enforce them. You don’t pay for any of it.

Here is what you’re entitled to, what to expect when the electrician visits, and what to do if your landlord doesn’t act.

Are you covered?

The rules apply if you live in the property as your only or main home and pay rent — including a room in a shared house or HMO. They have applied to all private tenancies since 1 April 2021 (new ones since 1 July 2020), and to council and housing association tenancies since 1 December 2025.

Some homes fall outside these particular rules, including:

• lodgers who share a home with the landlord or the landlord’s family;
• leases of seven years or more;
• student halls of residence, hostels and refuges;
• care homes, hospitals and hospices.

Your right to see the report

Your landlord must give you a copy of the report — the Electrical Installation Condition Report, or EICR:

The council can ask for a copy too, and the landlord must send it within seven days.

The report says whether the installation is satisfactory or unsatisfactory, lists any problems with a code, and gives the date of the next inspection. You can see what one looks like on our sample reportpage, and what the codes mean in EICR codes explained.

You can’t be charged for any of this. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 stops landlords and letting agents charging tenants for an EICR — see who pays for an EICR.

If the report finds problems

A C1 (danger present) or C2 (potentially dangerous) makes the report unsatisfactory. When that happens, your landlord must:

1. get the remedial work — and any further investigation the report asks for — done by a qualified person within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so;
2. get written confirmation that the work has been done;
3. send that confirmation, with the report, to you and the council within 28 days of the work being finished.

If the electrician finds something immediately dangerous during the visit, they should make it safe — usually by switching off and isolating the affected circuit — and tell whoever ordered the report straight away. That can leave a circuit off until it’s repaired, so your landlord needs to arrange the repair promptly. There’s more in unsatisfactory EICR: what happens next.

C3 items are recommendations. Your landlord doesn’t have to act on them by law.

Letting the electrician in

The inspection needs access to every room and to the consumer unit (fuse board), and the power goes off for short periods. For most tenancies, the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 allows your landlord, or someone they authorise in writing, to enter at reasonable times of day to view the condition of the property, after giving at least 24 hours’ notice in writing.

Letting the electrician in is in your interest — it’s your safety being checked. If the time doesn’t suit you, ask for another. But be aware that the government guidance says a landlord isn’t in breach of the regulations if they can show they took all reasonable steps to arrange access and the tenant prevented it.

On the day, expect the electrician to look at every room, open the consumer unit and switch circuits off one at a time to test them. You may be asked to unplug computers and other sensitive electronics. Tell them about anything that mustn’t lose power, such as medical equipment. Our guide to what an EICR checksexplains each test.

What to do if your landlord won’t act

If you haven’t had a copy of the report, the report is out of date, or dangerous faults haven’t been fixed:

1. Ask in writing. Email your landlord or agent, say what you need and by when, and keep copies of everything.
2. Contact your council. The council’s private housing or environmental health team enforces these rules. It can serve a remedial notice, arrange urgent work itself with your consent (and recover the cost from the landlord), and fine the landlord up to £40,000.
3. Social housing tenants who have reported a problem and aren’t happy with the response can complain to the Housing Ombudsman.
4. Consider the courts. The government guidance notes that some tenants can use the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 to take their landlord to court if faulty electrics make the home unfit — and the court can order compensation.

If you’re worried about asking: since 1 May 2026, landlords in England can no longer end tenancies with “no-fault” section 21 notices.

Report warning signs in writing as soon as you notice them, such as:

• a burning smell, or scorch marks around sockets or switches;
• sockets, plugs or switches that feel hot or buzz;
• a circuit-breaker or RCD that keeps tripping;
• cracked, loose or damaged sockets and switches;
• water leaking near electrics.

If you see or smell danger now — burning, sparking, smoke or a hot socket — switch off at the consumer unit’s main switch if it’s safe to do so, stop using the affected socket or appliance, and tell your landlord straight away. If there’s a fire, get out and call 999.

Your landlord’s other electrical duties

• Repairs. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, landlords of most tenancies must keep the installations for the supply of electricity in repair and proper working order.
• Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Landlords must fit a smoke alarm on each storey used as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance (except gas cookers), and check they work on the first day of each new tenancy.
• Appliances. Private landlords aren’t required by the electrical safety regulations to test the appliances they supply, although PAT testing is a sensible way to show they’re safe. Social landlords must now have the appliances they provide checked at least every five years.
• Your own appliances are your responsibility. The EICR covers the fixed wiring, not the things you plug in.

Key points

• Your landlord must have the electrics inspected and tested at least every five years.
• You’re entitled to a copy of the report within 28 days of the inspection, or before you move in.
• C1 and C2 faults must be fixed within 28 days, and you must be sent written confirmation.
• You can’t be charged for the EICR.
• If your landlord won’t act, contact your council’s private housing team.

Landlords and agents: make it easy for your tenants

If you’re a landlord or letting agent, we arrange access directly with your tenants, explain what the visit involves, and email you a report that’s ready to pass on, with every code explained in plain English. See our landlord EICR service, get your price, or call 07301 010244.