Selling a home in Greater Manchester comes with a long list of paperwork, and many sellers worry an electrical safety certificate is one of them. The short answer is that there is no legal duty to provide one when you sell, but the longer answer is more useful, because the right document can stop a sale stalling.
Unlike a landlord renting out a property, a homeowner selling their own house is not legally required to commission an Electrical Installation Condition Report, usually shortened to EICR. The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector regulations apply to rentals in England, not to owner-occupiers passing a home on.
That said, your solicitor's standard TA6 Property Information Form will ask about any electrical work carried out since 2005 and whether it was certified. Gaps here often surface during conveyancing, so it pays to gather what paperwork you do have before the questions arrive.
Buyers and their surveyors are cautious about older wiring. If your home still has a fuse box rather than a modern consumer unit, rubber or fabric-sheathed cabling, or no RCD protection, a buyer's homebuyer survey may flag it and recommend a full electrical inspection before exchange.
Offering a recent EICR up front removes that uncertainty. It tells the buyer the installation has been assessed against the current BS 7671 wiring standard and either passed or has a clear list of what needs attention.
For a typical two or three-bedroom house in the Manchester area, an EICR usually falls somewhere between 150 and 300 pounds, depending on the number of circuits and how easy the consumer unit and accessories are to access. Larger or older properties with more circuits sit at the higher end.
The inspection itself often takes two to four hours, with the written report following shortly after. A satisfactory report is generally accepted as valid for up to ten years, though buyers tend to prefer one carried out within the last few years.
A report records observations using codes. C1 means danger present and needs putting right at once, C2 means potentially dangerous and remedial work is required, and C3 is an improvement recommendation rather than a fault. Only C1 and C2 codes make a report unsatisfactory.
If your report comes back with C2 items, you have a choice: fix them before marketing, or be upfront and let it form part of the price negotiation. Either way, a registered electrician should carry out any remedial work and issue the relevant certification, which then reassures the buyer the issue is closed.
No. Owner-occupiers selling their own home are not legally obliged to provide an EICR, although your solicitor will ask about past electrical work on the TA6 form.
A homebuyer or building survey usually gives a visual opinion and often recommends a separate electrical inspection rather than carrying one out, so providing a recent EICR can save time later.
A satisfactory EICR can be valid for up to ten years, but many buyers and conveyancers prefer one completed within the last five years, particularly on older properties.
A quick call with Gary is usually enough to establish scope. For anything more involved, we’ll come out to measure up at a time that suits you.