Landlord certificates: the checklist

EICR — the big one, every five years

The Electrical Installation Condition Report is the legal backbone of rental electrical safety in England. The rules, briefly:

• A satisfactory EICR no more than five years old must be in place for every privately rented home.
• Existing tenants should receive a copy within 28 days of the inspection, and new tenants should have one before they move in.
• The local authority can ask to see it — and in Blackpool, they do.
• C1 or C2 faults on the report need putting right promptly — typically within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so — with written confirmation of the remedial work.

We price EICRs by bedroom count, with £120 to £180 covering most Blackpool rentals, and we book around tenant availability. There's more detail on our EICR page.

Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms

Under the smoke and CO alarm rules updated in 2022, rented homes in England need:

• At least one smoke alarm on every storey used as living accommodation.
• A carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance — gas boiler, gas fire, log burner. Gas cookers are the exception.
• Every alarm proven working at the start of each tenancy, and repaired or replaced when a tenant reports a fault.

Mains-wired interlinked alarms are what we recommend and fit, from £80 per alarm installed. Battery units can satisfy the rules, but coastal damp shortens the life of cheap ones surprisingly fast.

PAT testing for anything you supply

Furnished let? The fridge, washer, microwave and lamps you provide should be demonstrably safe. No statute names a testing frequency, but portable appliance testing is the recognised way to evidence that duty — and most letting agents, insurers and licensing officers simply expect a PAT record before a property is marketed. Visits start from £60; see our PAT testing prices. Annual testing timed to changeovers is the sensible rhythm for most portfolios.

EIC and Part P paperwork when circuits change

Any time new circuits are added — a rewire, a consumer unit change, a new shower or cooker circuit — the installer should hand over an Electrical Installation Certificate, plus Building Regulations notification for notifiable work. File them with the property records: your next EICR inspector will ask, and so will a future buyer's solicitor. Missing paperwork doesn't make wiring illegal, but it does make it unverified — which usually means paying to prove it's sound later.

Holiday lets and HMOs — the Blackpool factor

Two local wrinkles catch landlords out. HMO licences carry electrical conditions, and an in-date satisfactory EICR is non-negotiable for keeping one. Holiday lets sit outside the tenancy regulations, but insurers, mortgage lenders and your fire risk assessment all expect the same standard of paperwork — and with weekly changeovers hammering kettles, heaters and hairdryers, most Fylde Coast holiday-let owners put their appliances on an annual PAT cycle anyway.

Where landlords get caught out

The pattern we see on remedial jobs is rarely wilful neglect — it's paperwork drift. An EICR that quietly passed its fifth birthday during a long tenancy. A copy never actually sent to the tenant, so the 28-day duty can't be evidenced. An unsatisfactory report filed away with the C2s never signed off in writing. Alarms fitted but never logged as tested at the tenancy start. None of these are expensive to fix; all of them are expensive to discover during a council inspection or an insurance claim. Two diary entries — the EICR expiry date and an annual alarm-and-PAT check — cover almost all of it.

The checklist in brief

• Satisfactory EICR, under five years old, with copies given to tenants.
• Smoke alarm on every storey; CO alarm wherever there's a fixed combustion appliance.
• PAT record for any appliances you supply.
• EICs and Part P certificates filed for any new electrical work.

If any box is unticked, our landlord electrician service covers the lot — certificates, remedials and alarm installs from one NAPIT-registered firm, so the paper trail stays in one place.