Advice for home buyers
Many people are unaware how useful electrical checks are when purchasing a property. Your new home could be dangerous if it doesn’t meet basic electrical safety standards.
Lots of house buyers believe electrical checks are included in the standard home survey report, but this is not the case.
You should check to see if there has been a recent Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) done and, if not, arrange for a registered electrician to carry one out.
Also, when looking round a property you are interested in purchasing, there are a few simple checks you can do yourself.
Key points before buying
- Check the plug sockets and light fittings for signs of wear and tear.
- Look for the consumer unit (fusebox) and check to see if RCDs are present.
- Look for smoke alarms and test if they are working.
- Have a full EICR by a registered electrician carried out.
Consumer unit (fusebox) and RCDs
Modern consumer units have a main switch and fuses and/or circuit breakers.
Older units may not have an RCD or circuit breakers, but this does not necessarily mean they are unsafe or require upgrading. An EICR will tell you if yours is still safe or not.
For all consumer units (especially older ones) look for signs of physical damage, thermal damage, or discoloration.
To check whether your consumer unit has an RCD, look for the ‘Test’ or ‘T’ button. If you have one, pressing it will switch off the power to the areas of the home it protects.
If you don’t have an RCD in your consumer unit, or it’s not working, you should use plug-in RCDs for all the sockets in your home.
Socket outlets
If the electrics in a home are more than 50 years old, they should be checked and updated.
But even newer electrics can become damaged or faulty requiring professional attention.
Signs to look for include:
- socket-outlets being mounted in skirting boards,
- visible damage to plugs or socket-outlets, especially burn marks,
- crackling sounds from light switches, light fittings, or socket-outlets.
Light fittings and smoke alarms
Any signs of overheating on light fittings such as curled labels, discolouration or scorch marks is a warning sign. Cracking or burn marks around light fittings should be checked by a registered electrician.
Every property should have at least one smoke alarm on each floor. Press the ‘Test’ button to make sure it is working.
If there are no smoke alarms, the local Fire and Rescue Service can help fit battery powered ones. Mains-powered smoke alarms with battery back-up can be fitted by a registered electrician.
Undertake a full electric check
Ask the current homeowner or estate agent if the electrics have been fully checked in the past ten years and, if so, ask for a copy of the Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR).
If there has been no check, or there is no report, find a registered electrician to carry out an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR).
A full rewire can be expensive so it is worthwhile checking what is needed before agreeing a purchase price.
Don’t rely on the standard home survey as this will not cover electrical safety.
Selected FAQs
Answers to commonly-asked questions we receive about electrical safety.
There should be a minimum of one smoke alarm per floor with a heat detector in the kitchen. You should fit enough alarms to cover all areas where a fire could start. Make sure they are tested regularly - ideally every week.
It depends on its condition rather than its age, if it has been tested and is in good condition and everything is working effectively there is no requirement to rewire. However, you may wish to consider adding RCDs to enhance the safety of the installation.
A qualified electrician will say if your home needs rewiring and what can be achieved within a specific budget.
You can find an electrician local to you here.
For privately rented properties, your landlord or letting agent should have given you a copy of an EICR carried out on your rental property, but also kept one for themselves, so you should be able to ask them for a duplicate.
For owner occupied properties, there may be a label in the fuse box / consumer unit that states when the last inspection and test was done.
If there isn't one present we would suggest arranging one with a registered electrician.
You can find an electrician local to you here.
To give you the peace of mind that your electrical installation is safe, use a registered electrician to carry out an inspection and test. They will then issue you with an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) which will either confirm that the installation is safe or highlight any hazards that need to be fixed.
If you live in a privately rented property in England or Scotland, your landlord must have these electrical checks carried out every five years. We recommend that owner-occupiers have them carried out on a ten yearly basis.
Private landlords in Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) are responsible for ensuring that the electrics in communal areas are safe - this can be demonstrated by using a registered electrician to carry out an inspection of the electrics, after which they will issue the Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR). We recommend that these checks are carried out on a five yearly basis.
You can find a registered electrician local to you here.
There is no legal requirement to replace sockets if they are positioned on skirting boards in an older property but given that the wiring installation is likely to be old, it is advisable to get a registered electrician to carry out an inspection of the electrics. They will issue you with an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) which will either confirm that the installation is safe or highlight any hazards that need to be addressed.
You can find a registered electrician local to you here.
You do not need to provide an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) in order to sell a property, although it will give your buyer peace of mind that the property they are buying is electrically safe.
If you have had any electrical work carried out that is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations (all installation work and anything in a bathroom), then this must either be carried out by a registered electrician, who will issue you with a certificate on completion of the work, or reported to the Local Authority Building Control. Without this certification, you may find it difficult to sell the property.
We recommend that you use a registered electrician for any electrical work in the home. You can find one here.
Electrical products are recalled more regularly than you might think, but the response rate to a recall is often worryingly low. This means there are potentially millions of recalled electrical items still in UK homes.
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