Electrical Safety Testing: A West Sussex Homeowner's Guide

What the inspection actually covers

The formal name is an Electrical Installation Condition Report, or EICR. An electrician switches off the supply, removes covers from your consumer unit, sockets and switches, then carries out a mix of visual checks and instrument tests. It is not a quick look round with a plug-in tester.

Expect the visit to take two to four hours for a typical three bedroom house, longer for older properties in places like Arundel or Steyning where wiring has often been extended piecemeal over decades. You will be without power for parts of it, so plan around freezers, home working and anyone who relies on medical equipment.

• Insulation resistance, to find cables breaking down inside walls
• Earth loop impedance, confirming a fault will actually trip the protection fast enough
• RCD trip times, tested against the required milliseconds rather than just pressing the test button
• Polarity throughout, catching live and neutral swapped at any point
• Condition of the consumer unit, including whether it is a plastic board in an escape route

Reading the codes on your report

Reports come back satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and the wording matters more than the headline. A C1 means danger present and needs making safe the same day, typically exposed live parts. A C2 means potentially dangerous and must be fixed for the report to become satisfactory, for example no earthing to a metal light fitting or a bathroom circuit without RCD protection.

A C3 is 'improvement recommended' and does not fail the installation. Plenty of otherwise sound homes carry a handful of C3s, such as no RCD on a lighting circuit. If someone tells you every C3 must be rectified before they can sign off, that is a sales pitch, not a regulation. FI means further investigation is needed, usually because something could not be traced without lifting floors.

How often, and what it costs

The usual guidance is every ten years for an owner occupied home, five years for rented property, and on change of occupancy. Private landlords in England have a legal duty under the 2020 regulations to have a report at least every five years and give tenants a copy within 28 days. Sussex coastal properties in Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor sit in a salt laden atmosphere that corrodes external sockets, outside lights and garden supplies faster than inland, so shorter intervals on outdoor circuits are sensible.

As a guide, a two bedroom flat often falls in the £150 to £220 range and a four bedroom house £250 to £400, depending on the number of circuits and how accessible the consumer unit is. Remedial work is separate and quoted after the report. Be wary of a very cheap headline price paired with a long list of urgent repairs, and always ask whether the fee covers the full test schedule or only a sample of circuits.

Signs you should not wait for the next scheduled check

Some symptoms warrant a call regardless of when your last report was done. Repeated tripping is the installation telling you something is wrong, not an inconvenience to be reset.

• A rewireable fuse box with ceramic fuses, or an old cast iron unit
• Rubber or fabric covered cabling, common in pre 1970s stock
• Sockets or switches that are warm, discoloured or smell faintly of fish or burning plastic
• Lights dimming when the kettle or shower runs
• Any electrical work carried out by a previous owner without paperwork, particularly in kitchens, bathrooms or outbuildings

Published 15 August 2026