Most agents and facilities managers have to sign off EICRs without an electrical background. The report lands as a PDF, the codes look ominous, and there is usually a deadline attached. This guide gives you a structured way to read one in the order it actually matters, so you can brief your insurer or compliance team confidently inside ten minutes.
The Cover Page
Start at the cover. The four things to verify before anything else:
- The address matches the building you commissioned the test on. Sounds obvious; multi-site portfolios sometimes get the wrong unit number printed at the top.
- The date of inspection is recent enough for the use case. An insurer renewal usually wants a report inside the last 12 months even if the recommended retest is longer.
- The contractor's NICEIC number (or equivalent third-party body) is printed. You can cross-check it on the NICEIC site if you want certainty.
- The overall summary line: "Satisfactory" or "Unsatisfactory". That single word is the answer to the question "do I need to do anything?".
Reading the Observations
The Observations section is where the report's findings are listed. Every observation gets a code, a location, and a description. The codes are what you skim first.
- C1 (Danger present): something is unsafe right now. There should be very few of these in a maintained installation; if there are any, action is immediate.
- C2 (Potentially dangerous): the most common category that drives remedial work. Examples: missing earth bonding, outdated wiring without RCD protection, broken accessories, dangerous DIY work.
- C3 (Improvement recommended): the installation is safe and compliant with the standards in force when it was installed, but does not meet today's best practice. These do not trigger remedial obligations.
- FI (Further investigation): the contractor could not fully test something during the visit, usually because it would have required isolating a live process. The report tells you what was deferred and what is needed.
Read each observation's location as carefully as its code. "DB-2 way 6" is much more actionable than "Distribution Boards". The location tells your remedial contractor exactly where to start.
Need Help Interpreting an EICR?
If you have just received a report and want a second pair of eyes before approving works, email hello@knowire.co.uk with the PDF and we will give you a written read-out within one working day.
Email KnowireCircuit Tables and Schedules
After the observations you will find a circuit-by-circuit schedule for each distribution board. The numbers in these tables are the actual test results: insulation resistance in mega-ohms, earth-loop impedance in ohms, RCD trip times in milliseconds, polarity check pass/fail. You do not need to interpret the raw numbers yourself; the contractor has already done that and applied a code to anything outside acceptable range.
What the schedules are useful for is sanity-checking that every circuit was tested. A skipped row marked "Not tested" without a corresponding FI observation in the main report is a question worth asking.
Satisfactory vs Unsatisfactory
Any C1, C2 or FI gives the overall result Unsatisfactory. A report with twenty C3s and no C1/C2/FIs is still Satisfactory; conversely, a report with a single C2 anywhere is Unsatisfactory until that observation has been resolved.
For insurer and council purposes, an Unsatisfactory report is not automatically a problem provided you respond to it. The path is: receive the report, commission the remedial work for the C1/C2/FI items, get a confirmation letter or follow-up minor works certificate from the contractor, file both alongside the original. The compliance trail is what matters.
Questions Worth Asking
Before you sign anything off, four useful questions for the contractor:
- Are the C2s genuinely C2s, or could any of them be C3s in a more conservative coding philosophy?
- What is the recommended remedial sequence? Some items unblock others.
- Are any of the FIs simple deferrals you can re-test on the next visit, or are they blocking the Satisfactory result?
- What is the recommended next test date, and what is the rationale?
Frequently Asked Questions
Legally yes, though it is rarely the right call. C3s often flag patterns (older wiring colours, missing best-practice accessories) that will keep showing up at each retest until addressed. Tackling C3s opportunistically when you are doing other electrical work is sensible.
That is not how the report works at the top level. The overall Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory verdict applies to the whole installation. Individual observations have codes, and any C1, C2 or FI tips the overall verdict to Unsatisfactory until the corresponding remedials are completed.
The report itself recommends the next test date, usually inside its first or second page. For commercial property the common interval is five years; for HMOs and serviced accommodation it is shorter, typically annual or every two to five years. Insurers may impose stricter intervals than the report itself recommends.
Raise it with the contractor. A reasonable tester will explain the basis of the code (which BS 7671 clause it relates to, what evidence triggered it) and is open to a conversation if the context warrants a different interpretation. Codes are judgement calls within the framework, not absolutes.
Yes. Remedial work is typically certificated with an Electrical Installation Certificate (for new circuits or substantial changes) or a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate (for smaller fixes). Those certificates, kept with the original EICR, are your compliance trail.
