Your EICR came back unsatisfactory. Here is what happens next.

An Electrical Installation Condition Report is a periodic inspection and test of the fixed electrical installation in a property: the consumer unit, the circuits, the earthing and bonding, the accessories and the fixed equipment. The electrical contractor inspects and tests, records the results, and then makes a single overall judgement at the front of the report. That judgement is either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. There is no partial pass.

The word unsatisfactory sounds final, and it worries landlords more than it should. It does not mean the property is unlettable, it does not mean the installation is about to catch fire, and it does not mean you have already broken the law. What it means is narrow and specific: the contractor has recorded at least one observation coded C1, C2 or FI. The presence of a single one of those codes anywhere in the report forces the overall outcome to unsatisfactory, even where the rest of the installation tested well.

In privately rented homes in England, landlords have a duty under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 to ensure the fixed installation is inspected and tested at intervals of no more than five years, to obtain a report, and to act on it. Where the report requires remedial or further investigative work, the landlord must ensure that work is carried out by a qualified person and must obtain written confirmation that the work has been completed. That is the duty. Getting an unsatisfactory report and dealing with it properly is compliant behaviour. Getting one and ignoring it is not.

The practical reality is that unsatisfactory reports are extremely common, particularly in older North East housing stock. A large proportion of the terraced and semi-detached rental stock in Sunderland, Houghton-le-Spring, Washington and the surrounding areas was wired or rewired decades ago and has been extended, altered and part-modernised by different hands since. Very few of those installations reach a modern periodic inspection without at least one C2.

C1 means danger present. There is a risk of injury right now. A typical example is an exposed live conductor, a broken accessory with live parts accessible, or a board with a missing blanking plate that leaves live terminals reachable. A competent contractor will normally make a C1 item safe on the day, before leaving the property, and will record what they did. A C1 in the report always forces an unsatisfactory outcome and always needs remedial work.

C2 means potentially dangerous. There is no immediate danger in the installation's present state, but a fault, a failure or a foreseeable single event could make it dangerous. This is the code that produces most unsatisfactory reports. Missing main protective bonding, absent RCD protection on circuits that need it, a lighting circuit with no earth conductor, and deteriorated cable insulation all commonly attract a C2. C2 items require remedial work.

C3 means improvement recommended. The installation complies with the standard that applied when it was installed, but would be safer if brought closer to current practice. C3 items do not make a report unsatisfactory and do not legally require work. They are worth reading, because some are cheap to resolve alongside other work and some will become C2 items at the next inspection, but you are not obliged to act on them. Any contractor who tells you a C3 must be fixed to pass is either mistaken or selling.

FI means further investigation required. The inspector found something they could not fully resolve within the scope of the inspection, and cannot safely conclude whether it is acceptable. A common cause is a circuit that cannot be traced, a reading that does not make sense, or an area that could not be accessed. FI items force an unsatisfactory outcome and require further investigative work, which is why an FI-heavy report cannot always be priced from paper alone.

Where an EICR identifies remedial or further investigative work as required, the landlord must ensure that work is carried out by a qualified person within 28 days of receiving the report, or within a shorter period if the report specifies one. C1 items in practice need attention immediately, and a competent inspector will usually have made them safe during the visit. FI items are treated on the same 28 day footing as remedial work.

Once the work is done, you must obtain written confirmation from the qualified person that the remedial or investigative work has been completed and that the installation now meets the required standard, or that further work is still needed. You then need to supply that written confirmation, together with a copy of the original report, to the tenant and to the local housing authority within 28 days of the work being completed. Keep both documents. The evidence trail is what protects you, not the fact that the work happened.

Twenty eight days is not long once you factor in reading the report, understanding what is actually required, getting a price you trust, and finding a contractor with availability. That is the gap we exist to close.

Some providers will fix minor faults on the day, usually capped at a small parts and labour allowance. That works for a loose connection or a damaged socket. It does not cover the faults that actually fail rental properties: consumer unit replacement, missing RCD protection across circuits, main protective bonding, deteriorated cabling or circuits with no earth. Those need a scoped quote, a booked return visit and a re-issued certificate. That is the work we coordinate.

If your report shows any of these, send it to us and we will come back with a costed remedial quote, usually within the hour during office hours.

We read the report properly before we price it. Every observation is separated into what the regulations require you to put right and what is a recommendation you can decline. You are not quoted for C3 items unless you ask for them, and we say so on the quote.

Each remedial quote sets out:

• Each coded observation, quoted line by line, so nothing is bundled into a single unexplained figure.
• Which items are required to clear the unsatisfactory result and which are optional improvements.
• The discipline carrying out the work, and confirmation that the electrical work is carried out by a qualified electrical contractor.
• Whether the outcome will be a written confirmation of completion against the original report, or a fresh periodic inspection and a new EICR.
• Access requirements, expected time on site and whether the property needs to be empty or the supply isolated.
• Photographic evidence of the defect as found and the same location on completion.

Coordination is included in the price quoted. There is no separate coordination fee, no call-out surcharge added later and no percentage taken on top of the contractor's figure at invoice stage. Payment in full secures your booking and gets you the earliest available slot. Where a report is heavy with FI codes, we will tell you plainly that an attendance is needed before a final figure can be confirmed rather than quote a number we would then have to revise.

Clearing an unsatisfactory report is an evidence exercise as much as a works exercise. When the remedial work is finished, the qualified electrical contractor issues the appropriate certification for the work carried out, and a written confirmation that the remedial work identified in the original report has been completed. Where the scope justifies it, the installation is re-inspected and tested and a new EICR is issued with a satisfactory outcome and a fresh five year renewal date.

We then do the administrative half. The completion confirmation, the new or amended certificate and the before and after photographs are stored against the property record. The renewal date is entered and tracked, so the next inspection is diarised rather than remembered. Certificates are stored and renewal dates tracked free, for as long as you are a customer. If the local authority, a lender, an insurer or a tenant asks for the paperwork, it is in one place and it is complete.

We do not tell you the property is compliant. Compliance is your duty as the landlord and it depends on more than one report. What we do is make sure the work is carried out by a properly qualified person, that it is evidenced, and that the documents you are required to hold and issue actually exist and are where you can find them.