If you let a house in Lochgelly, Cowdenbeath, Hill of Beath or the villages around them, it needs a valid Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) at least every five years, and before each new tenancy. Jack does them for a fixed £200 on a standard property, and because he can also do any repairs the report asks for, you end up with a satisfactory certificate rather than a list of problems and a second electrician to find.
Central Fife has a lot of rented housing, and a lot of it was built for the coal industry or by the council in the twentieth century. That housing is solid, but its wiring has usually done long service. Here is what that means for an EICR.
The rule, in two lines
Under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 and the Repairing Standard, a private rented home must have an EICR by a competent person at least every five years, tested to BS 7671, with a copy for the tenant. A new tenancy cannot start without a valid one. The full detail is in do I need an EICR for my rental in Scotland.
The housing, and why it matters
Lochgelly is mostly twentieth century: the rows that replaced the miners’ cottages, big council-built estates, and newer homes on the edges. Cowdenbeath has the old districts of Foulford and Kirkford, pit terraces and long council-built streets. Hill of Beath has an older stone core, council streets behind it and newer private houses round the edges. Lumphinnans is mostly former miners’ rows and council streets.
A lot of these houses have been modernised in stages. New kitchens, electric showers, extensions and loft conversions have gone in over the decades, and each one hung another circuit or two off the supply. What often did not change was the board. That is the root of most of what an EICR finds round here.
What usually comes up
None of this is a guess about your house. These are the items that come up most often in housing of this age, so you know what the codes are likely to be about.
- No RCD protection on some or all circuits. Older boards often have none, or one RCD covering half the house. Where RCD protection is needed and missing, that is a coded item.
- Rewireable fuses or a very old board. Not a fail in itself, but often paired with other problems. Jack will tell you straight if the board has run out of road.
- A plastic consumer unit. Common in houses that had a board change in the 1990s or 2000s. Whether it gets a code depends on where it is and its condition. There is a full explanation in does a plastic consumer unit fail an EICR.
- Earthing and bonding. Main bonding to the gas and water pipes is sometimes missing or undersized in older houses, especially after a kitchen or boiler change.
- DIY additions. Extra sockets, outside lights and shed feeds added by a previous owner, sometimes without the right protection.
If it comes back unsatisfactory
A C1 (danger present) or C2 (potentially dangerous) makes the report unsatisfactory, and the work is normally needed within 28 days. Jack gives you a written price for those items only. He will not pad it out with C3 recommendations you do not have to do, though he will tell you about them.
The most common fix in this housing is a new consumer unit with RCBO protection on every circuit and surge protection, from £700, fitted and tested in a day. See fuse boards and consumer units. Where the cable itself is at the end of its life, Jack says so and prices a rewire properly, see rewires.
Bought a house to let?
If you have just bought an ex-council or former miners’ house to let, get the EICR done before the first tenant moves in, even if the seller handed you a report. An old or unsatisfactory report does not count, and the inspection tells you exactly what you have bought before you spend money on decorating. It is much easier to change a board in an empty house than around a tenant.
Getting it booked
Send Jack the address, the number of bedrooms and when the property is empty or when the tenant can give access. He will confirm the £200 price or quote in writing for a bigger property or an HMO. The signed report usually comes back the same day or the next.
There is more on the EICR page, and local pages for Lochgelly, Cowdenbeath, Hill of Beath, Lumphinnans, Ballingry and Kelty.
The questions landlords in central Fife ask most are below.