Do you need an EICR when selling a house?

Selling a home does not trigger an EICR requirement the way letting one does, but there are still good reasons a seller might choose to have one. Here is the position.

No legal duty to provide one

There is a common mix-up between the EPC and the EICR. An EPC is legally required when you market a home for sale — it rates energy efficiency. An EICR is not: no law obliges a private seller of an owner-occupied house to obtain or hand over an electrical condition report. A buyer who wants one can arrange their own as part of their checks. What a seller cannot do is mislead — the standard property information forms ask about works and known issues, and answering dishonestly about electrical alterations or faults can create problems later. Honesty on the forms is the seller's real obligation, not an EICR.

The disclosure point deserves spelling out, because it is where sellers most often trip up. The TA6 property information form used in a typical sale asks whether electrical work has been carried out and whether the appropriate certificates exist — and a buyer's conveyancer will follow up on the answers. If you have had a consumer unit replaced, a circuit added, or any notifiable work done, the relevant Electrical Installation Certificate or Part P notification is what evidences it was done properly, and its absence can stall a sale even though no EICR is required. So while you need not commission a condition report, you do need to be straight about the installation's history and produce whatever certification you hold for past works.

It is also worth understanding why the law treats selling and letting so differently. When you sell an owner-occupied home, the buyer is free to make their own checks and takes the property as they find it, having had the chance to inspect — the law leaves electrical due diligence to them. When you let, the tenant has no such opportunity and is depending on a landlord they do not choose, which is precisely why the Electrical Safety Standards 2020 place a positive duty on landlords to inspect and certify. The selling position flows from that logic: there is no comparable duty because the buyer can, and is expected to, look for themselves.

General UK guidance — confirm with your conveyancer. Source: Electrical Safety First; GOV.UK.

Why a seller might get one anyway

Even without a legal duty, a recent satisfactory EICR can help a sale. It reassures a cautious buyer that the wiring has been checked, removes a question mark that might otherwise become a price negotiation, and can smooth the process for an older property where electrics are an obvious concern. The flip side is that an EICR could record faults you would then need to disclose or fix, so it is a judgement call. For a modern home with sound wiring it may add little; for an older one where the buyer is likely to commission their own anyway, doing it first can put you in control of the narrative.

The case is strongest in a few specific situations. If your home is older or has had little electrical work in decades, a buyer is likely to want an inspection regardless, and getting in first lets you present a clean report or address faults on your own terms and timetable rather than under the pressure of a negotiation. If you are selling into a competitive or slow market, a satisfactory EICR can be a modest point of differentiation that removes one more reason to hesitate. And if you genuinely do not know the state of your wiring, an EICR tells you what you are selling, which is useful for answering the property forms honestly. Against all of that sits the real risk: a report that surfaces faults you must then disclose or remedy, with the cost and delay that brings.

Selling a property that is let

The position changes if you are selling a property with tenants in situ as an ongoing rental, or selling to another landlord who will keep it let. The Electrical Safety Standards 2020 duty on the landlord — a valid EICR at least every five years, supplied to tenants — continues to apply regardless of the sale. A buyer purchasing a tenanted property will usually want to see the current landlord EICR as part of their due diligence, and the obligation to keep it in date passes with the letting. That is separate from, and additional to, the ordinary owner-occupied sale position above.

In practice this means a tenanted sale carries an EICR expectation that an owner-occupied one does not. The current report becomes part of the bundle of compliance documents a buying landlord expects alongside gas safety records, deposit protection details and the tenancy agreement, because they are inheriting an ongoing legal duty and need to know it is being met. If the report is missing or out of date at the point of sale, that is a live compliance gap the buyer is taking on, and it can affect both the price and the buyer's willingness to proceed. A selling landlord is well advised to have the EICR in order before marketing, just as they would keep it in order while letting.

Practical steps for a smooth sale

Whichever situation you are in, a little preparation makes the electrical side of a sale far smoother. The most useful thing any seller can do is gather the paperwork early: any past Electrical Installation Certificates or Minor Works Certificates, a building control completion or competent-person notification for notifiable work, and the most recent EICR if one exists. Having these to hand lets you answer the property information forms accurately and respond quickly when the buyer's conveyancer raises electrical enquiries, which they routinely do. A buyer who is given clear documentation upfront is a buyer with one fewer reason to delay or renegotiate.

If you are weighing up whether to commission an EICR before listing, the sensible test is whether the buyer is likely to want one anyway and whether you would rather control the timing. For a modern, well-documented home the honest answer is usually that it adds little. For an older property, or one where you cannot evidence past work, getting the inspection done early puts you in the stronger position — you learn what you are selling, you fix or disclose on your own schedule, and you hand the buyer a current report rather than waiting for theirs to surface a surprise mid-chain. Where the property is let, treat the current landlord EICR as a non-negotiable part of the sale pack and have it ready before the first viewing. In every case, your conveyancer is the right person to confirm exactly what this particular sale requires.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & further reading

• Electrical Safety First — buying or selling a home
• GOV.UK — energy performance certificates when selling

Figures on this page are typical UK ranges drawn from published sources and depend on your specific property. They are guidance, not a quotation. Legal duties are summarised for guidance — confirm the current position on GOV.UK.