Trusted electrical in London

Who may legally do this work

There is no single statutory register of the kind Gas Safe is for gas — anyone may legally carry out non-notifiable electrical work in a dwelling (e.g. most minor repairs, like-for-like replacements, and work outside kitchens/bathrooms/special locations). For notifiable work specifically, gov.uk states: 'An installer who's registered with a scheme can self-certify that their work complies with building standards,' and directs consumers to 'Search the Electrical Competent Person Register if you're looking for an electrician to work on your home.' If a non-registered installer carries out notifiable work, it must instead be certified through the local authority building control body. Competent person scheme operators for electrical work include NICEIC, NAPIT and ELECSA, all of which report into the single government-recognised Electrical Competent Person Register.

Source — checked 21 July 2026

Certificates & records

• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)

  Who must hold it:

  Legally required for private (and, from November 2025, social) landlords in England. Recommended but not legally required for owner-occupiers.

  Frequency:

  At least every 5 years for rented property (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all require 5-yearly checks for domestic private rented EICRs, per NICEIC's nation-by-nation comparison). Recommended every 10 years for owner-occupied homes.

  An EICR (also called an electrical safety check, fixed wire test, or periodic inspection and testing) is 'a document produced by an electrical inspector following a comprehensive health check of your home's or property's electrical installation,' covering wiring, consumer units, fixed equipment, and protective devices — but not plug-in appliances, which are 'not considered part of the electrical installation.' Findings are classified C1 (danger present, immediate action required), C2 (potentially dangerous, urgent remedial work needed), C3 (improvement recommended, not dangerous) or FI (further investigation required); a C1 or C2 finding makes the report 'unsatisfactory.'

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

• Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) / Building Regulations Compliance Certificate

  Who must hold it:

  Whoever commissions new notifiable electrical work (new circuit or major alteration)

  Frequency:

  One-off, issued on completion of the specific job — not a recurring check

  An EIC is a different document from an EICR: it is issued 'after an electrician has completed any new installation or major alteration to an installation on your property,' confirming the new work is safe and compliant at the time of installation. For a landlord, an EIC for new work is treated as valid for five years, after which an EICR is needed to check the installation is still safe.

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

Commonly misunderstood

• Myth vs fact

  Myth: Consumers often assume every piece of electrical work in a home is legally restricted to a registered electrician, or conversely that any electrician can do any job without formal building-regs notification.

  Fact: Only 'notifiable' work under Part P (broadly: new circuits, consumer unit replacement, and work in kitchens, bathrooms and outdoors) needs to go through a competent person scheme or building control. Plenty of minor electrical work (like-for-like socket replacement, for example) is not notifiable and carries no statutory registration requirement — though using an unregistered person is still a competence and insurance risk, just not a Part P offence in itself.

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

• Myth vs fact

  Myth: Landlords and tenants sometimes conflate the EICR (periodic check of the existing installation) with the EIC (certificate issued for brand-new work).

  Fact: NICEIC distinguishes them explicitly: an EIC confirms new work was safe and compliant at the point of installation; an EICR is a later, recurring check confirming an existing installation is still safe. A five-year-old EIC does not substitute for a due EICR.

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

• Myth vs fact

  Myth: It is easy to assume the social-sector EICR extension already fully applies to every social tenancy today.

  Fact: As of the check date, the social rented sector's EICR/PAT duties commence on a staggered basis: in force 1 November 2025, applying to new social tenancies from 1 December 2025, and to existing social tenancies only from 1 May 2026 (with transitional work by 1 November 2026) — so coverage of existing social tenancies is only just completing around the time of this research.

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

Penalties for non-compliance

• Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, local authorities 'may impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000 on landlords who are in breach' of the inspection and reporting duties. Councils can also arrange remedial electrical work themselves and recover the cost from the non-compliant landlord.

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

• For non-notifiable Building Regulations breaches generally (not electrical-specific), gov.uk states: 'The person doing the work could be prosecuted and fined if they do not comply with building regulations,' and the relevant authority 'could make you pay to fix faulty work,' with the additional consequence that the property will lack the compliance certificates needed on a future sale.

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

How to check who’s legally allowed to do this

Two official routes exist. For notifiable Part P work and to check whether a specific business is registered, use the government-recognised Electrical Competent Person Register: 'All electricians listed and permitted to display the mark are registered with an electrical Competent Person Scheme Operator, and have been authorised by Government to self-certify that their work is compliant with Building Regulations.' The register 'went live on 30th June 2014.' Separately, scheme operators such as NICEIC run their own 'Find a Trusted Tradesperson' search tools drawing on the same underlying registration.

electricalcompetentperson.co.uk

Source — checked 21 July 2026