Most common items that fail an EICR, What Landlords need to know before booking!

Below are the 4 most common items that cause an EICR to fail, what to look for and how to tell before it is carried out

A common question that is asked when a landlord needs to have an EICR carried out at their rental property is:

• Is the property likely to pass?

• What will it cost if it fails?

There are several items that we regularly see come up in an EICR that cause it to fail.

Below are the four most common C2 faults found and what to look for at a property to know if it will fail before the EICR is carried out.

Most common failure No 1: Bathroom Lights

One of the most common faults listed on an EICR is an incorrect light fitting in a bathroom.

A bathroom or ensuite is classed as a “high risk” area due to a person standing or sitting in a shower or bath

Any electrical items, particularly light fittings that are directly over or near to a Bath or Shower, need to be protected so that water cannot get inside of them.

What to check

As a basic rule of thumb, if you have a light fitting which is directly over a bath or shower or very near to it.

You should NOT be able to directly touch the bulb. It should have a cover over it stopping water from entering the light

If the light bulb can be touch or changed without first removing a cover, the light fitting will very likely cause the EICR to fail and need to be replaced.

The above light fitting is next to a bath and the light bulbs can be touched without a cover over the top of them. This and will cause the EICR to fail (be a C2 fault).

The above light shows there is a see through cover over the top of the bulb and the electrical connections inside, so is protected from water being splashed. This would pass the EICR.

This is a spotlight fitting in a bathroom that is directly over the bath. There is no cover in front of the bulb preventing water from being splashed onto it. This would fail an EICR and be a C2 fault.

This bathroom Spotlight has a glass cover over the top of the bulb and stops water from touching or entering the light.

Most common failure No 2: No RCD in fuse board for bathroom lights or heater

This consumer unit (or commonly called fuse board) has x2 RCD's and every circuit next to them is protected by the RCD's. This will pass the EICR (green arrows are pointing to the RCD’s which are bigger and have the wording RCD on the front of them).

The second most common item on our list is any circuit or cable inside of the bathroom not being connected to an RCD

(circuits are the cables that come from the consumer unit and connect into the lights, heaters or extractor fans in the bathroom).

An RCD is a safety device that protects people from electric shock by automatically turning off the electricity supply if a fault is detected, i.e electric shock or fire.

What to check

If you were to look at a fuse board (or consumer unit) look to see if there is a switch that says RCD (normally this is highlighted or has a green label).

Make sure that the label saying lights is near to or has the same colour label as the RCD (usually green).

If it doesn’t the lights are likely not connected to the RCD and it will fail the EICR.

The red arrows are pointing to the circuit that says lights. You can see that it is not on the green side of the fuse board (the left) and is not protected by the RCD.

To check this further, go to the bathroom and switch on both the lights and heater (if there is one) then return to the fuse board/consumer unit and turn off the RCD - (flick the RCD switch downwards).

If the lights or heater in the bathroom do NOT automatically turn off this means that they are not connected to the RCD and will fail the EICR (be a C2 fault)

If there is an RCD, when a fault happens the bathroom lights / heater would automatically switch off as the RCD would have detected a fault and turned off the power to them.

If either the lights, heater or extractor fan in a bathroom stay on after the RCD is turned off this will cause the EICR to fail and be a C2 fault.

Most common failure No 3: Fuse Board with no RCD Protection for the socket outlets

This consumer unit has no switches inside that say RCD. The red arrows are pointing to x2 circuits that are labelled sockets and have no RCD protection. If the property is on the ground floor this will be a C2 fault and fail the EICR.

Our third most common items to fail an EICR, is when the property has no RCD in the fuse board for the socket outlets.

The socket outlets will be situated on the walls throughout the property.

Socket outlets are not only internal but also external, i.e. outside sockets used to plug in electrical items (lawnmowers, lights or in a garage etc).

Sockets on the ground floor level need to be connected to an RCD.

What to check

A very quick and easy way to check to see if the property has no RCD protection on the socket outlets.

If the property is a flat and situated on either the 1st, 2nd,3rd floor or above and there is no outside area, i.e. large terrace or balcony then this would not cause an EICR to fail.

If the property is a house or a flat that has a ground or basement floor level, look in the consumer unit (or fuse board) to see if there is a wide switch that says RCD.

if there isn’t this will cause the EICR to fail (be a C2 fault).

Above picture has the green arrows pointing to the words RCD and shows that there is an RCD inside of the fuse board

To check if the ground floor sockets are okay and will pass the EICR

• Check to see if there is one labelled as an RCD?

• Do the switches next to it have the wording sockets underneath them?

If not this will fail the EICR.

The above photo shows the green arrows pointing to the RCD and which separate items (lights, sockets etc) are connected to them. The red circles show the sockets that need to be connected to the RCD. This fuse board would pass the EICR as everything is connected to an RCD.

Most common item number 4 - No Earth Bonding to Gas supply

You should see a Green & Yellow wire which should be connected to the Gas pipework but cannot been seen in the photo.

The fourth most common fault we found when carrying out an EICR, is when there is not a main earth bonding cable connected to the gas supply.

This is a green and yellow cable that can be seen connecting to the gas meter or gas pipework in the property.

What to check

Firstly check to see if the property does have a gas supply?

Can you see a green and yellow cable connected to any pipes at the gas meter?

If you cannot see a green and yellow cable, then there is a high possibility that the property does not have the main earth bonding, if this is the case then the EICR will fail and create a C2 fault.

This picture shows the gas meter and the green and yellow earth cable connected to the gas pipe. You can clearly see that a Green & Yellow wire has been installed, this will pass the EICR.

If there isn't an earth cable visible, there still is a possibility that it might not fail the test.

When carrying out the EICR, the engineer can perform a test between the copper pipe and the earth cables inside of the fuse board to see if the gas supply is connected or not, as it could be connected but under the flooring etc.

Conclusion

By checking the above 4 items at a property will give the landlord a good idea if a property will likely pass or fail when the EICR is carried out.

If any of the items above fail then the landlord will know to expect that some electrical works will be needed afterwards.

There may be other faults that could come up during the electrical test but by covering the most common items, you will have a good idea on what to expect when the electrical condition report is carried out.

The next most likley question if any items look like they will fail is, how much will it cost to fix the most common items that fail an EICR.

This is covered in our next article.