EICR has come back unsatisfactory with C1, C2 or FI codes in London

Electrical Safety Certificate London: When the Result Comes Back Unsatisfactory

You've got the report in your hand and it says unsatisfactory. There's a list of observations, each one carrying a code - C1, C2, C3 or FI - and no obvious explanation of what happens next. If you're a landlord, there's a clock running too. Most people we speak to at this stage aren't panicking. They're trying to work out what's actually wrong, what it'll cost, and who to trust with the fix.

So let's take it in order.

What an Unsatisfactory EICR Usually Points To

Nobody can tell you the cause from the paperwork alone - but the same handful of things account for most of it.

Coded departures like missing RCD protection, inadequate bonding or ageing wiring are far and away the most common driver, and they're usually what the observation schedule is describing when it hands out C1, C2 or FI codes. Often it's an old fuse board with no earth-leakage protection sitting underneath several observations at once - fix that one thing and a chunk of the list can go with it. Sometimes it's accumulated DIY alterations that never met the regulations in the first place. Extra sockets, a spur off a spur, a light fitting swapped by someone's cousin.

And occasionally - not often, but it happens - the coding is simply over-cautious, and a second opinion against industry coding guidance would soften it.

Worth remembering what the codes actually mean. C1 is danger present. C2 is potentially dangerous. C3 is improvement recommended, which doesn't make a report unsatisfactory on its own. FI means further investigation is needed before anyone can say either way.

How Urgent Is It?

Two different answers here, and it matters which one applies to you.

Any C1 means danger is present right now - not next month, not at some vague point in the future. That's urgent today regardless of whether the property's rented, owned or sitting empty.

Everything else is deadline-driven rather than emergency. For a rented property under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, you've got 28 days from the inspection to complete the remedial work - or less, if the report specifies a shorter period - with written confirmation to your tenants and the local authority. Councils can impose civil penalties of up to £40,000 per breach of those Regulations under SI 2025/1043, in force since 1 November 2025. That's a breach of the landlord electrical safety duty specifically, not a general housing fine.

Social landlords are working to their own timetable now: the Social Housing (Electrical Safety) Standards 2025 apply to new social tenancies from 1 December 2025 and to earlier tenancies from 1 May 2026, with transitional provisions allowing the first inspection before 1 November 2026.

Owner-occupied? There's no legal EICR requirement on you at all. The faults are still real, though, and a C1 doesn't care about your tenure.

What You Can Safely Check Yourself

Keep the full report. Not just the summary page - the observation schedule and the test results too, because the codes are what define the scope of work. Anyone quoting you without seeing that schedule is guessing.

Then check three things. Is any observation coded C1? If yes, treat the installation as dangerous today. What's the inspection date on the front? That's when the 28-day clock started for a rental, not the date the report landed in your inbox. And does anything say FI - because further investigation isn't a fault yet, it's an unanswered question, and it needs resolving before the report can be signed off as satisfactory.

What not to do: don't start pulling covers off the consumer unit, and don't let a general builder "sort a couple of the small ones" so the list looks shorter. Remedial work against a coded observation has to be done and certified properly, or you'll pay for it twice.

What We Check

We review each coded observation against the actual installation - not just the paperwork. That distinction matters more than people expect. Plenty of what gets written up as C2 is arguably C3 under industry coding guidance, and that's a real conversation worth having before anyone starts stripping out cable.

From there we separate the genuine C2s from the borderline ones, then price the remedial scope item by item against the observation schedule, so you can see exactly what each line costs and decide what you're doing. No lump sum, no vagueness. Once the works are done, we re-test and issue the certification and written confirmation the regulations require.

Our engineers are qualified to the standards the work requires. And with London stock we know what we're walking into - post-war ex-council blocks across South East London still running original consumer units without RCD protection, Victorian and Edwardian conversions in North London where older cabling and unearthed lighting circuits hide behind modern fittings. That kind of stock throws up the same C2 findings again and again on a first EICR.

How It's Fixed

Four routes, and which one applies depends entirely on what the schedule says.

Most reports need itemised eicr remedial work to clear every C1, C2 and FI - targeted repairs, each one tied to a specific observation. Where an old board with no earth-leakage protection is anchoring the failure, a consumer unit upgrade often clears several lines in one go. Where the wiring itself is the problem, you're looking at a partial or full rewire. And whichever route it takes, the job isn't finished until re-inspection produces a satisfactory report - that's the document that closes out your obligation.

Bookings are taken 24/7, and same-day EICR appointments are available. What we won't do is quote you a figure before we've read your observation schedule.

If your report shows a C1, that one's for today. If it's C2s and FIs on a rented property, count 28 days forward from your inspection date - or fewer, where the report specifies a shorter period and work back from there - that's your real deadline, and remedial work plus re-inspection has to fit inside it.