It is the same as it ever was. The new rental law has just put it into sharp relief. Membership of a club has to all intent become mandatory in order to trade. The membership is big money for the schemes and maintaining the integrity of the brands means three wise monkeys; very much keep your head down and do not rock the gravy train. So, really, a  protection tennis racket.


The key, though, is what the market will price an EICR, especially Rental ones. The market demands cheap up front. So less effort goes into the procedure, especially the "Inspection" bit and the final evaluation bit. If the price means less time in the house, an accurate assessment is going to go out the window and there will be a temptation to code from the hip with the added benefit of follow on remedial work .  Another is that most electricians experience of "Inspection" is for initial verification, when the annual scheme assessor picks up "issues" with the new work chosen for annual assessment. Unfortunately, the perception of in-service verification is that it is low competency and of a lesser value to actual installation work. The Inspection Engineers for the schemes are a large part of the problem; some have a tendency to set the bar at the lowest common denominator, in respect of technical ability, so over compensate by applying an over engineered "deemed to comply" strategy to everyone. Your are guilty until you can prove your innocence. That, unsurprisingly, leads to many taking the easy route of everything, including things completely unrelated to the work you have done or the EICR you have carried out, being subjected to "compliance" with the latest version of BS7671 or the particular foible of an Inspection Engineer. That particular foible can be an insistence that only only a fully populated RCBO domestic consumer unit can comply with BS7671, for example.


Nothing will change. If you set the Inspector technical  level too high, 80% of those conducting EICRs would be unemployed. It would be fundamentally easier if there were a periodic inspection particularly tailored to rental inspection. Something no more than two pages of A4, a simple stop/go tick box approach, but brutally prescriptive, like the vehicle MOT.

It is the same as it ever was. The new rental law has just put it into sharp relief. Membership of a club has to all intent become mandatory in order to trade. The membership is big money for the schemes and maintaining the integrity of the brands means three wise monkeys; very much keep your head down and do not rock the gravy train. So, really, a  protection tennis racket.


The key, though, is what the market will price an EICR, especially Rental ones. The market demands cheap up front. So less effort goes into the procedure, especially the "Inspection" bit and the final evaluation bit. If the price means less time in the house, an accurate assessment is going to go out the window and there will be a temptation to code from the hip with the added benefit of follow on remedial work .  Another is that most electricians experience of "Inspection" is for initial verification, when the annual scheme assessor picks up "issues" with the new work chosen for annual assessment. Unfortunately, the perception of in-service verification is that it is low competency and of a lesser value to actual installation work. The Inspection Engineers for the schemes are a large part of the problem; some have a tendency to set the bar at the lowest common denominator, in respect of technical ability, so over compensate by applying an over engineered "deemed to comply" strategy to everyone. Your are guilty until you can prove your innocence. That, unsurprisingly, leads to many taking the easy route of everything, including things completely unrelated to the work you have done or the EICR you have carried out, being subjected to "compliance" with the latest version of BS7671 or the particular foible of an Inspection Engineer. That particular foible can be an insistence that only only a fully populated RCBO domestic consumer unit can comply with BS7671, for example.


Nothing will change. If you set the Inspector technical  level too high, 80% of those conducting EICRs would be unemployed. It would be fundamentally easier if there were a periodic inspection particularly tailored to rental inspection. Something no more than two pages of A4, a simple stop/go tick box approach, but brutally prescriptive, like the vehicle MOT.