EIC vs EICR: What's the Difference?
They sound almost the same and get mixed up constantly, but they do opposite jobs: an EIC certifies new electrical work as safe when you install it, while an EICR reports on the condition of an existing installation someone else may have built.
The two most confused documents in electrical work are the EIC and the EICR — one letter apart, and routinely used to mean each other by clients, letting agents and even trades. Getting them straight matters, because they certify fundamentally different things and issuing the wrong one is a real problem.
This guide sets out what each document is, when you issue an EIC versus an EICR, who signs them, and the everyday situations where people ask for the wrong one.
Key takeaways
- An EIC (Electrical Installation Certificate) certifies new installation work — a new installation or a new circuit — as designed, constructed and tested to BS 7671.
- An EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) reports on the condition of an existing installation, coding any defects C1, C2, C3 or FI.
- An EIC declares work satisfactory to the standard; an EICR gives an overall satisfactory or unsatisfactory outcome.
- You issue an EIC for work you've done; you issue an EICR to assess work already there.
- For an addition or alteration that isn't a new circuit, the right document is usually a Minor Works Certificate, not an EIC.
What an EIC is
An Electrical Installation Certificate certifies that new electrical installation work has been designed, constructed, inspected and tested in accordance with BS 7671. It's the document you issue when you've installed something — a whole new installation, a rewire, or a new final circuit added to an existing board — declaring that the work you carried out is safe and compliant.
An EIC carries declarations for design, construction, and inspection and testing (which may be one person or three), and it comes with a schedule of inspections and a schedule of test results recording everything you measured. It certifies your work, at the point you did it — it's a statement about new work, not an assessment of an existing installation's ongoing condition.
What an EICR is
An Electrical Installation Condition Report reports on the condition of an existing electrical installation at a point in time. You inspect and test what's already there — which you may not have installed — and report its condition, classifying every defect you find with an observation code: C1 (danger present), C2 (potentially dangerous), C3 (improvement recommended) or FI (further investigation required).
An EICR doesn't certify anything as compliant; it reports. The overall outcome is satisfactory or unsatisfactory: a single C1 or C2 makes it unsatisfactory, while a report with nothing worse than C3s remains satisfactory. It's the document behind periodic inspections, landlord safety checks, and pre-purchase surveys — anywhere the question is "what condition is this installation in?" rather than "is this new work safe?".
Certify vs report
An EIC certifies your new work as compliant. An EICR reports on an existing installation's condition and codes its defects. One declares, the other assesses.
When you issue each
Issue an EIC when you've carried out new installation work: a new installation, a rewire, or a new circuit run from the board. The trigger is new work that you designed and built and are now certifying as compliant. If what you did is a new circuit, it's an EIC (or, for smaller new-circuit work, still an EIC — a Minor Works Certificate does not cover a new circuit).
Issue an EICR when you're assessing the condition of an existing installation: a landlord's periodic check, a report before a house sale, a routine inspection at the recommended interval, or a client wanting to know whether their wiring is safe. You're not certifying work you did — you're testing and reporting on what's there and coding its faults.
The addition-or-alteration trap
The commonest confusion isn't EIC versus EICR at all — it's whether an addition or alteration needs an EIC or a Minor Works Certificate. The dividing line is the new circuit. If your work adds a new circuit, it needs an EIC. If it's an addition or alteration to an existing circuit that doesn't create a new one — adding a socket to a ring, extending a lighting circuit, replacing a consumer unit is its own case — the appropriate document is a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate (MEIWC).
So the three-way decision is: existing installation being assessed → EICR; new circuit or new installation → EIC; addition or alteration to an existing circuit, no new circuit → Minor Works Certificate. Reaching for an EIC when a Minor Works would do, or vice versa, is the mistake that trips people up far more often than mixing up EIC and EICR themselves.
The new-circuit test
Did the job create a new circuit? Yes → EIC. No, but you altered an existing circuit → Minor Works. Assessing what's already there → EICR.
Who signs and what it covers
An EIC carries up to three signatures — design, construction, and inspection and testing — because on larger jobs those can be different people or firms; on most jobs one competent electrician signs all three. It certifies the specific new work and comes with full schedules of the inspections and test results for that work.
An EICR is signed by the competent person who inspected and tested, and covers the extent of the installation actually inspected — which should be stated, along with any limitations agreed (for example, a sample of accessories rather than every one). The EICR records observations and codes and gives the overall satisfactory/unsatisfactory verdict, with a recommended date for the next inspection. Both documents rely on the same underlying testing, but one declares new work compliant and the other reports on existing condition.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between an EIC and an EICR?
An EIC (Electrical Installation Certificate) certifies new installation work — a new installation or new circuit — as compliant with BS 7671. An EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) reports on the condition of an existing installation and codes its defects. One certifies new work; the other assesses existing work.
Do I need an EIC or an EICR for a new circuit?
An EIC. Any new circuit — or a new installation or rewire — is certified with an Electrical Installation Certificate. An EICR is for reporting on the condition of an existing installation, not for certifying new work.
Is a landlord safety check an EIC or an EICR?
An EICR. A landlord's periodic electrical safety inspection reports on the condition of the existing installation and gives a satisfactory or unsatisfactory outcome — that's an EICR, not an EIC.
What if I only added a socket, not a new circuit?
That's usually a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate, not an EIC. An EIC is for a new circuit or installation; an addition or alteration that doesn't create a new circuit is covered by a Minor Works Certificate.
From guidance to action
Related guides
Minor Works Certificate: When and How
What counts as minor works, when an MEIWC is enough, and how to fill one in correctly.
Electrical Certificate Types Explained
A plain guide to the electrical certificates you issue and which job each one belongs to.
Initial Verification: The BS 7671 Testing Sequence
The correct dead-then-live testing sequence for initial verification, step by step.
