By the Beacon Living Group team · 18 July 2026 · 7 min read + calculator
Summary: if you let a property in Manchester, Beacon Living Group can tell you the EICR landlord requirement in one line. You need a valid Electrical Installation Condition Report, renewed at least every five years, carried out by a qualified electrician. A report is satisfactory unless it flags a C1 or C2 code and those must be put right within 28 days. Miss the deadline and the council can step in and fine you.
The EICR is the certificate landlords are most likely to let slip. A gas safety check comes round every year, so it stays front of mind. Electrical inspections run on a five-year cycle, which is just long enough to forget when the last one was. By the time you remember, the clock may already have run out.
This guide covers what the law asks for, what the report checks and what the codes mean. The calculator further down works out your next renewal date from the date of your last inspection. None of this is legal advice. It is general information to help you stay on top of the requirement. For anything specific to your property, speak to a qualified electrician or a solicitor.
Since 1 April 2021, the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 have applied to all existing tenancies in England. A landlord must have the fixed electrical installation inspected and tested by a qualified and competent person at least every five years. The installation means the permanent wiring:
It does not mean plug-in items like kettles or lamps. The output of that inspection is the Electrical Installation Condition Report, the EICR. Five years is the maximum interval, not a fixed one. If the inspecting electrician judges the installation should be re-tested sooner, the report will say so and that earlier date then becomes your legal deadline. The regulations cover residential private rented properties in England, including houses in multiple occupation.
The inspection has to be done by someone qualified and competent, typically a registered electrician who is a member of a recognised competent-person scheme. Ask to see their registration before they start. A certificate from someone unqualified will not protect you. The penalties for going without a valid report are the reason this matters. A local authority can:
It is far cheaper to book the inspection than to explain to the council why you never did. Electrical safety sits alongside your other certificate deadlines, so track them with your wider EPC and compliance planning.
An EICR does not simply pass or fail as a whole. The electrician assigns a code to each issue found. If the report contains any C1 or C2 code, it is classed as unsatisfactory and remedial work is required. Where that happens, you must complete or commission the remedial work within 28 days of receiving the report, or sooner if the report sets a shorter period and obtain written confirmation that the work has been done.
You must also supply a copy of the report:
Enter the date of your last EICR. We will work out when the next one is due, five years on and how long you have left. Illustrative only and based on the standard five-year maximum. Always follow any earlier date your report specifies.
| Code | Meaning | Action required |
|---|---|---|
| C1 | Danger present. Immediate risk of injury. | Remedial work required. Address immediately and within 28 days of the report. |
| C2 | Potentially dangerous. | Remedial work required within 28 days of the report. |
| C3 | Improvement recommended. Not a failure. | No mandatory action. Optional, at your discretion. |
Under a Beacon corporate lease, Beacon commissions the EICR and coordinates remedial works at our cost. The landlord has one fewer certificate to track.
Most compliance failures are not about landlords cutting corners. They are about the five-year gap. You book the inspection, the property runs quietly for years and the renewal date arrives with no annual prompt to remind you. If a tenancy changes hands in that window, the paperwork can slip through unnoticed. The fix is simple.
Log the renewal date the moment each report lands and set a reminder a couple of months ahead, so you have time to book the inspection and complete any remedial work before the deadline. The calculator above gives you the date to log. Our guide on selective licensing in Manchester covers another certificate landlords in certain areas need to watch.
When Beacon Living Group takes a property on a corporate lease, the compliance admin moves with it. Beacon commissions the EICR, tracks the renewal date and coordinates any remedial works at our cost. You keep the certainty of a fixed rent and drop one more deadline off your list.
That does not remove your underlying legal position as the property owner and we would always encourage you to keep your own copy of every certificate. What changes is the day-to-day tracking. Request a free rent offer and we will walk you through exactly what Beacon handles and what stays with you.
At least every five years in England, under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 and sooner if the report specifies a shorter interval. A fresh report is needed at least every five years even if nothing has changed. This is general information, not legal advice.
C1 means danger is present and immediate action is required. C2 means potentially dangerous, with remedial work needed. C3 means improvement is recommended but is not a failure and no work is legally required. Any C1 or C2 makes the report unsatisfactory.
If a report returns a C1 or C2 code, you must complete or commission the remedial work within 28 days of receiving it, or sooner if the report says so and get written confirmation the work is done. You must also supply the report to existing tenants within 28 days of the inspection.
No. A C3 is a recommendation for improvement, not a failure and there is no legal deadline to act on one. A report with only C3 codes is still satisfactory. Only C1 and C2 codes make a report unsatisfactory.
Yes. Supply a copy to existing tenants within 28 days of the inspection and to any new tenant before they move in. A copy must also go to the local authority within seven days if they request it.
The local authority can require remedial action, arrange the work itself and recover the cost and impose a financial penalty for non-compliance. The rules apply to residential private rented properties in England, including HMOs. This is general information, not legal advice.
About Beacon Living Group. Beacon Living Group is a Manchester guaranteed rent and serviced accommodation operator. It leases properties from landlords across Manchester on 3- to 5-year corporate leases, pays a fixed monthly rent with no fees and is built to manage every stay in-house. Beacon Living Group Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company no. 17076795.
Request a free rent offer and see how Beacon Living Group handles the EICR, the renewal dates and the remedial works, so you do not have to.
