A periodic inspection in Hemel Hempstead is the question I get from people who live in the house, and from people buying or selling one. This guide is for them. It is not the walk-through of the test, and it is not the landlord rules. If you want what happens on the day, read the Hemel EICR article. If you let the property, the landlord EICR article covers the five-year rule, the tenant copy and Dacorum. The page to book the certificate is the Hemel electrical safety certificate page, from £80.
What a periodic inspection is
Periodic inspection is the proper name for the test. The document you get at the end is an electrical safety certificate. In the trade that certificate is an EICR, an Electrical Installation Condition Report. It is the same visit. I test the fixed wiring I can reach: the circuits on the consumer unit, the sockets and lights, and the earthing and bonding. You get the report the same day, signed under NAPIT registration 81930.
The codes are C1, C2, C3 and FI. A buyer or a solicitor is usually asking whether there is a C1 or a C2. I explain those before I leave. The test method, and what HP1, HP2 and HP3 houses tend to show, is in the walk-through article, not here.
How often a homeowner should book one
If you own the house and you live in it, nobody makes you hold a current certificate. There is no five-year law for owner-occupiers. That rule is for privately rented homes, and it sits on the landlord page, not here.
What I tell homeowners in HP1, HP2 and HP3 is simpler. If the wiring has never been tested, or the last certificate is more than ten years old, book one. Book one before you add a shower, a charger or a loft circuit to an original New Town board in Adeyfield, Bennetts End or Highfield. In the Old Town, a board of rewirable fuses is a reason to test, even if the lights come on.
Moving in, or getting ready to move out, is the other sensible point. Ten years is the interval I use for a house you live in. A burning smell, a breaker that keeps opening, or rubber cable in the loft is a call, not a date in the diary. The price is the same as a rental: £80, £130, £180 and £230 by bedroom count. A larger house is quoted first. The report is emailed the same day.
What the electrical safety certificate shows
It is a condition report, not a promise that nothing will ever fail. It says what I could test on the day, and the code for each observation.
You can show it to a buyer, a solicitor or an insurer. It is the same FRM report I email to Hemel letting agents. It names the address, how much of the installation was inspected, anything I could not get to, and the observations. For a sale, satisfactory means no C1 and no C2. A C3 does not fail it. I still tell you what the C3 is, because a buyer will ask.
If the next job is a consumer unit, that starts from £500. If the installation as a whole is finished, a rewire for a typical 3-bed New Town house starts from around £3,500, after a survey. I will not recommend either just because you asked for a certificate. An extra socket starts from £60 for a spur.
Buying a house in Hemel Hempstead
If you are buying in Hemel, ask whether there is a recent electrical safety certificate before you exchange. A lot of New Town houses have never had one. The lights working on a viewing does not tell you the condition of the wiring.
You can ask the seller to provide a periodic inspection, or book one yourself once you own it. I cannot test a house you do not have access to. If the seller will let me in before completion, either of you can book it and the report is emailed the same day. If they will not, book it for the week you get the keys. The test is from £80. Remedial work is priced after the report.
Old Town, along the High Street, is the one I would most want to see before exchange, because the wiring has often been added to. Adeyfield and the rest of HP2 are more often an original board. Apsley, Boxmoor and Leverstock Green are often newer, and a newer flat can still have a kitchen that was never certified. Gadebridge and Warners End are HP1 New Town houses, not the Georgian High Street.
Selling
If you are selling, a solicitor or a buyer will often ask for an electrical safety certificate even though you are not legally required to hold one as an owner-occupier. Getting it done before the survey, rather than the week of exchange, means a C2 is not a surprise with the removal van booked.
If the report is satisfactory, send it. If it is not, do the remedial work and I can re-test what failed, or pass the report to the buyer and negotiate. I will not write a satisfactory certificate over a C2. A damaged socket or a missing bond can often be done on the same visit. A consumer unit is usually a separate morning, from £500.
Tell the buyer the date, and what was outside the inspection. A five-year-old certificate on a house you have since extended does not describe the new circuit. That needs a new periodic inspection.
Which Hemel page to use
Book the certificate on the Hemel electrical safety certificate page. Read the walk-through if you want the tests and the codes in more detail. Read the landlord article if the house is rented: that one is the five-year rule. This page is for people who live in the house, or who are buying or selling it.
Hemel is a base, so a routine inspection is usually the same day or the next day. Call 07405 629 940.