EICR Observation Codes Explained

An EICR does more than say whether an installation is safe. It records specific findings, each one classified with a code, and those codes drive the report’s outcome. If you’re new to condition reports, or you’re a landlord who’s just been handed one with a page of C2s on it, this covers what the codes mean and what happens next.

What an observation code classifies

A code doesn’t describe the installation as a whole. It classifies one specific finding that doesn’t meet the requirements of BS 7671. A missing piece of bonding, an overloaded circuit, a socket with no earth. Each finding gets its own code, and one report can carry several different codes across several findings.

The code reflects the risk attached to that one finding, on the facts as found on the day. Two similar-looking faults can carry different codes depending on the circumstances around them. How a circuit is used, what’s connected to it, how accessible it is, whether other protective measures are already in place. Classification is the inspector’s professional judgement applied to BS 7671, rather than a fixed table of faults matched to codes.

That’s worth holding onto as you read the examples below. They’re there to show the kind of finding that tends to attract each code, not to be matched against what’s in front of you on site.

There are four codes in use on the current EICR: C1, C2, C3 and FI.

C1, danger present

C1 means a danger exists right now and there’s a risk of injury. It calls for immediate action.

Where an inspector finds a C1, the usual response is to make that part of the installation safe before leaving the property, by isolating a circuit for example, where that can be done safely. Whoever instructed the inspection needs to be told straight away. Not left to be read on the paperwork later.

Findings that tend to be coded C1 include exposed live conductors somebody could touch, a consumer unit with a damaged enclosure leaving live parts accessible, or a socket outlet with live parts exposed behind a broken faceplate.

What happens next. The danger gets made safe or isolated before the report is even finished. The report records what was found and what was done about it.

C2, potentially dangerous

C2 means the finding is potentially dangerous should a fault or another condition occur, and it calls for urgent remedial action.

It sits below C1 because there’s no live danger in front of the inspector on the day, but there’s a real risk if circumstances change. A fault develops, someone touches the wrong thing, a protective device doesn’t operate the way it should.

Findings that tend to be coded C2 include missing earthing or bonding where the installation requires it, an absent or non-functioning RCD where one is needed for the circuits it protects, or a protective device that doesn’t match the cable it’s protecting.

**What happens next. **The client needs the remedial work doing urgently. A C2 doesn’t require the electrician to stay on site and put it right there and then, the way a C1 does, but it shouldn’t be sitting there in six months either.

C3, improvement recommended

C3 is the only code that doesn’t affect the overall outcome. It flags something that falls short of current guidance without being dangerous, most often an installation which complied under an earlier edition of the regulations and hasn’t been brought up to current recommendations since.

Findings that tend to be coded C3 include no RCD protection on socket circuits in a property where it isn’t strictly required but would be sensible to add, or missing circuit labelling at the consumer unit.

What happens next. It’s a recommendation rather than a requirement. The client can act on it or leave it. There’s no urgency attached to a C3 on its own.

FI, further investigation required

FI means the inspector found something that couldn’t be fully assessed within the scope of the inspection. A limitation on access, a symptom without an obvious cause, wiring that needs tracing before its condition can be judged.

An FI doesn’t say a danger exists, and it doesn’t say everything is fine. It says the inspector doesn’t yet have enough information to classify what they found.

Findings that tend to be coded FI include signs of overheating at a point that couldn’t be opened up during the visit, or evidence of an intermittent fault that wasn’t reproducible on the day.

What happens next. The further investigation needs to happen, and the report should say by when. Treat an FI with the same urgency as a C2 until the investigation shows otherwise. An unclassified finding isn’t a safe one by default.

X, and why it isn’t a fifth code

You may also see an X on a report. It isn’t a fifth classification.

It belongs to one specific place, section 1.1 of the inspection schedule, where BS 7671 allows any item to be marked X. Where an item is marked that way, a comment against it belongs in section K, the observations section, so the reason sits alongside everything else found on the day. Outside section 1.1, the codes are C1, C2, C3 and FI.

Shine Forms carries the X through to that observation automatically, so the schedule and the observations stay tied together.

How the codes decide the outcome

The overall result, satisfactory or unsatisfactory, follows from the codes recorded against the report.

Any C1 or C2 makes the report unsatisfactory.

C3 codes on their own don’t. A report carrying C3s and nothing worse can still be satisfactory. C3 is the only code compatible with a satisfactory outcome.

An FI means the assessment isn’t complete. Until the further investigation resolves it, the outcome can’t be confirmed as satisfactory.

If you’re a landlord or agent holding an unsatisfactory report, the next step is getting the C1 and C2 items, plus any open FIs, put right by a qualified electrician, then having those items re-inspected and signed off.

A full new EICR isn’t always needed for that, so ask the electrician who produced the original report what they’d suggest.

How long you’ve got

Landlords in England work to a deadline set by the private rented sector electrical safety regulations. The report may specify a shorter period for a particular item, and where it does, that shorter period applies. Written confirmation that the work has been done then goes to the tenant and the local authority.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own arrangements, so check the position where the property is.

Consistent classification, wherever it happens

Because classification is a judgement call, the same finding can be coded differently by two inspectors, or by the same inspector on two different days. That’s professional judgement working as it should. It’s also a problem for a team producing reports under one name, and for a landlord comparing two reports on the same property from different visits.

Shine Forms ties codes to the specific schedule item they came from and generates the linked observation when an item is coded C1, C2, C3 or FI.

The wording and the code stay consistent with what’s recorded in the inspection schedule, whoever on the team carried out the inspection.

If you want to see how that fits together, our EICR software covers it. For the report as a whole, How to Fill in an EICR works through it section by section.