You booked an EICR test in London, and now you wait for the electricians to arrive at your premises. Maybe you feel a little nervous about it. Most people do. There is money on the line, and there is the quiet worry that something behind your walls has been wrong for years.
Let’s break down what happens once the electrician arrives. The first 20 minutes of an EICR test in London tell you more than you might expect. They set the tone for the whole visit, and honestly, they often hint at the result before a single circuit gets tested.
What the Electrician Checks First
The engineer does not go straight for your fuse box. Not right away. First, they talk to you. They ask relevant questions, and those questions matter.
Expect to be asked about:
- The age of the property and any recent electrical work
- Whether you have paperwork from past inspections
- Any flickering lights, warm sockets, or tripping switches you have noticed
- Access to the consumer unit, the meter, and every room
That last point trips up more London landlords than any other. If a tenant locks a room, or a cupboard blocks the fuse box, the whole test stalls. Here is why access is not a small thing. An inspector cannot certify what they cannot reach, and a partial inspection helps no one.
The Consumer Unit Tells a Story
After the chat, the electrician looks at your consumer unit. You might call it the fuse box. This is where the first real judgment forms.
Older London homes often hide a problem here. A wooden backboard, a plastic unit with no metal casing, and rewirable fuses instead of modern breakers. None of these means instant failure, but they raise flags. Georgian and Victorian conversions across Chelsea and Battersea carry this baggage all the time.
The engineer reads the unit like a doctor reads a chart. Are there RCDs fitted? Is there any sign of overheating or scorching? Was the last board installed by someone who knew the rules, or by someone cutting corners?
This moment is the most telling part of the visit. You can almost see the electrician making mental notes before any test equipment comes out.
Visual Checks Before Anything Gets Switched Off
The first 20 minutes are mostly a visual inspection. No power has been cut yet. The engineer walks around the property and looks closely at what a normal person would walk straight past.
They scan for:
- Cracked or scorched socket faces
- Sockets that feel loose in the wall
- Cables run in ways that break current wiring standards.
- Bathroom fittings are placed too close to water.
- Missing earth bonding on pipes near the meter
Damaged sockets are common in older rental flats. Tenants plug in heaters, overload extension leads, and years pass. Small damage adds up. A single cracked socket rarely fails a whole report, but a pattern of them suggests deeper neglect, and inspectors notice patterns.
Why Two London Flats Get Different Results
Two flats on the same street can get very different outcomes. That surprises people. One passes clean, the next comes back unsatisfactory, and the buildings look identical from the pavement.
The difference usually lies in the history. Who wired the last kitchen? Whether a previous owner added sockets without proper certification. Whether the bonding was ever done correctly when the boiler was replaced. Small decisions made years ago determine your result today.
This is worth sitting with for a moment. Your EICR outcome reflects choices you may have never made yourself. You inherited them when you bought or took on the property.
What This First Phase Means for You
The opening 20 minutes rarely produce your certificate. What they produce is a direction. An experienced engineer often has a strong sense of the outcome before the testing phase even starts.
So what can you do before the visit?
- Clear access to the fuse box, meter, and every room
- Gather any past electrical certificates you hold
- Note down faults you have seen, even small ones.
- Tell the electrician about any work done without paperwork.
These steps do not change your wiring. They do stop avoidable delays, and they help the engineer give you an accurate report rather than a cautious one built on guesswork.
After the First 20 Minutes
Once the visual inspection wraps up, the electrician moves to live testing. Power gets isolated, circuits get checked, readings get recorded. This is the technical heart of the job, and it takes far longer than the opening phase.
The remedial reality can sting. If your report comes back unsatisfactory, you must make repairs before you can legally rent the property out. Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, landlords must act on any dangerous findings, usually within 28 days. Ignore that, and penalties climb toward £30,000. That figure is not a scare tactic. It is written into the rules.
Would you rather know now, or find out after a tenant reports a shock? Most people, once they think about it, would rather know now.
The first 20 minutes are not the verdict. They are the moment your property starts telling its truth. Prepare well, give the engineer full access, and you give yourself the fairest possible read on what lies behind your walls.
