Updated 30 July 2026
RAMS template for EICR testing
Sixteen steps for the outage, dead and live tests, reporting and handover.
Method statement: inspection and test sequence16 steps
- Get the instruction in writing: the address, whether the report is for a landlord, a sale, an insurer or a main contractor, and who receives it.
- Agree the extent, limitations and the sampling before you price it. An EICR that silently skipped the loft is the version that gets disputed.
- Ask for the last report, the certificates and the circuit chart. Where none exist, say so on the report rather than inventing history.
- Book the outage with the occupier, in writing, with a time window. They are living there and the supply is going off more than once.
- Ask what must not lose power: medical equipment, a freezer, an oxygen concentrator, someone working from home, a server or an alarm. Anything on that list changes the plan, not the timing.
- Confirm the tester and leads meet GS38 and that the instrument is in calibration. Record the serial numbers on the report.
- Walk the installation before touching anything: fixed equipment, damage, signs of overheating, bonding, and where the isolation points actually are.
- Identify asbestos risk before opening enclosures or lifting a floor. An unmarked backboard behind a board in a pre-2000 building is presumed to contain asbestos until a survey says otherwise.
- Isolate at the point that controls the circuit, lock off, keep the only key, and post a notice at the point of isolation. Tell the occupier the supply is off and that nobody re-energises it but you.
- Prove the tester on a proving unit, prove dead at the point of work, then prove the tester again.
- Dead tests as you go: continuity of protective conductors, ring final continuity, insulation resistance and polarity, recorded circuit by circuit. Disconnect or bypass anything an insulation resistance test would damage, and agree that list with the occupier before you start.
- Testing is a work activity on a live conductor, so reg 14 governs the live tests as well as any circuit you cannot get dead. Before each one, answer its three questions in writing: is it unreasonable for the conductor to be dead, is it reasonable to be at work on it live, and what precautions prevent injury.
- Live tests: polarity, earth fault loop impedance, prospective fault current and RCD operation, with the occupier warned before each RCD trip.
- Code every observation as you find it. Trade practice, not a duty in the Regulations: anything you class as dangerous gets made safe before you leave, the client is told the same day, and the action is recorded. Remedial work of that size can itself need a building notice.
- Restore the supply, confirm every circuit is back on and labelled, and check with the occupier that clocks, boilers and alarms have come back.
- Complete the report, give it the date of the inspection and test and the date the next one is due, and hand it to whoever commissioned it. If that is a landlord, the date you write in the inspection box starts their statutory deadlines.
Paste into your own document and edit every line.
What does a reviewer check on an EICR?
| Question | What the provision says | Where |
|---|---|---|
| QuestionIs an EICR notifiable? | What the provision saysNo. Inspection is not in reg 3(1)'s list of building work. Remedial work on a consumer unit or special location can be notifiable. | WhereBuilding Regs 2010, regs 3(1) and 12(6A) |
| QuestionWho counts as a qualified person? | What the provision saysReg 3(8) requires competence for the inspection, testing and any further investigative or remedial work. It does not name a scheme. | Where2020 Regs, reg 3(8) |
| QuestionWhose clock does the test date start? | What the provision saysThe landlord's. Tests are due at intervals of no more than five years. The tenant-copy and remedial-work clocks both run from the inspection and test. | Where2020 Regs, regs 3(1) to 3(4) |
| QuestionDoes a housing association need one? | What the provision saysYes. S.I. 2025/1043 bound registered providers from 1 November 2025, or 1 May 2026 for older tenancies. | WhereS.I. 2025/1043, reg 1(2)(b) |
HSE says about three workers are electrocuted each year during building refurbishment. Reg 3(5): after remedial work, the confirmation and the report go to the tenant and the local housing authority inside 28 days. Reg 1(3): “These Regulations apply in England only in relation to specified tenancies.”
Whose duty does the report discharge?
Two. The landlord's is in the 2020 Regulations; yours is EAWR reg 4(2): “As may be necessary to prevent danger, all systems shall be maintained so as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, such danger.” Reg 13, reg 14 and reg 16 govern how you got the evidence.
What is left for you to write?
The hazards and controls, the limitations, and the outage windows. The Word file beside these steps is the general electrician RAMS; it has no EICR section yet. If the report leads to a board change, the £29 consumer unit RAMS is task-specific and editable.