If a solicitor, estate agent or letting agent has asked you for an "electrical cert", you're not alone — it's one of the most common questions Irish homeowners bring to us. The short answer: no single law forces a homeowner to hold a certificate just for owning a house, but the moment money or tenants change hands, you'll almost always need one. Here's how it actually works.
The Two Certificates People Mean
When someone says "electrical cert" they usually mean one of two things:
- A Completion Certificate — issued by a Safe Electric Registered Electrical Contractor after new wiring or a modification. It confirms the work meets IS 10101, the national wiring standard. You get this when you have work done.
- An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) — a health check of the existing installation, also called a periodic inspection. It grades the condition of your wiring, board and circuits. You get this to prove the installation is safe right now.
For selling or letting, the EICR is usually what's being requested.
Selling a House
There's no law that says you must produce an electrical cert to sell a home in Ireland — but conveyancing has its own rules. If electrical work was carried out on the property, the buyer's solicitor will ask for the Completion Certificate for that work. If you've had a rewire, an extension, or a board upgrade and can't find the cert, the sale can stall while it gets sorted. A current EICR is also a quiet selling point: it tells buyers the wiring won't need money spent on it the week they move in.
Buying a House
On the buying side, a pre-purchase electrical survey is one of the cheapest forms of insurance you can buy. An older property with original wiring can need anything from a board upgrade to a full rewire, and that's a number worth knowing before you sign. An EICR gives you exactly that — and a stronger hand in the price negotiation if remedial work is flagged.
Renting Out a Property
Landlords carry a clear duty here. Under the rented-house standards regulations, every let property must have a safe electrical installation, and the wiring, fittings and any supplied appliances must be kept in good repair and safe working order. There's no single fixed interval written into Irish law the way there is in some countries, but the practical standard most landlords and agents work to is a satisfactory EICR every few years, and again whenever there's doubt at a change of tenancy. If a tenant is ever injured by a fault you can't show you checked for, that's your problem. A current EICR is your evidence that you met the duty.
What an EICR Actually Checks
A qualified electrician inspects and tests the whole installation:
- The consumer unit (fuse board) and its protective devices
- Earthing and bonding — the safety backbone of the system
- Every circuit, tested for insulation resistance, polarity and earth fault loop impedance
- Sockets, switches and accessories for damage or overheating
- RCD operation — the device that cuts power fast enough to prevent a fatal shock
Findings are coded C1 (danger present), C2 (potentially dangerous), C3 (improvement recommended) or FI (further investigation needed). A report with no C1 or C2 items is considered satisfactory. We explain every code in plain English so you know what it means for the sale or the tenancy.
What It Costs in 2026
An EICR on a typical three-bed house takes two to three hours and costs roughly €200–€350 depending on size and how the installation is laid out. If the report flags remedial work, we price that separately and clearly, so you decide what happens next with the full picture in front of you. There's no obligation to have us carry out any follow-up work.
How to Get Your Cert Sorted
Use a Safe Electric registered contractor — only a registered contractor can issue a valid Completion Certificate, and a proper EICR comes with full test results, not a one-line "pass". We're Safe Electric registered (A6700), we test with calibrated instruments, and we turn reports around quickly because we know a sale or a tenancy is usually waiting on it. If you're not sure which certificate you actually need, send us the request from your solicitor or agent and we'll tell you straight. See our testing & certification service for what's involved.