Electrical Diagnostic — £99.99/hr, No Call-Out Fee

Electrical fault finding for landlords — what it covers

An EICR tells you the condition of your electrical installation at a point in time — but electrical faults can develop at any point between inspections. A circuit breaker that keeps tripping, an RCD that trips and won't reset, lights that flicker or go dead, or a socket that sparks — these need immediate investigation, not a full 5-year inspection.

Our NICEIC approved electricians use specialist test equipment — insulation resistance testers, loop impedance meters, and RCD testers — to systematically isolate the fault without guesswork. We explain the cause in plain English and complete any minor repairs during the same visit. If larger remedial work is needed, we quote before starting.

As a landlord, you have a duty under the Housing Act 2004 and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to keep electrical installations in safe working order. Acting quickly on tenant reports of electrical faults protects both your tenants and your legal position.

Common faults we trace and fix

• ✓MCB (circuit breaker) tripping repeatedly
• ✓RCD failing to reset or nuisance tripping
• ✓Dead sockets or socket circuits
• ✓Flickering or intermittently dead lights
• ✓Burning smell from sockets or consumer unit
• ✓Partial power loss after a fault or surge
• ✓Earth fault on a specific circuit
• ✓Overloaded circuits causing nuisance trips

Pricing

How it works

Related services

The diagnostic may reveal a need for these.

What does an electrical diagnostic involve?

An electrical diagnostic is a targeted, test-driven process of identifying the specific cause of an active fault in a rental property. Unlike a periodic EICR — which assesses the condition of the whole installation — a diagnostic focuses on a known problem that has developed between inspections.

Common reasons landlords call for a diagnostic

• ✓RCD has tripped and won't reset
• ✓Circuit breaker keeps tripping with no apparent cause
• ✓Sockets on a ring main have gone dead after a surge
• ✓Lights flicker intermittently or fail entirely
• ✓Burning or melting smell from consumer unit or accessories
• ✓Power loss following damp ingress or a water leak near fittings

Diagnostic tools and methods

Our electricians use professional-grade test instruments to trace faults systematically — insulation resistance testers to identify degraded cable insulation, earth loop impedance meters to check the fault path back to supply, RCD trip-time testers to identify delayed or failed residual current devices, and clamp meters to measure live current across circuits. Where useful, thermal imaging can detect hot spots in accessories or inside the consumer unit.

Electrical diagnostic vs EICR — which do you need?

An EICR is the right choice when you are approaching the 5-year periodic inspection cycle, starting a new tenancy without a recent EICR, or complying with the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020.

An electrical diagnostic is the right choice when a specific fault has developed between inspections. A full EICR records the condition of the whole installation but will not pinpoint an active intermittent fault — a targeted diagnostic does that faster and at lower cost. In some cases the diagnostic reveals that the underlying cause is widespread deterioration, in which case the engineer will advise on a full EICR and remediation options.