Documentation and Reporting
This domain tests the records that make an installation traceable: the right certificate for the work, accurate schedules of test results, correct condition codes and full instrument traceability. Incomplete or ambiguous paperwork is what inspectors and courts punish.
Certificate types and coverage
- Electrical Installation Certificate for new circuits, consumer unit replacement and major alteration, supported by a schedule of inspections and a schedule of test results.
- Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate for like-for-like replacement or an additional point on an existing circuit without new circuit protection.
- Electrical Installation Condition Report for periodic assessment, with the interval set by the client's risk assessment and the use of the premises; guidance intervals include 10 years for owner-occupied dwellings, 5 years for rented dwellings, and shorter periods for industrial and entertainment premises.
Condition codes
C1 means danger present, C2 potentially dangerous, C3 improvement recommended, and FI further investigation required. Any C1, C2 or FI makes the report unsatisfactory; C3 on its own does not.
Worked example
During a condition report on a rented flat you find a ring final circuit with a broken leg: continuity on each leg separately but no ring continuity, while every socket remains energised. Code it C2, because the remaining single leg can be overloaded and the protective conductor path is compromised. A missing "Safety Electrical Connection - Do Not Remove" label at the main earthing terminal is C3. The report is unsatisfactory because of the C2, states that urgent remedial work is required, records measured values with instrument serial numbers and calibration dates, and sets out the extent and limitations of the inspection.
Traps that cost marks
- Entering N/A or satisfactory where a measurement was never taken; declare it as a limitation instead.
- Coding a genuine danger as C3, or treating C3 as though it made the report unsatisfactory.
- Omitting instrument serial numbers, calibration dates, Ze, prospective fault current or the extent and limitations.
- Missing the deadline for supplying the report to a tenant, 28 days in the English rented sector.