Northern Ireland’s rental market remains a major part of the wider housing and commercial property system.
Compliance and property safety are now moving further up the agenda for landlords, with electrical standards now a specific requirement rather than a general expectation.
From April, new electrical safety regulations applied to all private tenancies here. The Electrical Safety Standards for Private Tenancies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024 now requires landlords to ensure that fixed electrical installations are inspected and tested by a qualified person before a new tenancy starts.
The Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) is a formal inspection and test of the fixed electrical installation within a property. Its purpose is to identify defects, deterioration and any safety concerns that could present a risk to tenants or the property.
The regulations require regular inspection and testing at intervals of no more than five years, unless the most recent report specifies a shorter interval.
Landlords must supply a copy of the report to tenants within 28 days and provide a copy to the local council within seven days if requested.
Common issues identified during inspections include broken or damaged sockets and switches, outdated consumer units and lighting problems.
Smoke alarms and alarm faults could also appear in the wider safety picture, particularly where property maintenance has become reactive rather than planned.
We’re seeing claims experience across the market continuing to show that fire remains a key concern and electrical faults or ageing installations can be a contributing factor.
Older properties with outdated wiring or fuse boards face higher exposure, particularly where the system hasn’t been updated to match modern energy use.
The regulations create offences for failures to comply with duties, with councils able to pursue enforcement action. For landlords, the electrical safety requirements do not replace insurance, but they can affect how a policy operates in practice. Many policies include conditions requiring reasonable care, compliance with legal duties and risk management steps that reduce preventable loss.
This is where misunderstandings arise. There’s an assumption compliance is separate from insurance, when in reality policy conditions and legal duties can overlap.
Another common misunderstanding is that an EICR is only necessary where there is an obvious fault or a tenant complaint. The regulations don’t work on that basis and landlords who treat electrical safety as optional until something goes wrong leave themselves exposed.
In an insurance context, the insurer’s response always depends on the policy wording, the facts of the incident and the circumstances of the loss, absence of required safety documentation can create avoidable disputes at the point a claim is made.
Electrical compliance is now a practical issue that affects a large number of landlords, including those with smaller portfolios.
It also affects letting agents and property managers, because while responsibilities can be delegated operationally, the legal responsibility for compliance remains with the landlord.
For landlords with multiple properties or mixed-use premises, it can also mean checking that cover remains consistent across the portfolio, rather than leaving gaps between different policy dates and arrangements.
Your EICR should be kept and landlords need to be clear on when the next inspection is due.
If urgent action is identified, a qualified electrician should be engaged to complete the work within the required timescales, with completion evidenced in writing.
Katherine Medwell (RICHARD TRAINOR PHOTOGRAPHY)
Electrical safety is ultimately about safety. The regulatory framework now makes the inspection requirement explicit, but the insurance impact makes the issue broader than compliance alone.