Electrics and gas
An electric-vehicle charger is fed from a small consumer unit in the garage. Does the home survey include a certificate for that charger?
No. The home survey does not include a certificate for the electric-vehicle charger fed from the small consumer unit in the garage. It can record the charger and the board it could see. It does not test the circuit, check the trip devices, or produce an electrical installation condition report, and it does not issue a charger certificate either. One small garage unit is not a whole-house rewire and not a pass for every circuit. Ask an electrician for the right paperwork if you need the charger certified. Do not treat the survey sentence as that certificate.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
A charger certificate and a home survey are different documents. The survey looks at the unit on the garage wall and the small consumer unit feeding it, if both were visible. It does not carry out the tests an electrician records, and it does not sign the installation off. An electrical installation condition report is itself a separate report. Seeing a neat cable from a small board to a charger tells you the arrangement that was on show.
Ask the seller for any installation certificate and for the electrician's details, and give those papers to your own electrician with the survey sentence. Do not trip the garage board repeatedly on a viewing to see what happens. If no certificate appears, commission the inspection you actually need rather than stretching the survey. Keep the garage charger separate from the hall consumer unit, if there is one, so a comment on the house board is not mistaken for paperwork on this circuit.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What did you see: the charger, the garage consumer unit, or both?
- Was the cable between them fully visible, or did it disappear into the fabric?
- Any sticker or certificate left on the unit that you are not adopting as your own test?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not treat the survey as a certificate for the charger.
- Ask the seller for any installation certificate for that garage circuit.
- Ask an electrician to inspect the charger if those papers are missing.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the charger light is on, has it passed?
No. A light shows the unit had power. It is not a certificate, and the home survey did not test the garage circuit that feeds it.
Does the small garage board mean the house was rewired?
No. A second small unit for a charger is not a whole-house rewire. The survey did not say every circuit was renewed.