Condition ratings
The survey says further investigation on the electrics and also NI. Should you book an EICR because that looks like the code FI?
No. Do not match the letters: FI on an Electrical Installation Condition Report means further investigation required without delay, and it is an electrical code, not a RICS condition rating. The survey’s phrase further investigation is advice in the home survey, and NI means the element was not inspected. Those survey words are not the code.
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?
GOV.UK’s electrical safety guidance for private and social landlords uses C1 for danger present, C2 for potentially dangerous, C3 for improvement recommended, and FI for further investigation required without delay. C3 means further remedial work is not required for that report to be satisfactory. Those codes are not rating 1, 2 or 3, and a landlord’s five-year duty is not a duty on an owner-occupier seller. Your survey can say the electrics need a proper look, or that they were not inspected, without anyone having produced an EICR.
You may still choose to commission an EICR because you want the electrical report, especially if the survey could not see the installation. You should not commission it in the belief that the survey has already applied code FI. Ask the surveyor what they saw, what they could not see, and what sort of electrician’s inspection they meant. Until an electrician writes FI on an EICR, you do not have that code. There is no RICS table that translates NI into FI.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did you apply an EICR code, or only advise further investigation?
- What was not inspected, as against what you saw and distrusted?
- Are you telling the buyer the installation is unsatisfactory? You should not, without an EICR.
What are the typical next steps?
- Read NI and further investigation as survey words.
- Commission an EICR if you need one, as its own instruction.
- Do not tell the seller the survey contains a code FI.
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 an EICR is already in the pack and it says FI, is that the survey?
No. Use the EICR for the code and the survey for the visual note. They can sit in the same file and still be different reports.
Does C3 equal condition rating 3?
No. C3 is an electrical code. Rating 3 is a RICS condition rating. Do not line them up by the number three.