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Electrics and gas

What should you ask if a survey says the lighting may have no earth?

Ask for an electrician, not a guess from the consumer unit. Older lighting circuits sometimes have no earth conductor. A home survey can see an old cable or a two-core flex. It cannot test the circuit. GOV.UK’s electrical safety guidance, with its inspection codes, is written for landlords. It is not a pass for the house you are buying.

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?

An earth is what lets a fault operate a protective device. Lighting without one can still light the room and still be unsuitable, especially if someone later fits a metal fitting. The surveyor is not doing an EICR. The codes on an EICR — C1 danger present, C2 potentially dangerous, C3 improvement recommended, FI further investigation — are how an electrician classifies what they test. A survey sentence is not one of those codes.

If you are buying an owner-occupied house, the seller is not under the landlord duty to hand you a current EICR. You can still ask for one. Do not rewire the lighting on the survey’s verb “may”. Ask an electrician to inspect and to say whether this circuit is among the items. There is no GOV.UK price for a lighting rewire. The quote follows the test.

What should you ask your surveyor?

  • Did you see the cable, or are you inferring age from the fittings?
  • Are you recommending an EICR, or only noting a limit?
  • Did you test anything, or is the whole installation untested?

What are the typical next steps?

  1. Do not fit metal pendants to “modernise” an untested circuit.
  2. If you want a classification, commission an EICR. The survey is not that report.
  3. Keep any price request tied to the electrician’s codes, not to the word “may”.

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

Does a plastic light switch prove there is no earth?

No. The switch does not show the cable. An old switch can be on a newer cable and the reverse.

Is no earth a C1?

Only an inspection can code it. Do not write C1 on the surveyor’s sentence.

Sources