The buyer demands an EICR because the wiring is rating 3. What does the English guidance for rented homes not require of an owner-occupier seller?

What is the fuller explanation?

The demand sounds official because both documents use short codes. They are not the same code. RICS rating 3 means serious and/or urgent, and it tells the buyer to obtain written quotations before legal commitment. It does not order them to withdraw, and What to do now does not invoice the seller. An electrical installation condition report, where the rented guidance applies, uses its own outcomes. Those outcomes are not rating 1, 2 or 3. Quoting the five-year landlord rule at an owner-occupier copies a duty across a line the guidance does not cross.

If the buyer wants an electrician, they can instruct one before they are legally committed, and you can decide whether to allow access or to contribute. Neither choice is the same as the rented duty. If you have let the house, the position may be different, and you should read the guidance as a landlord rather than as this owner-occupier question. Do not let a rating 3 be described as a failed landlord certificate you were obliged to hand over. You may choose to obtain a report. The guidance cited here does not require it of you because you are the occupying seller.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• Is the wiring comment a RICS rating, an electrical code, or only a visual note?
• Did you inspect the installation, or only see what was visible?
• What further investigation would sit outside a visual survey?

What are the typical next steps?

1. Do not treat the five-year rented duty as yours while you are an owner-occupier seller.
2. Keep EICR codes separate from the condition rating.
3. Let the buyer instruct an electrician if they want a test you are not obliged to buy.

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

Which pages should you read next?

• A seller in Wales is asked to produce a Scottish Home Report. Which country's marketing rule is being misapplied?
• The seller already knows the drain blocks in heavy rain. What should they not do to that evidence before the buyer's survey?
• There is no mortgage, so there is no lender retention. Does that make a condition rating 3 safer to ignore?
• Guide: Should a seller in England or Wales get a survey?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• GOV.UK: Electrical safety standards in the private and social rented sectors: guidance (England, published 1 November 2025)
• RICS: Description of the RICS Home Survey Level 3 (condition rating definitions)
• RICS: House surveys: the costs, types and benefits of an RICS home survey