Once a report comes back with C1, C2 or FI observations, the property is legally deemed to have an electrical installation that doesn't meet current safety standards. Continuing to operate without addressing that puts staff and visitors at risk and invalidates the safety assurance the report was meant to provide. It can also jeopardise insurance cover if an incident occurs before the work is done.
If you're still getting to grips with what an unsatisfactory result actually means, it's worth reading that piece first. This article focuses on what comes next: what remedial work involves, who should carry it out, and what happens once it's finished.
Remedial work covers any repair, replacement or upgrade needed to bring an electrical installation back in line with BS 7671. This can be as minor as replacing a damaged socket or as significant as upgrading a consumer unit or rewiring a section of a building.
The scope is defined entirely by the observations listed in the EICR report, not by guesswork or a general tidy-up. Each item on the report should be treated as a discrete piece of work, even where several observations relate to the same circuit or area.
Not every observation carries the same urgency, and the order of remedial work should follow that:
A remedial works quote should reference the EICR report directly, itemising which observation each piece of work addresses. Vague line items make it difficult to confirm later that everything on the report has actually been resolved.
A good quote also separates parts and labour, gives a realistic timeframe for completion, and confirms what certification will be issued once the work is done.
Where multiple contractors are being compared, checking that each quote covers the same scope of works is more useful than comparing the bottom line alone, since one may exclude items the other includes.
Remedial work must be carried out by a qualified, NICEIC-registered electrician with genuine commercial and industrial experience, not just domestic work. This matters for two reasons:
If the original inspecting electrician doesn't carry out remedial work themselves, they should still be able to recommend a contractor who understands the specific findings in the report.
One of the most common misunderstandings is that a full new EICR is required once remedial work has been carried out. In most cases, it isn't. The electrician completing the work issues either a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate or an Electrical Installation Certificate, depending on the scale of what was done, and this is cross-referenced against the original EICR to confirm each observation has been resolved.
The unsatisfactory EICR and the remedial certification are then kept together as the compliance record for that inspection cycle. A brand new EICR is only necessary if a different contractor wants to independently verify the whole installation, or if the client specifically wants a fresh satisfactory report rather than a certified remediation.
Cost and duration both depend heavily on what's actually wrong. A handful of C3 recommendations or a single faulty socket can be resolved in a matter of hours. Consumer unit replacement, earthing upgrades or work affecting multiple circuits takes longer and costs more, partly because of the materials involved. And partly because larger commercial sites often require work to be scheduled around business hours to avoid disruption.
FI observations add time to the process because they require investigation before a scope of work can even be defined. Businesses should ask for a realistic completion date at quoting stage rather than assuming remedial work happens overnight.
Once remedial work is certified, the documentation should be stored alongside the original EICR, not treated as a separate, disposable paperwork trail. Insurers, auditors and any future buyer or tenant may ask to see the full history, not just the most recent satisfactory result.
This is where a digital compliance record becomes genuinely useful, particularly for businesses managing multiple sites, since it removes the risk of certificates being misplaced between the original inspection and the remedial sign-off.
Volta Compliance supports businesses across Yorkshire, Lancashire and the wider UK with EICR inspections and the remedial work that follows them, from prioritising urgent faults through to final certification. To discuss remedial works following an unsatisfactory EICR, contact our team on 0113 436 0402 or email info@voltacompliance.com.
