The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 apply to every privately rented home in Surrey. They took effect for new tenancies on 1 July 2020 and for existing tenancies on 1 April 2021, and they require the fixed electrical installation to be inspected and tested at intervals of no more than five years.

In Surrey the way this goes wrong is usually not a forgotten new tenancy but a long one. Family lets in Guildford, Woking or Reigate frequently run for six, eight or ten years with the same tenant, and a report obtained in 2021 quietly passes its retest date with nobody moving in to prompt anyone. The interval runs from the date of the inspection, not from the start of the tenancy, and the length of the tenancy makes no difference to it.

The other deadlines are the same as anywhere in England. A copy of the report goes to existing tenants within 28 days of the inspection, to a prospective tenant within 28 days of them asking, and to the local authority within seven days of a request. A council can impose a penalty of up to £30,000 for a breach. If the report sets a retest date sooner than five years, that earlier date is the one that binds you.

Selective licensing, under which every rented home in a designated area needs a licence, has been far less common across Surrey's eleven districts and boroughs than in London or on the Kent coast. The licensing duty most Surrey landlords actually meet is the mandatory HMO licence, which applies nationally to a house shared by five or more people from two or more households.

Where a licence applies, a satisfactory EICR is normally one of its conditions, and councils increasingly want it produced on demand. Guildford and Woking, with their shared houses for students and young professionals, are where this arises most often in the county.

Council positions do change, and some Surrey districts have consulted on additional licensing for smaller shared houses. Confirm the current position with the district or borough for your postcode rather than relying on the general picture, and tell us at the time of booking if a licence application is setting your deadline.

We cover the whole county, including the Surrey Hills villages. The inspecting electrician needs access to every consumer unit, to the meter position, to every room, and to every outbuilding that has a supply. Gated drives, alarm panels, garden offices and pool houses are all routinely locked, so keys need to be arranged before the day.

The supply has to be switched off for parts of the testing, and on a property with several boards that happens more than once. A two or three bedroom house takes between two and four hours; a large detached house with sub-boards and outbuildings can take most of a day. Tell us the number of boards and a rough circuit count when you book and we will give you an honest slot rather than a hopeful one.

Where the property is tenanted, giving proper notice and arranging access is the usual cause of delay. Most Surrey lets are handled through managing agents, and telling us which agent holds the keys saves a round of phone calls.