If you own, rent or manage a business premises in Stockport, you are legally responsible for keeping its electrics safe, but no law gives you a single fixed date to have them tested. The right interval depends on what the building is used for, how old the installation is and what your insurer or landlord expects. Here is how to work out your schedule, and what to expect when the tester arrives.
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require employers and people in control of premises to maintain electrical systems so they do not cause danger. The Regulations do not set a testing frequency. In practice, the way you show you have met that duty is a periodic inspection and test under BS 7671, which produces an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR).
Your insurer is often stricter than the law. Many commercial policies require a satisfactory EICR within a stated period, and a fire claim on a unit with no recent report can become a difficult conversation. If you let space in Stockport, check your lease too. Many commercial leases put testing on the tenant, and some landlords now ask for a copy each time the lease comes up for renewal.
The IET's guidance notes set out maximum intervals between inspections. Treat these as the longest you should wait, not a target. The inspector can recommend a shorter gap if the installation is old, worn or heavily used.
A lot of Stockport's commercial stock is older than it looks from the street. Converted mills around Reddish, Heaton Mersey and the Hillgate area, Victorian terraces turned into shops along Underbank and Lower Hillgate, and 1970s and 80s units on the Bredbury and Hazel Grove estates can all carry wiring that has been extended many times by different people over the decades.
Common findings in these buildings include old rewireable fuse boards, missing RCD protection on socket circuits, overloaded circuits after a change of use (a former office becoming a café kitchen, for example), and damaged cable in damp cellars and basements. None of these automatically means a full rewire, but they are the reasons an inspector might shorten your next interval to 2 or 3 years.
You should also arrange a fresh inspection, whatever the date on your last report, when you take on a new lease, change how the space is used, after flood or fire damage, or before applying to Stockport Council for a premises licence variation where the plans involve electrical changes.
The electrician will visually inspect the distribution boards, wiring, accessories and earthing, then carry out live and dead tests on a sample or on every circuit, depending on what was agreed beforehand. Some circuits have to be switched off for short periods, so good contractors will work around your trading hours, often testing early mornings, evenings or weekends for shops and hospitality venues.
Cost depends mainly on the number of circuits and boards, how easy they are to get to and whether any work has to be done out of hours. As a rough guide, a small Stockport shop or office with one board might cost somewhere in the region of £150 to £350. A multi-board industrial unit or a pub with a commercial kitchen can take a full day or more, and the price rises in line with that. Always ask what sample percentage is included and whether remedial work will be quoted separately.
The report will classify any faults as C1 (danger present, needs fixing immediately), C2 (potentially dangerous, urgent) or C3 (improvement recommended). Any C1 or C2 means the report is unsatisfactory until those items are put right.
No law names the EICR specifically, but the Electricity at Work Regulations require you to keep the installation safe, and an EICR is the accepted way to show you have done so. Insurers and landlords frequently make it a condition as well.
No. PAT testing covers plug-in appliances such as kettles, computers and extension leads, while an EICR covers the fixed wiring, boards and circuits in the building. Most businesses need both, on separate schedules.
Usually, yes. A competent contractor will plan circuit shutdowns in short blocks or outside your opening hours, so a shop, office or pub can normally stay open for most of the work.
A quick call with Gary is usually enough to establish scope. For anything more involved, we’ll come out to measure up at a time that suits you.