EIC vs EICR vs Minor Works: which certificate do you need?
Three documents, three different jobs. An EIC certifies new work with a new circuit. A Minor Works Certificatecovers an addition or alteration without a new circuit. An EICR isn’t a certificate of new work at all — it’s a condition report on an existing installation.
EIC — Electrical Installation Certificate
For a new installation, or an alteration or addition that includes a new circuit. A full rewire, a new consumer unit, a new circuit run back to the board — all EIC work. It certifies that the new work has been designed, built and tested to comply with BS 7671. It carries design, construction and inspection-and-test signatures.
Minor Works Certificate
For an addition or alteration to an existing circuit that does notextend to a new circuit — adding a socket to a ring, moving a light switch, replacing an accessory. Smaller job, smaller certificate, but still a certificate: it confirms the altered circuit was tested and is safe. One per circuit worked on.
EICR — Electrical Installation Condition Report
Not new work — an inspection of what’s already there. The periodic health check: the inspector examines and tests the installation, records observations, and codes them C1/C2/C3/FI. It ends in “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory”, not a declaration of compliance for new work. This is the one landlords need every five years.
The quick decision
- Installed a new circuit? → EIC.
- Altered an existing circuit, no new circuit? → Minor Works.
- Inspecting an existing installation, no work done? → EICR.
One more that trips people up: a consumer unit replacement is new work on the origin of the installation and takes an EIC, not a Minor Works. When in doubt, ask whether you created a new circuit — that single question settles most of it.