Who can carry out an EICR? Do you need to be registered?

An EICR must be carried out by a skilled and competent person— someone qualified to inspect and test to BS 7671. You are not legally required to belong to a registration scheme to issue one, but scheme membership is how competence is proven in practice, and for landlords it’s effectively what “qualified and competent” is taken to mean.

What “competent” means here

Competence for periodic inspection means the right qualifications (typically the 18th Edition and an inspection-and-test qualification such as the 2391 or equivalent), the right test instruments, and enough experience to interpret what you find and code it correctly. The report is a professional judgement, not a checklist — the competence is in the coding as much as the testing.

Do you have to be NICEIC or NAPIT registered?

Not by law, to carry out an EICR. Registration with a Competent Person Scheme (NICEIC, NAPIT and others) is the standard, recognised proof of competence, and many landlords, agents and insurers will ask for it. It also lets you self-certify notifiable work under Part P — but note that an EICR itself is an inspection, not notifiable work. Registration is about credibility and self-certification, not permission to inspect.

Who carries the liability?

The person who signs. The EICR is certified by the inspector’s signature and registration number — that signature is the professional standing behind every observation and every code. It’s why the cheap, sight-unseen EICR is a false economy: whoever signs it owns the judgement, and a report that finds nothing wrong with a tired old installation is a liability, not a bargain.

The bottom line

Qualified, competent, properly equipped, and prepared to stand behind your coding — that’s who can issue an EICR. A scheme registration is the badge that proves it to the people paying for it. The tool you use to produce the report doesn’t change any of that: the judgement, and the signature, stay yours.