Railway arches, lock-ups and the small industrial units on the estates along the Lea Valley are the premises where an EICR is most often overdue — not because anyone is hiding, but because nobody is sure whose job it is, and the five-year figure everyone knows for houses is the wrong number. This page is the short version for a business or landlord with an arch or unit in North or East London: the interval is three years for an industrial unit, five for a plain storage lock-up; under almost every arch and unit lease the tenant is responsible for the electrics inside the demise; and the report is from £220 labour-only for a single-phase unit, from £400 for a three-phase one. F & A Electrical is NICEIC registered, rated 9.32/10 from 242 reviews, based in Tottenham N15 — fifteen minutes from the arches at Tottenham Hale, Seven Sisters, Hackney Downs and Cambridge Heath and the estates at Lea Bridge, Blackhorse Lane and Stratford. Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453.
Short answer: the interval depends on what happens inside the unit
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 do not name a number of years; they say the installation must be maintained so as to prevent danger, and the way a business proves that is a periodic EICR at the interval recommended in IET Guidance Note 3. Those intervals are set by use, not by the building. A railway arch used as dry storage is an “office/shop/commercial” case at five years. The same arch fitted out as a car-repair workshop, a joinery, a gym, a brewery or a commercial kitchen is an “industrial” or “wet/hazardous” case at three years or less, and a spray booth, a car wash or anything with a vehicle inspection pit is a one-year location. The reason is simple: three-phase machinery, extract fans, compressors and pressure washers wear an installation faster, and damp brick arches corrode it faster still.
| What the arch or unit is used for | Recommended maximum EICR interval | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Dry storage, archive, lock-up with lighting and a few sockets | 5 years | Low load, low wear — treated like a shop or office |
| Workshop, joinery, metal fabrication, print, light manufacturing | 3 years | Three-phase machinery, higher fault current, dust |
| Motor trade — MOT bay, tyre shop, mechanic, body shop | 3 years (1 year with a pit or spray booth) | Inspection pits are a hazardous area; spray booths are zoned |
| Gym, climbing wall, dance studio, boxing club | 3 years | Public access, extract systems, often the insurer asks for 3 |
| Food production, brewery, bakery, commercial kitchen, dark kitchen | 3 years (1 year in wash-down areas) | Wet cleaning of equipment and floors; IP-rated accessories required |
| Car wash, valeting, launderette in an arch | 1 year | Wet location — GN3 treats these like swimming pools |
| Change of tenant or change of use | At the change | Almost every arch and unit lease requires it at lease start |
If you are unsure which row you are in, the test is whether anything in the unit is three-phase, wet, dusty or open to the public. If yes, plan on three years. Our full commercial interval table, including offices, restaurants and communal areas, is on the commercial EICR cost guide.
Who pays: the arch lease, the unit lease and the sub-let
Railway arches in London were sold by Network Rail in 2019 and most are now let by The Arch Company on a standard commercial lease; the industrial estates in Tottenham, Edmonton, Leyton and Stratford are let by a mix of the local council, pension funds and private landlords on the same model. Almost all of these leases are full repairing and insuring (FRI) or internal repairing, and the electrical installation from the meter or the landlord’s isolator inward is part of the demise. That means:
| Situation | Who arranges and pays for the EICR | What the report covers |
|---|---|---|
| Arch or unit on a standard FRI lease (the usual case) | The tenant — it is their installation for the term of the lease | Everything from the tenant’s main switch or the landlord’s isolator to the last socket |
| Landlord’s supply serving several units from one intake (a terrace of arches with one cut-out) | Landlord for the intake, sub-mains and any shared lighting or yard sockets; tenant for each unit | Two or more reports — one for the landlord’s distribution, one per unit |
| Unit sub-let by the room, bench or desk (makers’ studios, shared workshops) | The head tenant — they are the “employer” and “person in control” for EAWR purposes | One report for the whole unit; sub-tenants get a copy |
| Lease start or renewal | Usually the incoming tenant — the lease asks for a satisfactory EICR at the start and again at the end | Establishes the condition you inherit; get it before you fit out |
| Fit-out you had done yourself | The tenant — and the fit-out should have its own EIC or minor works certificate, which the EICR is not a substitute for | The EICR inspects the installation as found; it does not certify new work |
Two practical points. First, the incoming-tenant EICR is worth more than any other document you will get at lease start: an arch that has been a mechanic’s for ten years will typically produce a dozen C2s, and if you have the report dated before your fit-out you can put those to the landlord rather than inherit them under the FRI clause. Second, insurers for workshops and gyms now ask for the EICR date on the proposal form and will decline a claim after a fire where the report was overdue. A £220 report is the cheapest part of the policy.
What it costs in London — by unit, labour-only
We price by the number of circuits and phases, not by floor area, because a 2,000 sq ft storage arch with eight circuits is a quicker job than a 600 sq ft car-repair arch with a three-phase board and a compressor. Every figure below is labour-only and includes the report, the schedule of test results and the observation list with codes; VAT is included in the figure shown.
| Unit | Typical circuits | Our price (inc VAT, labour-only) | Time on site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage arch or lock-up — lighting, a few sockets, single-phase board | 4–8 | from £220 | 2 hours |
| Single-phase workshop, studio or small unit | 8–16 | from £220 (£15 per circuit above 12) | 2–3 hours |
| Three-phase workshop, motor-trade arch, gym, small food unit | 16–30, three-phase board | from £400 | 4–6 hours |
| Larger industrial unit with sub-boards | 30–60, three-phase, 2–3 boards | £15 per circuit, £13 per circuit above 60 | 1–2 days |
| Landlord’s intake and sub-mains for a terrace of arches | 4–12 (distribution only) | from £140 | 2 hours |
| Out-of-hours visit so the unit stays trading (evening or Sunday) | — | +25% on the figures above | — |
| PAT testing of the unit’s portable tools and appliances on the same visit | — | £5 per item, £108 minimum — PAT testing | added to the day |
| Minimum charge, any visit | — | £108 (£90 + VAT) | — |
An EICR on an arch with a compressor, a two-post lift and an extract fan means isolating the three-phase board for part of the test, so we agree a time when the lift is not in use — usually first thing or after the last customer. If you need the unit live all day, the out-of-hours line above is the honest cost of that. For how circuits are counted see how many circuits an EICR covers.
What we find in arches and units — and what it costs to put right
Railway arches have a specific failure pattern: they are damp, the brick sweats, the electrics were often installed by a previous tenant’s mate, and the incoming supply was sized for a lock-up rather than a workshop. Industrial units are drier but the wiring gets hit, hung off and extended. These are the eight findings we code most often, with the fix price so you can budget before the report lands.
| Finding | Code we give it | Fix (labour-only, inc VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Corroded steel conduit or trunking with live conductors exposed at a joint (arch dampness) | C1 or C2 | Replace the run in galvanised or PVC conduit — from £140 per run |
| No RCD protection on socket circuits feeding portable tools or outdoor/yard use | C2 | RCBO consumer unit or three-phase board with RCD-protected ways — from £550 single-phase, from £750 three-phase — board replacement |
| Machine hard-wired to a socket circuit or via a 13 A plug where it should be on its own isolator | C2 | Dedicated circuit with local rotary isolator — from £140 per machine |
| No main earth or bonding to the incoming water and gas in a converted arch (TT supply with no earth electrode) | C2 | Earth electrode and bonding — from £140 |
| Non-IP-rated sockets and switches in a wash-down, brewery or valeting area | C2 | Replace with IP65/66 accessories — from £108 per point |
| Overloaded single-phase supply — 60 A cut-out feeding a workshop with a 3 kW compressor and space heaters | C3 with a note, or FI | Load survey; supply upgrade or three-phase application to UK Power Networks — see three-phase electrician |
| Lighting on the socket circuit, no separate lighting circuit (single ring serving everything) | C3 | Separate lighting circuit — from £140 |
| Previous tenant’s fit-out with no certificate and undersized cable to a heater or lift | C2 or FI | Re-cable to the correct size — from £140 per circuit; we certify it |
An unsatisfactory report is not a shutdown order. It means the C1s are made safe on the day (we do that before we leave, and it is included), the C2s need a date, and the C3s are advice. Remedial pricing across every category is on the EICR remedial cost guide; we re-issue the report as satisfactory once the C2s are done, without a second full inspection fee where we did the remedial work ourselves.
Three-phase, supply size and the question every workshop asks
Most arches were built with a single-phase 60 A or 80 A supply. The moment a tenant installs a two-post lift, a large compressor, a commercial oven or a kiln, that supply is the limiting factor, and an EICR will note it as an observation even though it is not a defect in the wiring. The routes are a supply upgrade to 100 A single-phase from UK Power Networks (a few weeks, the DNO’s fee plus our tails and board work from £450) or a new three-phase supply (typically two to four months and a quoted DNO connection charge, plus our three-phase board and distribution from £750). We handle the application, the board, the distribution and the certificates as one job — details on the three-phase electrician London page. A three-phase EICR itself is from £400 and includes the phase-rotation, phase-balance and prospective-fault-current readings at each board that an insurer’s engineer will ask to see.
What is not covered — and what is
An EICR on a unit covers the fixed installation: boards, circuits, accessories, isolators and the fixed wiring to machines. It does not test the machines themselves, the portable tools, the extension leads or the appliances — those are PAT testing, £5 per item on the same visit. It does not cover the landlord’s intake if the landlord’s board is locked and you have no access (we record that as a limitation, and it is worth knowing what a limitation on an EICR means before you accept a report full of them). It does not cover an attached domestic garage or outbuilding on a house — that is a different job with a different page, EICRs for garages and garden offices. And it does not certify new work: if you are fitting out an arch from scratch, that is an installation job with its own Electrical Installation Certificate — see garage and workshop electrical installation — and the EICR clock starts from that date.
Where this comes up most
The arches we test most are the runs at Tottenham Hale and Seven Sisters (N15/N17), Hackney Downs, London Fields and Cambridge Heath (E8/E2), Bethnal Green and Haggerston, Walthamstow and Leyton (E17/E10), Stratford and Hackney Wick (E15/E9), Finsbury Park and Holloway (N4/N7), and Camden and Kentish Town (NW1/NW5). The industrial estates are the ones along the Lea: Tottenham’s Ashley Road, Garman Road and Millmead estates in N17, Lea Bridge and Argall Avenue in E10, Blackhorse Lane in E17, Edmonton’s Angel Road and Eley estates in N18, and the units around Stratford and Bow. Same-week for a standard report, next-day where a landlord or insurer has set a deadline. Coverage and per-borough pages are on our London service areas hub; the general commercial page is commercial electrician London.
Frequently asked questions
How often does a railway arch need an EICR?
Every five years if it is dry storage or a plain lock-up; every three years if it is a workshop, motor-trade unit, gym, food unit or anything with three-phase machinery; every year for wet locations such as a car wash or valeting bay, or anywhere with a vehicle inspection pit. The lease usually also requires one at the start and end of the term regardless of the date of the last report.
I rent an arch from The Arch Company — is the EICR my job or theirs?
Under the standard arch lease the electrical installation inside your demise is yours to maintain and to have inspected, and the landlord is responsible only for its own intake and any shared distribution. Check the repairing clause and the schedule of condition in your lease; if the electrics were in poor condition when you took the arch, an EICR dated before your fit-out is the document that protects you at the end of the term.
How much does an EICR cost for a small industrial unit in London?
From £220 labour-only for a single-phase unit with up to 12 circuits, £15 per circuit above that, and from £400 for a three-phase unit with one board. A larger unit with sub-boards is priced at £15 per circuit (£13 above 60). Out-of-hours visits so the unit keeps trading add 25%. PAT testing of tools and appliances on the same day is £5 per item.
Can you test the unit without shutting the workshop down?
Mostly, yes. The visual inspection, the earth-continuity and insulation tests on individual circuits and the RCD tests are done circuit by circuit, so one machine at a time is off for a few minutes. The one unavoidable outage is the dead test at the main board, which takes twenty to forty minutes; we schedule it for first thing, lunch or after the last customer, or do the whole job out of hours.
Does the EICR cover my lift, compressor or oven?
It covers the fixed wiring, the isolator and the connection to each machine, and it records whether the circuit and protective device are correctly sized for it. It does not test the machine’s own internal electrics — that is the manufacturer’s service or a PAT/in-service inspection. If a machine is hard-wired without a local isolator or is running off a 13 A plug it should not be, the report codes that and we quote the dedicated circuit, usually from £140.
What happens if the report is unsatisfactory and the landlord or insurer wants it sorted?
Any C1 (immediate danger) is made safe on the day and included in the fee. C2 items need to be fixed within a reasonable time — most leases and insurers say 28 days — and we price each one individually on the report, then re-issue it as satisfactory once done. C3 items are recommendations and do not make the report unsatisfactory. Nothing in the report obliges you to shut the unit, but an overdue or unsatisfactory report is what an insurer looks at first after a fire or an injury.
Railway arch, lock-up and industrial unit EICRs from £220 single-phase and £400 three-phase, PAT £5 per item, remedials from £108 — labour-only, NICEIC certified, across Haringey, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Enfield, Islington and Camden. Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453, or WhatsApp a photo of the board and the lease’s repairing clause and we’ll tell you the interval and the price before you book.