A shop with flats above is the most common mixed-use building in North and East London — every high-road parade from Tottenham to Barking Road is made of them — and it is also the building where EICR responsibility most often falls through the gap. The shop is commercial premises under the Electricity at Work Regulations; the flats are private rented homes under the 2020 Electrical Safety Regulations with a £40,000 penalty ceiling; and the landlord’s supply, stair lighting and any shared board belong to whoever holds the freehold or head lease. Three different rules, usually three different people, one incoming supply. This page sets out which report each part needs, how often, who pays for it under a typical lease, what goes wrong on inspection, and what F & A Electrical charges in 2026 — shop EICR from £220, each flat from £140, landlord’s board and communal circuits from £108, all labour-only, NICEIC certified, 9.32/10 from 242 reviews.
Short answer: three installations, three reports
Treat a shop with flats above as three separate electrical installations that happen to share a wall and, often, a cut-out. Each needs its own Electrical Installation Condition Report, on its own certificate, with its own schedule of circuits. One “whole building” EICR is not the answer: a commercial report and a domestic PRS report have different legal drivers, different recipients (the shop’s insurer and the council’s housing team never want the same document) and, in practice, different keyholders. On one visit we can do all three, and price them as a bundle — but they are still three reports.
| Part of the building | Legal driver | Who normally arranges it | Interval | Our price (labour-only) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The shop (from its own meter or consumer unit inward) | Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 + the shop’s insurer + BS 7671 / IET Guidance Note 3 | The shop tenant on a full-repairing lease; the landlord if the shop is let inclusive or is empty | 5 years for shops, offices, restaurants and takeaways; 1 year for launderettes; 3 years for workshops and industrial units | from £220 (single-phase, up to 12 circuits), £15 per circuit above; three-phase from £400 — commercial EICR cost |
| Each flat (from its consumer unit inward) | Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020; civil penalty up to £40,000 per breach since 1 May 2026 | Whoever lets the flat — the freeholder, or the shop tenant if the flats are sub-let by them | Every 5 years and before each new tenancy where the last report is over 5 years old | from £140 per flat (up to 8 circuits); £120 per flat for 4+ flats on one visit — EICR cost guide |
| Landlord’s supply: cut-out, landlord’s board, sub-mains, stair and communal lighting, door entry, any shared boiler | Landlord and Tenant Act repairing covenants + Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 for the common parts + HMO / selective licence conditions | The freeholder or head-leaseholder, recovered through the service charge or rent | 5 years (licence conditions sometimes say sooner) | from £108 for a landlord’s board and communal circuits — communal-area EICRs |
Worked example: a corner shop with two flats above, a shared stair and a landlord’s board in the shop’s back lobby is £220 + £140 + £140 + £108 = from £608 on one visit, four certificates, labour-only. A parade unit with a three-phase café below and four flats above is £400 + (4 × £120) + £108 = from £988. Minimum charge on any visit is £108 (£90 + VAT).
Who pays under the lease — the three usual arrangements
Every dispute we see on a mixed-use EICR comes down to the lease, so read it before ringing an electrician. Three arrangements cover almost every parade in London.
1. Freeholder lets the shop and the flats separately. The shop is on a full-repairing and insuring (FRI) lease: the tenant is responsible for the shop’s own installation and therefore its EICR, and the lease usually obliges them to comply with statute and keep the insurer satisfied. The flats are assured shorthold tenancies granted by the freeholder: the freeholder is the “private landlord” under the 2020 Regulations and must hold a satisfactory EICR for each flat, give tenants a copy within 28 days and the council a copy within 7 days of a request. The landlord’s supply and common parts are the freeholder’s, recoverable under the service charge if the leases allow. This is the cleanest case.
2. One head lease of the whole building to a shop operator, who sub-lets the flats. Common on the Tottenham High Road, Green Lanes and Barking Road parades. The head-leaseholder is the shop occupier and the flats’ landlord for PRS purposes, so they need all three reports, and the freeholder’s only exposure is the structure and whatever the head lease reserves. Councils issuing penalties look for the person receiving the rent, not the freeholder on the Land Registry.
3. Flats fed off the shop’s meter. Historically the flats were simply extra circuits on the shop’s board, with no separate supply and sometimes a coin meter. This is the arrangement that fails an inspection most often and it changes the answer: the flat’s “installation” starts at its consumer unit, but that unit is fed from a circuit that belongs to the shop, so the shop’s report has to cover the sub-main and the flat’s report has to note the supply characteristics and the lack of a separate main switch. If the shop tenant resells electricity to the flats they are bound by Ofgem’s maximum resale price rule. The permanent fix is a proper split — a landlord’s board, a sub-main per flat and a meter each — which we price on the landlord’s board and split-supply cost page.
The shop: what a commercial EICR covers that a domestic one does not
A shop installation on a London parade is usually 1980s-2000s, has been altered by every tenant since, and is much busier than a flat: refrigeration on 24 hours, a sign circuit, a shutter motor, an extract fan, an alarm and CCTV supply, and very often a three-phase board if there was ever a bakery, launderette or kitchen. The report tests every circuit — insulation resistance, earth continuity, loop impedance, RCD operation — and records the observations as C1, C2, C3 or FI exactly as a domestic report does. Two things are different. First, the sampling: on a commercial board we agree a sample rather than opening every accessory, and record the limitation on the certificate. Second, what the report is for: the shop’s insurer will usually ask for it at renewal, an environmental health officer can ask for it under the Electricity at Work Regulations, and a landlord serving a schedule of dilapidations at lease end will use it as evidence. Pricing and the full interval table by premises type are on the commercial EICR cost page; the shop’s portable kit — tills, kettles, fridges on a plug — is PAT testing, £5 per appliance, not part of the EICR.
The flats: the PRS rules and the £40,000 penalty
Flats above shops are private rented homes like any other, and since the Renters’ Rights Act took effect on 1 May 2026 the civil penalty for letting without a satisfactory EICR has risen to £40,000 per breach. The landlord must hold a report under five years old before a tenancy starts, supply it to the tenant within 28 days, complete any C1, C2 or FI remedials within 28 days and confirm in writing, and supply the report to the council within 7 days of a request. On top of the 2020 Regulations, most flats above shops in our area sit inside a licensing scheme — Newham and Waltham Forest license every privately rented home borough-wide, and Haringey and Hackney license large parts of Tottenham, Stoke Newington and the Kingsland corridor — and a valid EICR is a standard licence condition. Where the flats are let by the room, the building is an HMO and the HMO EICR rules apply: the communal areas are then part of the licensed installation, and mains-interlinked fire alarms and emergency lighting on the stair become licence conditions rather than good practice. If the last report came back unsatisfactory, our remedial cost guide sets out what each fix costs.
What we find in shops with flats above — and what it costs to put right
| Finding | Usual code | Why it happens | Fix (labour-only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat circuits fed from the shop’s board with no separate main switch for the flat | C2 (no means of isolation in the dwelling) | Flats added as “extra circuits” decades ago | Landlord’s board and sub-main per flat, from £450 + £350 per flat — split-supply cost |
| Shop refrigeration or sign fed from a flat’s consumer unit (or vice versa) | C2 / FI | Whichever board was nearest when the tenant fitted the fridge | Re-route to the correct board, from £140 per circuit |
| Borrowed neutral between shop stair lighting and a flat’s lighting circuit | C2 | Old two-way switching across the two installations | Rewire the stair lighting on its own circuit from the landlord’s board, from £140 |
| Plastic consumer unit on the only escape stair | C3 in a dwelling; C2 where it is the communal escape route with no fire separation | Pre-2016 boards; BS 7671 now requires non-combustible enclosures in domestic premises | RCBO metal consumer unit from £550 — fuse board replacement |
| No RCD protection on flat socket circuits | C2 | 1980s-90s boards | RCBO board from £550, or RCD retrofit on the affected circuits from £108 |
| No emergency lighting on the shared stair; no interlinked alarms between shop and flats | Noted as a separate observation; a licence condition for HMOs | Fire Safety Order duties on the common parts not picked up | Emergency lighting from £108 per fitting; interlinked heat/smoke alarms from £108 first alarm — smoke alarm installation |
| Unfused sub-main to the flats from the shop board’s busbar | C2 | Cable run without a switch-fuse at the origin | Switch-fuse at the landlord’s board, from £140 |
| Three-phase shop board with the flats on one phase and no labelling | C3, or C2 if the phase is overloaded | Bakery or launderette history | Rebalance and label, from £108 — three-phase electrician |
None of these requires the building to be rewired. The largest single item is the supply split, and even that is typically £2,230 for two flats including the boards — see the split-supply page for the full breakdown and what UK Power Networks charges separately.
How the visit runs
We need three sets of keys or three people in on the same day: the shop before opening or after closing (a shop EICR needs the power off circuit by circuit, so 7 am starts and Sunday testing are normal, at +25% outside trading hours), the flats with 24 hours’ written notice to the tenants under the 2020 Regulations, and access to wherever the cut-out and landlord’s board live — which on a parade is usually the shop’s back lobby or a cupboard under the stair. A two-flat corner shop is a full day for one engineer. Each installation gets its own certificate, its own schedule of test results and its own invoice, so the shop tenant, the flats’ landlord and the freeholder each receive only the document they are responsible for. Remedials are quoted from the schedule of observations at no charge and are usually done the following week. Where we find the flats are fed from the shop’s meter we tell you on the day, because that changes who is responsible for what and is worth fixing before the next lease renewal.
Where this comes up most
The parades we work on every week: Tottenham High Road and West Green Road in N15 and N17, Green Lanes through Harringay and Palmers Green, Stoke Newington High Street and the Kingsland Road corridor in Hackney, Holloway Road and Chapel Market in Islington, Fore Street and Enfield Town, Walthamstow High Street and Hoe Street, Leytonstone High Road, and the Newham parades — Barking Road, Romford Road, Green Street and High Street North. Every one is Victorian or Edwardian shop-with-flats stock, and every borough covering them runs a licensing scheme that asks for the flats’ EICR. Borough pages: Newham, Redbridge and the rest on our service areas hub.
Frequently asked questions
Does a shop with flats above need one EICR or several?
Several — one for the shop, one for each flat and one for the landlord’s supply and common parts, each on its own certificate. They can all be done on one visit and priced together (from £608 for a shop, two flats and a landlord’s board), but a single “whole building” report does not satisfy the shop’s insurer, the council’s housing team and the freeholder’s lease at the same time.
Who is responsible for the EICR on the flats above my shop?
Whoever grants the tenancies and receives the rent. If you hold the whole building on a head lease and sub-let the flats, that is you, and the £40,000 civil penalty is yours. If the freeholder lets the flats directly, it is the freeholder. Your shop lease will usually make you responsible for the shop’s own installation either way.
How often does a shop need an EICR?
IET Guidance Note 3 recommends five years for shops, offices, restaurants and takeaways, three years for workshops and industrial units, and one year for launderettes and petrol stations. Insurers can and do ask for shorter intervals. The flats above are on the five-year cycle set by the 2020 Regulations regardless of the shop’s interval.
The flats are on the shop’s meter — is that legal?
It is not illegal in itself, but it fails the 2020 Regulations’ requirement for a safe installation if the flat has no separate means of isolation, and if you resell electricity to the tenants you are bound by Ofgem’s maximum resale price. Most councils treat it as a C2 on inspection. The fix is a landlord’s board and a sub-main and meter per flat — priced on our split-supply cost page.
Does the shop’s EICR cover the stair and the flats’ hallway?
Only if the stair lighting is on the shop’s board, which is a defect rather than a design. Properly, the common parts are on the landlord’s supply and are covered by the landlord’s EICR. If the flats are let by the room the building is an HMO and the common parts fall inside the licence conditions.
Can you do the shop out of hours?
Yes — early mornings, evenings and Sundays, at 25% above the daytime price, so a from-£220 shop report is from £275 out of hours. The flats and landlord’s board are done in normal hours the same day where the tenants allow.
Shop EICRs from £220, flat EICRs from £140, landlord’s board and communal circuits from £108, remedials from £108 — labour-only, NICEIC certified, across Haringey, Hackney, Islington, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Camden, Newham and Tower Hamlets. Call 07407 627542 or 07500 721453, or WhatsApp a photo of the meter cupboard and we’ll tell you how many reports you need before we quote.