Do I need an electrical certificate for home insurance?
Most policies do not demand one upfront, but insurers can ask about the installation's age and condition at quotation, and after an electrical fire they will investigate the installation's history. Older properties, HMOs and landlord policies increasingly do ask for a current EICR. Having one on file is cheap; discovering an exclusion after a claim is not.
Standard home policies rarely list an EICR as a condition, but the questions at quotation ('has the wiring been checked/updated?') form part of your disclosure, and answers matter. Guessing 'yes, recently' about a 1970s installation is the kind of good-faith error that complicates claims later.
The segments where certificates are moving from optional to expected: landlord policies (many now require the legally mandated EICR to be current, aligning the policy with the law), HMO cover, listed and older buildings, and high-value homes where insurers survey.
After an incident, the installation's paperwork becomes evidence. An electrical-origin fire claim proceeds very differently with a satisfactory EICR from eighteen months ago on file than with silence, because the report demonstrates the reasonable care policies assume.
Our pragmatic advice: if your home is over 25 years old and has never been inspected, commission an EICR for its own sake and file it with your policy documents. It answers the insurer's question, the buyer's question and your own 3am question in one document.
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