SH wrote:
If the incoming tenant is injured/electrocuted, the landlord's ability
to defend themself against a charge of letting unsafe property will be
weaker without an EICR at change of tenant?

Surely that would have been written into the law if that was the case? The
law has decided that 5 years is a suitable period, and so that would seem a
suitable defence? The law is primarily to protect tenants from bad
landlords, not landlords from bad tenants.

For example there's no requirement to do a gas safety check on change of
tenant, and the argument the tenant could have fiddled with gas appliances
would be similar. Of course obvious damage would be something you should
investigate.

I suppose it depends how often you change tenant - if it's a student let
that turns over every year doing an EICR every year might be excessive,
whereas if it typically changes tenancy after 3-4 years it might make sense
to do it before a new let - saves having to impose half a day with the power
turned off on a tenant in place (particularly if they WFH).

Theo