Portable Appliance Testing that proves the plug-in equipment you supply is safe — every item inspected, instrument-tested, labelled and logged in a register you can produce on demand.
The test
Most appliance faults are visible before they're measurable, so every test begins with a formal visual inspection: the flex, the plug and its terminations, the casing, signs of overheating, and whether the fuse is the right rating for the appliance. Plenty of failures are caught right here — a nicked cable or a chocolate-block repair inside a plug never gets as far as the instrument.
The appliance then goes on the test instrument for the electrical checks: earth continuity for earthed (Class I) equipment, insulation resistance, and polarity where relevant. Each item receives a durable pass or fail label carrying the test date and the retest due date, plus an entry in an itemised asset register recording the appliance, its location and its results.
That register is the point of the exercise. If a council, an insurer or — in the worst case — a court ever asks whether the equipment you supplied was safe, it's the document that answers.
Who needs it
Every appliance you supply is your responsibility. An EICR covers the fixed wiring, but says nothing about the washing machine and lamps you provided — a PAT register is the accepted evidence they were safe when supplied and checked since.
Licence conditions commonly require periodic PAT of appliances supplied to a house in multiple occupation, alongside the wiring and fire obligations. We fold it into the wider compliance visit — see our HMO certificates service for how the pieces fit together.
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require work equipment to be maintained safely — and portable equipment is often the highest-risk kind, because it gets moved, dropped and has its flexes strained daily. PAT pairs naturally with the commercial EICR in a single visit.
Frequency
There is no single legal interval for PAT — and anyone quoting "annually, because it's the law" is wrong on both counts. The correct approach, and the one in the IET's Code of Practice, is risk-based: retest frequency should follow from what the item is, where it's used and how it's treated. The factors that matter:
We set a sensible interval per item, print the due date on its label, and keep the register so nothing quietly drifts overdue. Many landlords simply align PAT with tenancy changeovers or the annual safety visit — a tidy rhythm that keeps the whole file current. Because pricing is per appliance, the economics improve with volume: portfolios, blocks and offices get through a lot of items in one efficient visit. For everything else electrical, start at our electrical services hub, or send an appliance count for a quote.
Common questions
It's priced per appliance, so the total depends on how many items there are and how many properties or sites they're spread across — the per-item rate stays economical at volume. Send a rough appliance count and the addresses via WhatsApp or the quote form and we'll reply with a fixed quote, usually the same working day.
No law names PAT testing specifically. What the law does require is that supplied electrical equipment is safe — under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 for employers, and under landlords' general duties for supplied appliances. A PAT register is the recognised way to evidence that, and HMO licence conditions commonly require it outright.
There is no single legal interval — frequency is a competent, risk-based judgement. A drill on a building site needs checking far more often than a lamp in an office. We recommend a sensible interval per item, print the retest date on its label, and many landlords simply align testing with tenancy changeovers or their annual safety visits.
A new appliance doesn't need the full instrument test — the manufacturer has done that. It should still get a visual check for transit damage and an entry in the asset register with its purchase date, so the paper trail starts on day one and the first retest date is set.
It gets a fail label, advice to take it out of use, and a straight repair-or-replace recommendation. Simple faults — a wrongly rated fuse, a damaged plug — can often be put right during the visit and the item retested on the spot; anything beyond economic repair is flagged for replacement.
Tell us the property type and postcode — we'll come back with a fixed quote and the earliest available date.