Elinstallationsrapport: Denmark's Four Fault Grades, Explained

The listing calls the house well maintained. The electrical report lists eleven faults.

The elinstallationsrapport is the electrical half of Denmark's huseftersynsordning, the home inspection scheme. An authorised electrical contractor inspects the fixed installations visually and by sampling, and grades every fault it finds as a shock risk, a fire risk, an illegal installation, or a matter to be investigated further, according to the report format approved by the Danish Safety Authority, Sikkerhedsstyrelsen.

What does the report grade?

Faults, in four types. The Safety Authority's own sample report explains the scale a buyer reads on the fault overview page. Risiko for stød covers illegal installations that carry a risk of electric shock. Risiko for brand covers illegal installations that carry a risk of fire. Ulovlige elinstallationer covers installations that do not meet the standards and legal requirements that applied when the work was done. Undersøges nærmere covers conditions that should be investigated to establish whether there is a fault at all, and the report warns that such a condition may turn out to be a shock or fire risk.

The same document states the rule behind the scale: every fault in the overview is illegal, and some are illegal and dangerous at the same time. Faults that only affect whether something works, funktionsfejl, sit on a separate page headed the contractor's statement on functionality, not in the fault overview.

How is the inspection done, and what is left out?

By eye and by sample. Section 8 of the regulation on electrical installation reports, bekendtgørelse nr. 626 af 2. juni 2017, requires the inspection to be visual and sample based, with suitable technical aids and without destructive intervention unless agreed. It must cover the switchboards, including a test of the residual current devices, the material behind switches, sockets and lamp outlets, low voltage installations, the dimensioning of the installation, and the protection against touching live parts.

Section 9 lists what falls outside: trivial wear normal for an installation of that age, parts that could not be inspected, installations outside the building itself, white goods, and any assessment of whether the installation is up to date. The sample report adds the consequence in plain words: since the inspection is a sample, there may be illegal and dangerous installations in the home that were not found and are therefore not described.

How long is it valid, and who orders it?

Less than a year, and the seller's side. Section 14 of the regulation requires the report to be prepared or renewed less than one year before the day the buyer receives it, and the Safety Authority's guidance on deadlines states that a home sold more than a year after the report's date needs a new one, at a reduced fee if the same firm renews it. For an ejerlejlighed, an owner occupied flat, section 15 requires reports for both the flat's own installations and the common property's.

The contractor pays the state an administration fee of 77 kroner for each report under section 2 of the regulation, and section 7 bars it from taking the order from the seller's estate agent, from making the report conditional on other services, and from later inspecting work it did itself. The Safety Authority's guidance spells out the last point: a firm that repairs faults after its own report may not write the new report, another authorised firm must.

What do inspectors actually find?

Faults in most homes, even new ones. In 2022 the Safety Authority inspected 104 homes less than a year old. Only 22 had installations that were 100 percent in order, 80 received guidance on faults that ought to be corrected, and in 2 the faults were serious enough for the owner to be ordered to fix them.

Safety Authority inspections of 104 new homes, 2022

Result	Homes ( homes)
Installations fully in order		22 homes
Guidance on faults to correct		80 homes
Order to repair issued		2 homes

The authority named the recurring faults. In two out of three homes portable appliances lacked correct earthing, in every seventh home fixed appliances lacked earthing, and every fourth switchboard was unmarked or not properly protected against contact with live parts. Deputy head of office Evy Boe Madsen of the Safety Authority put the earthing problem down to appliances sold with plugs that give no earth connection in the most common Danish sockets, a fault she said an adapter solves.

Why does it decide the insurance?

The report and the tilstandsrapport together make up the huseftersyn, and the Safety Authority's consumer page states that a huseftersyn is a precondition for taking out an ejerskifteforsikring, the change of ownership insurance. The sample report describes the trade at the heart of the scheme: a seller who presents valid reports and an insurance offer can be released from the normal ten year seller liability for defects.

We do not give buying advice. What the regulation and the authority's own material support is this: the report is a sample, its faults are all illegal by definition, its four grades tell you which ones can hurt you, and it expires after a year. AiMYNDi reads the elinstallationsrapport with the tilstandsrapport and the listing and puts the graded faults next to the price. An example of what a report looks like shows the layout, and Denmark's 2026 property tax rules for new buyers cover the bill that arrives after the keys.