The commissioning inspection: the document an insurer asks for first

When it is required

A wallbox isn't an appliance you plug into a socket. It is a new electrical installation — a new protected circuit, a new RCD, new cabling. New installations always get a commissioning inspection before the equipment is put into service.

It isn't extra paperwork. It is the only evidence that the installation was done safely.

What actually gets measured

The inspector doesn't just check that the cable is fixed properly. They measure:

• insulation resistance — whether current is leaking anywhere,
• earth fault loop impedance — whether the breaker really trips fast enough in a fault,
• RCD operation, including trip time,
• continuity of the protective conductor,
• and whether the correct type of RCD is fitted — critical for EV charging, see below.

The output is an inspection report with the measurements and a verdict on whether the installation is safe to operate.

The RCD detail a layperson won't spot

Charging an EV can produce a DC fault current. An ordinary type A RCD won't react to it — it simply doesn't "see" it, and in the worst case a DC component can blind it, so it stops protecting against what it was fitted for.

That's why charging points use a type B RCD, or a type A paired with 6 mA DC fault detection — often built into the wallbox itself, but by no means into every model.

This is exactly the thing a bargain installation skips, and exactly what the inspection looks for.

Who may issue it

Only a certified inspection technician. That isn't the same as an electrician — it's a separate qualification with a certificate that has to be renewed. The electrician does the work; the inspector verifies it independently.

With us the inspection is part of the installation price, not an add-on. You get it on paper along with the manual and the warranty.

What you risk without one

Two things, and the second one hurts more:

• Safety. A wallbox draws high current for hours at a time. A fault that would never show up on a lighting circuit will show up here.
• Insurance. If something goes wrong — water damage, fire — the inspection report is the first thing an insurer asks for. Without it they have a strong argument to reduce or refuse the claim, because the equipment was never demonstrably commissioned safely.

The few thousand crowns saved come back very unpleasantly at that moment.

And afterwards

The commissioning inspection is one-off, at handover. After that, electrical installations get periodic inspections at intervals depending on the environment and building type. For a house that's a matter of years; for businesses and apartment buildings it's handled as part of the whole building's inspection regime — worth noting the date so it doesn't catch you out.