I have my own take on this and I'm sure it will attract a bunch of critism from the majority.
From the point of view of the landlord, he doesn't want his property ripped apart by an enthusiastic electrician every year or two, all he wants to know is that the previous tenant hasn't kicked the s**t out of the place prior to departing, and is the next tenant likely to die from an obvious problem with the electrics. For the average landlord, a full PIR recorded on a EICR is over the top but, conversely, a Visual Condition Report (as offered by NIC) is often seen as no better than a second-hand car dealer giving your tyres a kick and deciding whether to buy your car or not.
I offer an inspection which falls midway between these two extremes even though it is NOT recognised by the industry. In effect, it is a VCR with limited testing. Unlike a VCR, my meter actually goes into the property with me AND gets taken out of its' box. My long lead goes in with me, too.
Because the property is (usually) empty, I have a quick look around the consumer unit and check for any damage to the cables and for the presence of bonding. Then I whip the earth out and take a Ze. I also look for the presence of RCDs and make a note on the report if none present. Then I isolate the bonding conductors and do a R2 with my long lead to prove they are connected (to something, anyway, as cross-bonding might skew the results sometimes).
Next, I walk all round the property and look for any signs of physical damage to the accessories and open a few up to check tightness of the terminal screws. If I find a few loose ones, I open up a lot more and give them all a tweak. Any broken accessories get replaced on the spot and charged extra for. The old ones are left as evidence for the landlord.
If there is a shower, I open it up and do a Zs. I also take a Zs at every socket in the property and at the cooker point if it has an assocciated socket. All results are recorded.
I check that switches do what they should and that there are no unearthed metal accessories. If there are, they get changed for plastic and are charged extra, same as above.
Finally, if there are RCDs, they get tested on both AUTO and RAMP and the results recorded. Then the push button gets checked.
What I dont get hung up on is things like no sleeving to the earths in light switches or single-colour green insulation - I cant recall anyone dying of these faults.
I generally take a couple of hours to perform this level of inspection and the landlord gets charged about
