The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [ErCl(3)(C(10)H(17)Cl(3)N(3)O(2)P)(3)], contains two independent mol-ecules. In each mol-ecule, the Er(III) ion is six-coordinated in a slightly distorted octa-hedral ErO(3)Cl(3) geometry with a fac-arrangement of the donor atoms. Intra-molecular N-H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds influence the mol-ecular conformations. Some of the pyrrolidine fragments in the N-[bis(pyrrolidin-1-yl)phosphoryl]-2,2,2-trichloroacetamide ligands are disordered over two conformations of equal occupancy. The unusually porous crystal packing exhibits voids of 162, 158 and 13 Å(3 )and short inter-molecular Cl⋯O contacts of 2.876 (3) and 3.022 (4) Å.