Gas Safety
Certificate (CP12)

The 1998 Regulations behind your gas safety certificate

The rules that make an annual check compulsory are set out in the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. Regulation 36 is the one landlords need: it requires that every gas appliance, flue and installation pipework provided for a tenant’s use is maintained in a safe condition, and that a safety check is carried out at intervals of no more than twelve months.

Only an engineer on the Gas Safe Register may legally carry out that work, and only if their registration covers the appliance type in front of them. Every engineer carries an ID card showing a licence number and the categories of work they are qualified for; you are entitled to ask for it, and to check the number on the register before work starts.

The Health and Safety Executive enforces the Regulations and publishes plain-English guidance for landlords covering exactly which appliances are caught, what happens in shared blocks, and how the record must be kept. Breaches are criminal offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974; check the current HSE guidance for the penalties that apply, as enforcement practice changes over time.

Gas safety certificate deadlines you have to hit

Most landlords who get into trouble do so on the dates rather than on the inspection itself. The Regulations attach a specific timetable to the record:

• Every 12 months. Each appliance must be checked at intervals of no more than twelve months. There is no five-year option and no exemption for a newly installed boiler.
• 28 days to existing tenants. A copy of the record must reach every existing tenant within 28 days of the check being completed.
• Before occupation for new tenants. A new tenant must be given the record before they move in, not at the first inspection afterwards.
• Two years of records. You must keep each record for at least two years, so at any point you can show the current one and the one before it.
• Up to two months early. A check carried out in the two months before the current record expires keeps the original expiry date, so booking early never shortens your cycle.

Set a reminder eleven months out rather than twelve. Access problems, holidays and a tenant who works shifts can all eat a fortnight, and the deadline does not move because the tenant was hard to reach.

What happens if you have no valid record

A missing record is not a paperwork slip; it is a breach of health and safety law that the HSE can prosecute. Beyond the courts, the practical consequences arrive faster: an insurer can query a claim following a gas incident where no current record exists, and a lender or buyer’s solicitor will ask for the last two records during conveyancing.

There is a tenancy consequence too. In England a landlord must have given the tenant a current gas safety record before a section 21 notice can be relied on, so an overlooked annual check can undermine a possession claim months or years later. If you are unsure where you stand, get the check done and served, then take advice.

Landlords, agents and property managers

If you let a property in England or Wales that contains any gas appliance, flue or pipework you provide, you need an annual gas safety record. That covers assured shorthold tenancies, company lets, room-by-room lets, student houses, short-term and holiday lets, and licensed premises with residential accommodation above. It applies whether the supply is mains natural gas or bottled LPG.

Where a managing agent runs the property, the duty can be delegated by contract but the liability generally stays with the owner, so make sure your management agreement says in writing who books the check and who serves the record on the tenant. Tenants’ own appliances — a cooker they brought with them, for example — are outside the landlord’s duty, though the connecting pipework and any flue serving it are not.

Owner-occupiers have no legal obligation, but an annual check on a boiler is still the cheapest insurance available against a carbon monoxide incident, and most manufacturers require annual servicing to keep a warranty alive.

HMOs, flats, commercial and mixed-use premises

Houses in multiple occupation are the highest-risk category we see: more appliances, more occupants and more shared space. In an HMO the landlord’s duty extends to the appliances in every let room as well as the communal kitchen, and local authority licensing conditions normally require the current record to be produced on demand.

In a purpose-built block, the flat’s own boiler and hob are the landlord’s responsibility while the communal plant room usually belongs to the freeholder or managing agent. If your flat is served by a communal boiler you still need a record for anything inside the demise — typically the hob, the fire and the pipework.

Shops, restaurants, offices and mixed-use buildings are a separate regime with different testing requirements and paperwork; if that is your situation, our commercial gas safety certificate service is the right starting point.

How it fits with your other landlord checks

Gas is one of four compliance documents most London landlords hold at once, and they run on different clocks. Electrical safety is covered by the EICR certificate, required at least every five years for private rented homes in England under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. Fire safety in a block or an HMO is covered by a fire risk assessment under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Energy performance is covered by an EPC, with a minimum band E required to let under the MEES rules; a higher minimum band has been proposed and reviewed more than once, so check current government guidance before planning works around it.

Because the gas check is the one that repeats every year, it is the natural anchor for the rest. Landlords who book gas, electrical and fire work in a single visit lose less rent to access appointments and keep one renewal date in the diary. You can book any combination online and we will send one engineer where the qualifications allow it.

Immediately Dangerous, At Risk and Not to Current Standards

There is no “pass” or “fail” stamp on a landlord’s gas record in the way there is on an MOT. Instead, an engineer who finds a problem classifies the appliance under the Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure, and the classification tells you how quickly you have to act.

• Immediately Dangerous (ID). The appliance is a danger to life or property now. With your permission — or the tenant’s, as the responsible person present — the engineer turns it off, labels it and issues a warning notice. It must not be used until it is repaired.
• At Risk (AR). One or more faults could make the appliance dangerous. It is turned off with permission and left labelled until the fault is corrected.
• Not to Current Standards (NCS). The installation does not meet today’s standards but is not unsafe. It can stay in use; the engineer records the point and advises on improvement.

An appliance that is disconnected does not stop your annual duty. The record still has to be issued for the property, and the disconnected appliance must be repaired or removed and the paperwork updated.

Repairs, re-testing and getting your record issued

Where a defect is small — a loose connection, a blocked ventilation grille, a worn seal — our engineer will normally quote on the spot and, where parts allow, put it right during the same visit so the record can be issued without a second appointment.

Larger work such as a flue repair, a replacement heat exchanger or a full boiler swap is quoted in writing before anything starts, and the record is issued once the appliance has been retested and is safe. If you decide to remove an unsafe appliance rather than repair it, the pipework is capped and the removal is noted.

Whatever the outcome, we never leave a property in an unsafe condition and we explain the options in plain language to both landlord and tenant. If you already know an appliance is playing up, say so when you book your inspection and we will allow extra time on the visit.