Landlord gas safety certificates: the rules and the dates

If you let a property with gas appliances, you need a gas safety check every 12 months, carried out by an engineer on the Gas Safe register. The engineer issues you a record — the CP12 — and that document is what proves you have complied.

The check covers every gas appliance, flue and pipework that you supply as the landlord. Not just the boiler: a hob, a gas fire and any other appliance counts too, which is why prices move with the number of appliances. A single-appliance certificate is £70; each extra appliance is priced separately.

Tenants have to be given a copy within 28 days of the check, and a new tenant must get one before they move in. Keep your own copy for at least two years. Many letting agents ask for a copy as well.

The date people get wrong is the renewal window. You can have the check done in the final two months before the current one expires and keep the same renewal date. Leave it later and the date drifts, which means next year's job lands somewhere less convenient.

What happens if it is late is worth understanding: it is a criminal offence to fail to have the check done, and there is no grace period. It also tends to surface at the worst possible moment — a tenant complaint, an inspection, or a sale.