Landlord gas safety certificate: what the law requires

For a landlord gas safety certificate, the government guidance says you must make sure any gas equipment you supply is safely installed and maintained by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and you must have an annual gas safety check on each appliance and flue. You must also give your tenant a copy of the gas safety check record at the right time.

What is a landlord gas safety certificate, in plain English?

On GOV.UK, this is described as a gas safety check record. It is the record you give your tenant after a Gas Safe registered engineer has carried out the gas safety checks the guidance requires.

The same GOV.UK guidance sets out the key duties behind the record. In other words, the record is not a substitute for maintenance or safe installation, it is evidence that the annual check has been done.

How often do landlords need a gas safety check?

The guidance for tenants on GOV.UK says your landlord must “have a registered engineer do an annual gas safety check on each appliance and flue”. That means the check is a legal requirement at least every 12 months, and it applies to each gas appliance and flue you provide. Appliances your tenant owns, and flues that serve only those appliances, are not covered, although HSE recommends checking every flue connected to a gas appliance.

If you manage more than one property, remember this duty is per property and per appliance and flue, not a single check across your whole portfolio.

Who can carry out the gas safety check?

GOV.UK is clear that the work must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer. It appears in two places in the tenant facing guidance:

• Gas equipment you supply must be “safely installed and maintained by a Gas Safe registered engineer”.
• A “registered engineer” must do the annual gas safety check on each appliance and flue.

So when you are booking a check or arranging maintenance, the requirement in this guidance is about the engineer’s registration, not just general trade experience.

What exactly must the landlord do for gas safety?

The tenant guidance on GOV.UK lists three gas safety responsibilities. It says your landlord must:

• “make sure gas equipment they supply is safely installed and maintained by a Gas Safe registered engineer”
• “have a registered engineer do an annual gas safety check on each appliance and flue”
• “give you a copy of the gas safety check record before you move in, or within 28 days of the check”

The GOV.UK page for landlords says that as a landlord you must “make sure all gas equipment and electrical equipment is safely installed and maintained”.

When do you have to give the gas safety record to the tenant?

Timing is one of the most common areas of confusion, especially when a tenancy is starting or renewing. The GOV.UK tenant guidance is specific. It says the landlord must “give you a copy of the gas safety check record before you move in, or within 28 days of the check”.

That gives two situations to think about:

• New tenant moving in, where the law says they must get a copy before they move in (for a let of 28 days or less, the record can instead be displayed prominently in the property).
• After a check has taken place, where the law says existing tenants must get a copy within 28 days of the check.

Practically, it helps to treat issuing the record to the tenant as part of the same admin task as storing it for your own file, so you do not miss the “before you move in” or “within 28 days” requirement.

Does this apply in England only, or the whole UK?

The GOV.UK landlord responsibilities page includes a prompt that “There are different rules for” landlords in Scotland and landlords in Northern Ireland. It also says you must check your tenant has the right to rent your property “if it’s in England”.

The gas safety duties in this article come from the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, which apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own equivalent 2004 Regulations with the same annual check and the same timings for giving the record. Other duties, such as the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm rules and right to rent checks, are different in each nation, so check the rules for the nation where your property is.

How does gas safety fit with your other safety responsibilities?

Gas safety is one part of the wider safety responsibilities described on GOV.UK. The tenant guidance says the landlord must keep the property “safe and free from health hazards”. It then lists separate areas including gas safety, electrical safety and fire safety.

For context, the same tenant guidance also says that, for electrical safety, the landlord must make sure “the electrical system is safe” and that “all appliances they supply are safe”.

For fire safety in England, the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, as amended from 1 October 2022, require a smoke alarm on each storey with a room used as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room used as living accommodation that has a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker, such as a gas boiler, gas fire or wood burning stove. Landlords must check the alarms work on the day a new tenancy begins, and must repair or replace any alarm that a tenant reports and that is found not to be in proper working order. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own alarm rules.

The landlord responsibilities page also says it is your responsibility to “fit and test smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms”.

Even though these are separate duties, they tend to be handled together in practice, because they all rely on you having a clear record of what equipment is in the property, what you supply, and when checks were last completed.

A simple checklist for landlords and letting agents

Based on what GOV.UK sets out, here is a simple checklist you can use for each property.

• Confirm what gas equipment you supply in the property.
• Make sure that gas equipment is “safely installed and maintained by a Gas Safe registered engineer”.
• Arrange an annual gas safety check with a registered engineer for each appliance and flue.
• Give an existing tenant a copy of the gas safety check record within 28 days of the check, and give any new tenant a copy before they move in. Keep each record until there have been two further checks of that appliance or flue, or, if the appliance or flue is removed, for two years from the date of its last check.

Keeping these dates and documents tracked in one place helps you stay consistent across tenancies.