Gas Safety Certificate Compliance: The Complete Guide
Annual gas safety checks are a legal requirement for every rented property with gas appliances. Missing a deadline can result in prosecution. Here is everything you need to know.
The legal requirement
Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, landlords must ensure that all gas appliances, fittings and flues in rented properties are checked annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer. A Landlord Gas Safety Record (commonly called a gas safety certificate) must be issued after each check.
This is not optional. It is a criminal offence to fail to maintain gas appliances or to fail to arrange an annual gas safety check.
What must be checked
The annual gas safety check covers:
The engineer will test each appliance for gas tightness, check the burner pressure and heat input, test safety devices, and ensure adequate ventilation.
The 12-month deadline
Gas safety certificates are valid for 12 months from the date of the check. A new check must be carried out before the certificate expires.
There is a small window of flexibility: if you arrange the check in the final two months before the expiry date, the new certificate can be backdated to the expiry date of the previous one. This prevents the cycle from drifting forward each year.
Providing the certificate to tenants
You must provide a copy of the gas safety record to:
Failure to provide the certificate is itself an offence, separate from failing to carry out the check.
Penalties for non-compliance
How RightHold helps
RightHold tracks the expiry date of every gas safety certificate across your portfolio. You receive automated reminders at 60, 30, 14 and 7 days before expiry. The compliance dashboard gives you a traffic-light overview so you can see at a glance which properties need attention. Certificate documents can be stored against the property record for easy retrieval.