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Safety

Checking a landlord gas safety certificate

If a rented property in England has any gas appliance, the landlord must have it checked every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer and give you the record. It is one of the few duties where you are entitled to the paperwork rather than merely to an assurance.

When you should have a copy

A new tenant should receive the current record at the start of the tenancy, before moving in. An existing tenant should receive each new record within 28 days of the check being carried out.

It is often called a CP12, after the old form number. The legal term is a landlord gas safety record, and either name refers to the same document.

What to look at on it

It is dated within the last twelve months
The check is annual. A record more than twelve months old means the inspection is overdue, whatever the document says on it.
It lists every gas appliance in the property
Boiler, hob, gas fire, back boiler. An appliance that has been left off the record has not been checked, and a record that omits one is incomplete rather than reassuring.
The engineer has a Gas Safe registration number
The record must name the engineer and carry their number. Anyone working on gas without being on the register is working illegally.
Nothing is marked as unsafe or at risk
Appliances can be recorded as At Risk or Immediately Dangerous. If any are, look for evidence the fault was put right rather than simply noted.

Check the engineer, not just the document

A certificate is only worth what the person who signed it was qualified to do. You can check a registration number, and what that engineer is actually qualified for, at the Gas Safe Register. Being registered is not the whole story — engineers are qualified for specific appliance types, and the register shows which.

If there is not one

Ask in writing and keep the reply. If it still does not arrive, the duty is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive, and your council’s private housing team can also act on unsafe conditions in a rented home.

The landlord’s obligations in full are set out by the Health and Safety Executive. A property with no gas supply at all needs no record — the duty follows the appliances, not the tenancy.

The other paperwork worth asking for

Gas safety is one of several documents a tenancy should come with. An energy performance certificate is another, and it is public — you can look one up for any address without asking the landlord at all.