A quarterly gas compliance checklist for letting agents
By Jordan Valentine-Dunn, Gas Safe registered engineer · 9 July 2026
For a letting agent, gas compliance is a quarterly rhythm: pull every property's next-due date, book anything due within 90 days, chase difficult access early, deliver each new record to the tenant within 28 days, and keep proof. The duty usually stays with the landlord, but the tracking is what agents are paid for.
What are a letting agent's gas safety responsibilities?
Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 the duty generally sits with the landlord, but an agent contracted to arrange the checks takes on a real practical responsibility, and usually a contractual one too. In plain terms: if a record lapses on a fully managed property, the landlord will look at you, and so will their solicitor. Be explicit in every management agreement about who books the check, who tracks the dates, who holds the records and who delivers copies to tenants. Ambiguity is where lapses live.
What should a quarterly gas compliance routine cover?
Pull the next-due dates
List every managed property with a gas appliance and its next-due date, not its last-check date. Anything due in the next 90 days goes on this quarter's action list, and anything already lapsed goes to the top of it.
Book early and batch by area
Get engineers booked well before each property's deadline, and group nearby properties into fewer visits. The two-month early-check window means you can bring a renewal forward from 10 months without moving its anniversary, which is what makes batching work.
Chase the hard access first
The properties that slip are the ones where access is difficult. Start those first, in writing, offer specific dates, and keep a record of every attempt; if a check ever runs late, that trail is your evidence of reasonable steps.
Deliver and file
Get each new record to the tenant within 28 days of the check, or before a new tenant moves in. Send the landlord their copy, store yours where it can be produced in seconds, and keep records for at least two years.
How do letting agents track gas safety across a portfolio?
By tracking one number per property, the next-due date, and reviewing the whole list at least quarterly. A spreadsheet does this fine for a dozen properties. Past that, the dates drift: a column does not chase anyone, a formula does not notice the property that was added without one, and the person who owns the spreadsheet goes on leave in the week it matters. This is where a system that holds every next-due date and surfaces what is coming earns its keep. Manifold does exactly this for gas, with a portal that gives landlords and agents sight of the same records, and it stays deliberately gas-focused rather than trying to be a sprawling everything-compliance suite.
Is the agent or the landlord liable for an expired gas certificate?
The legal duty generally remains the landlord's, so formal enforcement lands on them first. But an agent who took on the checks in a management agreement and let one lapse has a contractual problem and a professional one, and in practice the difficult conversation, the complaint and the lost landlord all arrive at the agency's door. Treat every managed property's record as if the liability were yours; commercially, it more or less is.
What about the properties between tenants?
Keep them current. The annual duty does not pause during a void, and a new tenant must be given a copy of the record before they move in, so a lapsed certificate can hold up a move-in date you have already promised. A void is also the easiest time to get an engineer through the door, so the quarterly review should flag empty properties as chances to renew early, not gaps to skip.
This is general guidance, not legal advice; who does what depends on your management agreements. The check itself must be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer, the only person who can issue a valid record.