What gas and electrical safety certificates does a landlord need?

Landlords tend to think of “the safety certificates” as one job, and in spirit they are: proof the property's gas and electrics have been checked by the right person. In practice they are two separate legal duties, on different cycles, done by different trades, and the paperwork for one says nothing about the other. Here is what each requires, how the cycles line up, and what the pair costs to keep current.

Which two certificates does a landlord need?

• Gas: an annual gas safety check of every gas appliance and flue the landlord provides, every 12 months, under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, recorded on the Landlord Gas Safety Record (the CP12).
• Electrical: an EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) on the property's fixed electrical installation at least every 5 years, under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020.
• The electrical rules came into force on 1 June 2020, applying to new tenancies from 1 July 2020 and existing tenancies from 1 April 2021.
• An EICR can specify a shorter interval than 5 years, in which case the report's own date governs.

Who issues what?

The gas check can only be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and the EICR by a qualified and competent electrician. The two registrations do not overlap: an electrician cannot issue a gas safety record and a gas engineer cannot issue an EICR, however experienced either is. Some firms employ both trades and can arrange the two visits together, which is convenient, but the documents stay separate and each must be signed off by the right person. Check the gas engineer on the Gas Safe Register before booking; it takes seconds and it is free.

How do the two cycles line up?

Awkwardly, unless you steer them. Gas runs every year and the EICR at least every five, so most years the gas check is the only visit, and every fifth year both fall due. The gas side gives you the steering wheel: the check can be done any time from 10 months after the last one without moving your renewal date, so you can nudge the gas anniversary into the same season as the EICR and book the heavy year as one coordinated exercise. Whatever you do, track a next-due date for each certificate separately. The EICR's five-year horizon is precisely what makes it easy to forget, because no annual rhythm reminds you it exists.

What do the certificates cost together?

For the gas side, a single-appliance CP12 typically costs about £60 to £90, with the UK average near £80. London and the South East run dearest at roughly £85 to £120, Northern England and Scotland cheaper at about £50 to £75, and most engineers add around £10 to £15 per extra appliance. EICR pricing is harder to put a fair single range on, because it scales with the size of the installation: the number of circuits, and the time an inspection of them takes, varies far more between properties than a gas check does. Get a couple of quotes for your actual property rather than trusting a national average. One consistent saving: bundling the gas check with a boiler service or an EICR often works out cheaper than booking each separately, because you are paying for one coordinated visit rather than several call-outs.

What are the deadlines for giving tenants copies?

The two regimes rhyme, which makes them easy to run as one habit. The gas record goes to existing tenants within 28 days of the check and to a new tenant before they move in, with records kept for at least two years. The EICR must also be given to a new tenant before they move in and to current tenants within 28 days of the test, and any remedial work it identifies must be done within the time the report states, or within 28 days. Keep evidence of delivery for both, because delivery is what a dispute or a penalty notice will test.

What happens if either one lapses?

Neither is the cheap one to neglect. Missing the electrical duties can bring a fine of up to £30,000 per offence from the local authority. The gas duties are criminal-law territory enforced by the HSE, and since the Renters' Rights Act took effect in 2026, civil penalties for gas breaches can reach £7,000 for a first offence and £40,000 for serious or repeated ones. Both certificates also get asked for at the same moments: HMO licensing, conveyancing when you sell, insurance queries, and any possession case, where your own compliance record is the first thing examined.

Is there anything else on the safety list?

Carbon monoxide alarms. Since 1 October 2022, landlords in England must fit a CO alarm in any room used as living accommodation with a fixed combustion appliance, gas cookers excepted, and repair or replace an alarm once told it is faulty. It is a small job usually picked up alongside the gas visit, and our dedicated guide covers the rules nation by nation.

How do landlords keep both certificates straight?

The same way for both: one next-due date per certificate per property, watched by something that is not a person's memory. An annual cycle and a five-yearly cycle across even a few properties produce a scatter of dates, and the certificate that lapses is the one nobody was watching. Manifold tracks every property's gas renewal automatically and keeps each record findable in seconds, and the landlord portal gives you one place to hold the EICR and alarm paperwork alongside the gas history, so a council, buyer or insurer asking for “the certificates” is a two-minute job.