Who can install a gas cooker, and what checks does it need?

A free-standing gas cooker looks deceptively like an appliance you just plug in, and the bayonet fitting on the end of its hose encourages the idea. That impression is where kitchens go wrong. Installing a cooker is gas work, restricted by law to people competent to do it, and the bayonet exists for a much narrower purpose than DIY installation. This guide covers who can legally do what, the paperwork an installation should leave behind, what the engineer actually checks, and the question landlords ask most: is the cooker on the CP12?

Who can legally install a gas cooker?

Gas work may only be done by someone competent to do it, and anyone doing gas work as part of a business must by law be Gas Safe registered. For a householder the practical rule is the one Gas Safe Register gives: use a registered engineer, and check the ID card. The card matters more than people realise, because registration is held by appliance category, and an engineer qualified on boilers is not automatically qualified on cookers. Ask to see the card, or look the engineer up on the register, and confirm cookers are listed before the work starts. The same applies whether the cooker is new, second-hand, or simply moving house with you: connecting it to the gas supply is the controlled part, not the shopping.

What is the bayonet-fitting rule?

The self-sealing bayonet is the one nuance in an otherwise strict picture. Official guidance on the regulations treats disconnecting and reconnecting a readily movable appliance, such as a free-standing cooker, at its self-sealing connector as falling outside the definition of gas work. That is what lets a householder unplug the cooker to clean behind it or decorate, and plug the same cooker back into the same fitting afterwards. The carve-out is exactly that narrow. First-time installation, fitting or replacing the hose, moving the bayonet point, converting the appliance, or anything involving the fixed pipework is gas work and needs a registered engineer. If a connection is stiff, damaged, or smells of gas at any point, stop and call an engineer rather than persevering.

What does the engineer do and check at an installation?

What paperwork do you get?

Less than a boiler produces, which surprises people. A cooker installation does not normally generate a Building Regulations compliance certificate the way a new boiler does, so no certificate lands in the post afterwards. What you should get, and keep, is the engineer's record of the work: a job record, commissioning note or detailed invoice identifying the appliance, the work done and the checks made, with the engineer's Gas Safe registration number on it. For landlords that record matters twice over, because it evidences who installed the appliance and when, and it feeds the property's gas history so the cooker is on the list when the next annual check comes round.

Is the cooker covered by the landlord's gas safety check?

If the landlord provided the cooker, yes: the annual check covers every gas appliance and flue the landlord is responsible for, and the cooker gets its own line and verdict on the CP12 like any other appliance. The often-missed rule is the tenant's own cooker. An appliance the tenant owns is generally the tenant's responsibility, and the landlord's annual check duty does not attach to it. But the landlord still owns the installation pipework serving it, bayonet included, and that stays within the landlord's duties. HSE's guidance for landlords goes further and recommends asking the engineer to test the whole system for tightness and visually examine the pipework as far as practicable at the annual visit, precisely so the pipe feeding a tenant's cooker is not a blind spot. If ownership of an appliance is unclear, ask the engineer to record the position rather than leaving it ambiguous.

Does a gas cooker change the carbon monoxide alarm position?

It depends where you let. In England and Scotland the alarm rules exclude gas cookers, so a kitchen whose only gas appliance is the cooker does not trigger the requirement. Wales has no cooker exclusion, so a Welsh kitchen with a gas cooker does need an alarm. Fitting one regardless is the simplest way to be right in all three nations, and our dedicated alarm guide covers the rules in full. Whatever the nation, a cooker is a combustion appliance in the middle of a home: keep vents unblocked, and treat sooting, staining or lazy yellow flames as a reason to stop using it and call an engineer.

How do landlords and engineers keep cooker records straight?

The cooker is the appliance most likely to change outside the annual rhythm: tenants replace them, installs happen mid-tenancy, and ownership shifts from landlord to tenant and back between lettings. That churn is a record-keeping problem more than a gas problem. Manifold keeps every appliance's history against the property, so the install record, each CP12 line and any warning notice sit in one place, and the annual renewal is tracked and chased automatically. When a new engineer walks into the kitchen next year, the question of who owns the cooker and when it was last checked has an answer on file rather than a shrug.