Gas safety certificate vs EICR: what does a landlord need?

Renting out a property in England brings two separate safety duties, and they are easy to muddle. One covers gas, the other covers electrics. They run on different timescales, sit under different regulations, and are carried out by different qualified people, so a landlord needs both. Neither one covers you for the other.

What is the difference between a gas safety certificate and an EICR?

A gas safety certificate records the annual check of every gas appliance and flue the landlord provides; an EICR is a condition report on the property's fixed electrical installation. The gas check happens every 12 months under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. The EICR happens at least every 5 years under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. Different documents, different intervals, different trades.

• Gas: an annual gas safety check, every 12 months, by a Gas Safe registered engineer, under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
• Electrical: an EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) 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 all new tenancies from 1 July 2020 and existing tenancies from 1 April 2021.
• So gas is annual and electrical is five-yearly: different checks, by different qualified people.

Who can carry out each check?

The gas check can only be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer; 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 of them is. Some firms employ both trades and can do the two visits together, which is convenient, but the documents remain separate and each must be signed off by the right person.

What are the deadlines for giving tenants copies?

The two regimes rhyme here, which helps. The gas safety record goes to existing tenants within 28 days of the check, and to a new tenant before they move in. The EICR must also be given to a new tenant before they move in, and to current tenants within 28 days of the test. Any remedial work identified on the EICR must be done within the time stated on the report, or within 28 days. Keep evidence of delivery for both, because that is what gets tested in a dispute.

What are the penalties for missing each one?

Non-compliance with the electrical rules can bring a fine of up to £30,000 per offence from the local authority. The gas duties carry their own enforcement, and since the Renters' Rights Act took effect in 2026, civil penalties for breaches can reach £7,000 for a first offence and £40,000 for serious or repeated ones. In other words, neither duty is the cheap one to neglect. Both records also get asked for at the same moments: HMO licensing, conveyancing when you sell, and any possession case.

Is there anything else on the safety checklist?

One more thing worth knowing while you are lining up the two big checks. Since 1 October 2022, landlords in England must also fit a carbon monoxide alarm in any room used as living accommodation containing a fixed combustion appliance, gas cookers excepted, and repair or replace alarms once told they are faulty. It is a small job, and it tends to get picked up at the same visit as the gas check.

How do landlords keep both cycles straight?

The failure mode is rarely ignorance; it is drift. An annual cycle and a five-yearly cycle across even a handful of properties produce a scatter of dates that no memory holds reliably, 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, so the annual cycle runs itself and the paperwork is there when the council, a buyer or a tenant asks. One less spreadsheet, one less lapse.