How long is a CP12 valid?

A CP12's twelve months sounds simple, and for one property it is. The complications arrive with the second property, the tenant who reschedules, and the renewal date that quietly creeps a month earlier every year. The rules below are what keep the date pinned down.

How long does a CP12 last?

The gas safety check on a rented property must be carried out every 12 months, so a CP12 is effectively valid for a year. Miss the deadline and you're in breach of your duty as a landlord until the check is done, even if nothing is wrong with the appliances. The 12 months run from the date of the check, not from the start of the tenancy, so a change of tenant doesn't reset the clock; the incoming tenant simply gets a copy of the current record before they move in.

How does the two-month early-check window work?

It lets you renew early without losing your anniversary date. Before 2018, renewing early reset your annual date to the day of the new check, so diaries slowly crept earlier each year. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 fixed this, MOT-style:

• Do the check any time from 10 to 12 months after the last one, and the new deadline stays 12 months from the original date.
• Do it earlier than 10 months (or late, past 12), and the deadline resets to 12 months from the actual check date.
• This lets you batch a portfolio's checks into a convenient window without losing the anniversary date.

The window is worth using deliberately. It's what lets a landlord with several properties group nearby renewals into one engineer visit, dodge a tenant's holiday, or pull a December check into November when everyone's diary is kinder. Renew earlier than 10 months and you can, but you're trading the anniversary date for the convenience.

A concrete example makes it stick. Say the last check was done on 1 March, so the next is due by 1 March the following year. Any check carried out from 1 January, 10 months on, preserves the anniversary: the new deadline is 1 March the year after, exactly as if you'd waited for the due date. Do the check in December instead and the clock resets to 12 months from that December date, and the whole cycle shuffles forward for good.

Does a change of tenant or an empty property move the date?

No. The cycle belongs to the property, not the tenancy. A new tenant doesn't need a fresh check commissioned for them; they need a copy of the current, valid record before they move in. A void doesn't pause anything either: an empty property's record keeps ticking down, and a renewal that falls due mid-void still has to happen. What a void does offer is opportunity. Access is never easier than when nobody lives there, so if the record is close to expiry, having the check done between tenancies means the incoming tenant starts with a full year on the clock and no mid-tenancy visit to arrange.

What happens if the record expires?

You're in breach of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 from the day it lapses until a new check is done, and there is no grace period. Breaches of the 1998 regulations are criminal offences the HSE can prosecute, with an unlimited fine and, in serious cases, imprisonment. The stakes rose in 2026 too: under the Renters' Rights Act, civil penalties for breaches now run up to £7,000 for a first offence and up to £40,000 for serious or repeated ones. If a record has already lapsed, the fix is unglamorous. Book the check now, then tighten whatever let it slip.

Which date should you actually track?

The next-due date, not the check date. Track that one number per property and everything else follows: what's coming up, what's overdue, and what's inside the early window and can be batched. Software that flags renewals inside the 10-to-12-month window, like Manifold, chases each renewal automatically and shows which properties can share a trip, which is why the anniversary date never drifts and the “when was that one due again” arithmetic stops being anyone's job.

What do you do with the record between checks?

You must give a copy of the record to each existing tenant within 28 days of the check, give new tenants a copy before they move in, and keep the record for at least two years. One wrinkle: if you use the early-check flexibility, HSE guidance says to keep records until two further checks have been carried out, which can stretch slightly past two calendar years. In practice, keep everything for the life of the property; old records are what solicitors, councils and insurers ask for.