What gas safety record does a new tenant need?

The rule at the start of a tenancy is simple but strict: before a new tenant moves in, the landlord must give them a copy of the current gas safety record. The property must already have a valid record, meaning the annual gas safety check is up to date. Move-in day is the one date on the compliance calendar you cannot catch up on later.

What is the difference between new and existing tenants?

• New tenant: give them a copy of the current gas safety record before they move in.
• Existing tenant: give them a copy within 28 days of each annual check.
• The record must be valid, meaning the annual check is up to date.
• The obligation is the same record either way; only the timing differs.

Does the property need a fresh check before every new tenancy?

No, and this is a common misreading. The duty is to hand over the current, valid record, not to commission a new check for each change of tenant. If the property was checked seven months ago and the record is in date, a copy of that record satisfies the move-in duty. That said, many landlords deliberately line a check up with a change of tenancy anyway: the property is empty, access is easy, and the incoming tenant starts with a record that will not need renewing mid-tenancy. If the record is close to expiry, doing the check during the void is simply good housekeeping.

How should you give the tenant the record?

Any way you can later prove. A paper copy in the move-in pack works; so does a digital copy, which HSE accepts provided the tenant can access it and it identifies the engineer who did the check. What matters most is the evidence trail: a signed inventory line, an email with the record attached, or a portal entry showing when the tenant received it. Delivery you cannot evidence is delivery a dispute will treat as never having happened. This is where Manifold quietly earns its keep: certificates are delivered to tenants digitally through the landlord portal with a record of when, so the proof exists without anyone building a paper trail by hand.

What goes wrong when landlords miss this step?

Two things, one immediate and one that surfaces later. The immediate one is a breach of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and since the Renters' Rights Act took effect in 2026 the civil penalties for gas safety breaches run up to £7,000 for a first offence and £40,000 for serious or repeated ones. The slower one arrives if the tenancy ever ends badly. While Section 21 existed in England, a landlord who had not given the tenant the gas record faced arguments about whether their notice was valid at all; the case law on that ran for years. Section 21 was abolished from 1 May 2026, and possession now runs on grounds the landlord must evidence, which puts the landlord's own compliance record under the light in every contested case. A clean, dated move-in handover is exactly the kind of evidence you want on your side of the table.

A move-in day checklist for gas