How are landlords preserving the expiry date when handing Gas Safety Certificates to new tenants? Engineers are still dating Certificates on the day of completion, there is no place to identify a later expiry.
“New regulations introduced in April 2018 allow a landlord to arrange for a gas safety check to be carried out any time from 10-12 calendar months after the previous check whilst still preserving the original check expiry date”
My only thought is to supply a copy of the previous certificate as well but that does seem a little silly & requires explanation to tenant.
I just went through this issue, im 10months in from a combi boiler install & i told the Gas Engineer the rule & he was clueless & he even filled out the renal date 12months from the inspection date which he should of left blank as now ive lost 2 month!
I called Gas Safe & they confirmed that if the CP12 has an option to specifically insert the reuawal date then this should be left blank & the older certificate backs up the new CP12 expire date which is ridiculous, i think if we want to use the 2 months feature then the CP12 presently standing should be correctly calculated by the GS Engineer so he can write the correct expiration date on the present CP12 thus preventing any ambiguity & long stories of explaining to tenants which is what GS told me to do, yes, explain to each and every HMO tenant why the existing CP12 is not expired when it says it is, this is simply not thought through enough by Gas Safe for sure.
Please ensure the GS Engineer doesn’t fill out any date other than the actual date of the inspection as thats all they are supposed to do.
New tenancies may be better served with the past & present CP12 to be absolutely sure you serve the correct data im thinking…
Thanks Andrew….you’re right, the suggested remedy is ridiculous.
Having searched online for Certificate examples it does seem they’re are different formats. Think I’ll give the Gas Safe Register folk a call too when I get a chance to check their current advice. Followed by a call to the engineer - Perhaps he may be able to re-issue a later certificate? Yes, I know that’s unlikely as it would be far too easy
As of April’18 Landlords were permitted to carry out Gas Checks up to 2months early giving greater flexibility. The problems occurs when Gas Engineers date the certificate on the date of completion - Unless the certificate is formatted with a box to say “next safety check due xx/xx/xx”. There are a lot of certificates that just say:
“NEXT GAS SAFETY CHECK MUST BE CARRIED OUT WITHIN 12 MONTHS”
When viewed in isolation this is misleading & could cause potential problems (you’d need to supply a copy of the last 2 certificates to prove true expiry date)
I’ve not experienced this, as the gas safe certificate first my plumber has used does have a separate box for renewal date.
However legally you do have to keep two years proof of gas safe certificates, therefore I would recommend keep the previous years certificates with the new one.
Extract from the HSE publication “Safety in the installation and use
of gas systems and appliances
Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended”
Regulation 36A Determination of date when next
safety check is due under regulation 36(3)
Summary of regulation 36A
This regulation sets out when the next safety check must be completed in order
to retain the existing deadline date. It also sets out a one-off flexibility that
landlords can use to align the date of an appliance check with that of other
appliances at the same premises.
(1) Where a safety check of an appliance or a flue made in accordance with
regulation 36(3)(a) or (b) is or was completed within the period of 2 months ending
with the deadline date, that check is to be treated for the purposes of regulation
36(3)(a) and (b) as having been made on the deadline date.
(2) Subject to paragraph (3), the landlord may ensure that an appliance or flue is
checked for safety within the 2 month period beginning with the deadline date,
instead of checking it within the 12 month period ending with that date.
(3) The discretion conferred by paragraph (2) may be exercised –
(a) only once in relation to each appliance or flue in the relevant premises; and
(b) only in order to align the deadline date in relation to the next safety
check of that appliance or flue with the deadline date in relation to the
next safety check of any other appliance or flue in the same relevant
premises.
Regulation 36(5)–(12)
Regulation 36A
72
Safety in the installation and use of gas systems and appliances
(4) In this regulation “the deadline date”, in relation to a safety check for an
appliance or flue, means the last day of the 12 month period within which the check
is or was required to be made under regulation 36(3) (a) or (b).1
304 The changes set out in regulation 36A aim to offer more flexibility in the gas
safety checking regime – however, it is not compulsory for landlords to take
advantage of this change. If they prefer, landlords can continue with their current
regime of gas safety checking, as long as it meets the legal minimum requirements
as set out in regulation 36.
305 With the introduction of the new regulation 36A from 6 April 2018 landlords
will be able to have gas safety checks carried out any time from 10 to 12 calendar
months after the previous check but still retain the original deadline date as if the
check had been carried out exactly 12 months after the previous check.
Record keeping
306 To benefit from this new flexibility and retain the deadline date, the landlord
will have to demonstrate that they have complied with the law and carried out the
gas safety checks within the required timescales. The record will need to be kept
until two further gas safety checks have been carried out.
307 Where a landlord cannot provide the necessary audit trail/documentation,
including the two previous gas safety records, the expiry date of the current gas
safety check will be taken as 12 months from the date of the last gas safety check.
308 This demonstration that they have complied with the law may take the form of
a computerised database or a paper file or other means as long as there are
records showing the dates of previous gas safety checks, the date of the latest
check, and the preserved deadline date (resetting this as and when necessary –
see section below on ‘resetting the clock’), along with copies of the landlord’s gas
safety records from the previous two years.
309 There is no legal requirement to include:
(a) an expiry date of the landlord’s gas safety record; or
(b) the earliest date you can have your next gas safety check (and retain the
deadline date)
on the gas safety records, but landlords may find it helpful to include these details to:
(a) ensure they can demonstrate the necessary audit trail to show that
consecutive gas safety checks have been carried out in the prescribed
10–12-month window, thereby retaining the deadline date;
(b) give tenants confidence and clarity over the period of validity of the gas
safety record.
310 Even if the engineers include this information on the gas safety records, the
legal duty remains with the landlord to be able to demonstrate that gas safety
checks have been made within the required timescales.
Keep all gas safety certificates forever as there’s just no need to ever dispose of such as a professional Landlord and don’t ever allow the expiry date of a CP12 to be written in by the engineer on the CP12 certificate, unless the date is the correct expiry date in conjunction to your previous CP12’s.
I am a landlord. The last C12 for my rented property was dated 17/10/19. My Gas Safe engineer has booked an appointment with the tenant to complete a gas safe check on 19/10/20. My estate agent says this is too late and exceeds the expiry date. My gas safe engineer says there is a one week leeway before and after the expiry date similar principle to the MOT. I don’t know who is right. Can you help please?
