Updated
Gas Safety Check Overdue
The annual check on a rented property has lapsed, or you cannot find the record for appliances you rely on.
Find a gas engineer
What's happening?
Regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 puts a duty on landlords: gas fittings and flues must be maintained in a safe condition, appliances and flues they provide must be checked for safety at least every twelve months by a Gas Safe registered engineer, records kept for two years, and a copy given to existing tenants within twenty-eight days and to new tenants before they move in. The document produced is often called a CP12 or a gas safety certificate; formally it is a landlord gas safety record. Owner-occupiers have no such legal duty, but HSE advises annual checks on all domestic gas appliances and flues regardless of tenure, because the failures the check catches — flue defects, poor combustion, blocked ventilation — are the ones that kill.
What usually causes it?
- A tenancy change where the record was never handed over to the new tenant
- A landlord relying on the boiler service date rather than the safety check date
- Appointments repeatedly missed because access to the property could not be arranged
- A property with appliances in more than one location, so only some were checked
- An engineer used who was not on the Gas Safe Register, making the record worthless
- A managing agent and a landlord each assuming the other had booked it
- A homeowner who has never had the check done because nothing appears to be wrong
Is it dangerous?
An overdue check is not itself a hazard — but it is an unknown, and gas hazards are the kind you cannot see. Flue deterioration, blocked ventilation and drifting combustion happen gradually and produce no symptom you would notice until a CO alarm sounds. Open-flued appliances and older gas fires and back boilers carry the highest risk of quietly going out of tolerance. Treat an overdue check as a job to book this month, and treat any smell, staining or alarm as an emergency in its own right.
Can I fix it myself?
Book it, and check the engineer. Every registered engineer carries a Gas Safe ID card with a photo, a licence number and, on the back, the specific appliance types they are qualified to work on — ask to see it and check the back matches the work. Tenants can request the record from their landlord in writing and should keep the reply. Owner-occupiers should keep records too: they matter when you sell, and they matter to a warranty claim.
When should you call a gas engineer?
Book a Gas Safe registered engineer now if the date has passed, if you have moved into a rented home without receiving a record, or if you have bought a property and have no history for the appliances. Book sooner than the anniversary if the appliance is an open-flued fire or back boiler, if the property has been empty over a winter, or if building work has disturbed flues, chimneys or air vents.
What will the gas engineer actually do?
- Check each appliance is on the right gas, correctly installed and operating at the right pressure and heat input
- Test flue integrity and carry out a spillage test on open-flued appliances
- Verify that purpose-provided ventilation is present, adequate and unobstructed
- Confirm safety devices are present and working, including flame supervision
- Record the results, classify any defect under the unsafe-situations procedure, and issue the record
- Give you a copy the same visit and, for a landlord, the copy required for the tenant
Frequently asked questions
We’re happy to answer all your questions.
Need a gas engineer?
Compare local gas engineers on Tradehand — coverage areas, accreditations and phone numbers, no middleman.