The compliance record, certificate by certificate

The gas safety record, renewed every twelve months

A property with a gas appliance, pipe or flue takes a gas safety check every twelve months. The engineer holds Gas Safe registration, then signs the record at the property on the day of the check.

A tenant already living there receives a copy within twenty-eight days of the check. A tenant moving in receives a copy before the keys are handed over. You receive the same copy by e-mail, then the record joins the file.

The office books the engineer ahead of the anniversary rather than on it. Access is arranged with the tenant in writing, and a missed appointment is re-booked in the same week. The record itself stays on the file for two years from the day it was issued.

The electrical installation condition report

The fixed wiring is inspected and tested at least every five years. The report comes back with a classification against each observation, then the office reads that classification first.

Work coded for immediate attention is instructed straight away. Remedial work is completed within twenty-eight days, or within the shorter period the report itself states. Written confirmation of the completed work goes to the tenant and to you.

A copy of the report reaches the tenant within twenty-eight days of the test. A tenant moving in receives a copy before occupation, and the local authority receives one within seven days where it asks. The current report stays on the file until the next one supersedes it.

The energy performance certificate

The certificate runs ten years from the date of assessment. The band goes on the advertisement, then the certificate goes to the tenant with the agreement.

A property is let at band E or above, unless an exemption is registered on the national register. Where the assessment comes back below that band, the office sends you the recommendations report with the certificate. You choose the works, and the assessor re-lodges the certificate after they are done.

The office sweeps the certificates every May for the ones nearing ten years. That sweep is what stops a renewal falling on the week a tenancy is being re-let.

Alarms, tested on the day the tenancy starts

A smoke alarm sits on each storey with a room used as living accommodation. A carbon monoxide alarm sits in any room with a fixed combustion appliance, and in any room where one is installed.

Both are tested in front of the tenant on the first day of the tenancy. The inventory records each test with the date beside it. Where the tenant reports a faulty alarm, it is repaired or replaced, and the job sheet records the day the work was done.

The inspection rounds test the alarms again, spring and autumn. Those notes come off the inspection sheets in June and are filed against the tenancy.

Right to rent, checked from the originals

The check happens at the counter, with the applicant present and the original documents in hand. The office takes a copy, writes the date of the check on it, then hands the originals straight back.

Where a permission carries an end date, a follow-up check is diaried for that date. The copy stays on the file for one year after the tenancy ends, then the office shreds it.

The deposit, and the scheme certificate

The deposit reaches a government-approved scheme within thirty days of receipt. The prescribed information reaches the tenant inside the same thirty days, carrying the scheme reference and your details.

The scheme certificate comes back to the office by e-mail, then it goes onto the file the same day. February is the month the office reads the scheme records against the rent ledger, tenancy by tenancy. The thirty-day counter on the main page works that deadline out from a date you type.

Reckoning the next date from the one on the certificate

Type the date printed on a certificate and the office arithmetic is shown below it. This is a guide only: the date on your own paperwork governs, and a shorter interval named in a report overrides the statutory one.

Date you gave

—

Copy to the tenant by — twenty-eight days on

—

Gas safety check due — twelve months on

—

Electrical report due — five years on

—

Energy certificate expires — ten years on

—

Days from that date to the energy expiry

—

The month the gas date falls in is the month the office diaries the engineer in. That month is then written into the year plan for the property.

How the record is filed

One tenancy takes one file, and the certificate index sits at the front of it. The index carries four lines: gas, electrical, energy, alarms. Beside each line sits the date on the paper and the month the next one falls due.

You hold the same index in the monthly statement, printed under the rent lines. Ask for a certificate at any point and the office sends the copy the same working day.