The Property Access Kit – Part 1:4

4. Gas Safety Checks – the law

Most landlords are aware of their obligation to carry out a gas safety inspection (using an engineer registered with the Gas Safe Register) before tenants rent a property and then annually after that.

You must also give the tenants the certificate which the Gas Safe Engineer will provide, and you must carry out any maintenance or repair work required.

The reason for this is that gas can be very dangerous. You can’t see it. You can’t taste it. You can’t even smell it. But it can be a killer. As well as poisoning or asphyxiating the occupants, it can also result in an explosion.

Your obligations arise under The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.

Index:

Your obligations in a nutshell
If you are not the owner of the building
If you are a letting agent
When do the gas safety rules apply?
What are the relevant gas fittings?
Penalties for non-compliance

Your obligations in a nutshell

You must ensure that all pipework, appliances (including any left by a previous tenant) and flues provided for tenants are in a safe condition before the property is let
Any appliances which are not in a safe condition must be removed before the property is let
You must ensure that the pipework, appliances and flues are maintained in a safe condition during the tenancy
You must have all appliances and flues provided for tenants, inspected annually by an engineer registered with the Gas Safe Register AND qualified to do that work (it will be on their ID card)
Your tenants must be given a certificate provided by the engineer, both before they go into the property and then every following year they are in the property, within 28 days of completion of the annual inspection
You must keep a record of the safety checks for at least two years – although for your own protection, we would advise keeping them until the end of the tenancy and ideally for at least seven years after that.
You are not entitled to pass the cost of the inspection or any maintenance or repair work on to the tenant or ask them to arrange for the inspection or to get any remedial work done. This is your responsibility. The only exception would be if the tenants were responsible for any damage – in which case you would be entitled to seek reimbursement from them for the cost of rectifying this.

Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 you can have the annual gas safety check on each appliance or flue carried out up to 2 months before the date the check needs to be carried out but still retain the original deadline date as if the check had been carried out exactly 12 months after the previous check.

Any landlord who fails to comply with the gas regulations can face prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive who enforce these regulations.

Note also that

The failure to hold a valid and up-to-date Gas Safe certificate may result in house insurance being invalidated.

Should death or harm to the tenants be a result of a defective gas supply, it would provide grounds for a civil case against the landlord.

The two hazards of uncombusted fuel gas and explosions could result in a local authority serving a Notice under the Housing Act 2004 (Improvement Notice or Prohibition Order), which, if not complied with, could result in a civil penalty of up to £ 30,000, prosecution in a Magistrates’ Court, or works in default. Therefore, the Local Authority could take enforcement action, as well as the HSE.

If you use a letting agent:

Make sure that the management contract clearly sets out who is to make the arrangements for maintenance and safety checks.
Make sure you ask to see copies of the maintenance information and safety check from your agents to check that they are actually carrying out their duties. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE if they do not.

If you are not the owner of the building but rent property from the owner:

Your arrangements with the building owner (your landlord) need to ensure that any communal gas appliances, flues and pipework, which your tenants may use, are appropriately maintained and checked for safety by the building owner.

You also need to ensure that evidence of these checks is available to you and your Gas Safe registered engineer who is carrying out maintenance and annual checks in your property.

If this does not happen, you should report your landlord to your local Health and Safety Executive.

If you are a letting agent

You must make sure that your management contract with the landlord clearly states who is responsible for making arrangements for maintenance and safety checks on gas equipment and for keeping associated records
If the management contracts make you responsible, you must make sure gas appliances and flues are serviced at least once every 12 months or at any other time if there is a safety doubt
You must make sure that maintenance and safety checks on gas appliances, fittings and flues provided for tenants use are only carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer
You must provide a copy of the inspection certificate to new tenants before they move in and to existing tenants within 28 days of the safety check being completed
You must keep a record of the safety check for at least 2 years and ideally until 7 years after the tenancy ends (if your agency agreement ends before then, you should make sure the records are passed over to your landlord or to any agency which takes over management of the property).

When do the gas safety rules apply?

A landlord is defined as anyone who rents out a property that they own (including ownership under a lease) where the property is rented out

under a lease (or sublease) that is shorter than 7 years or
under a licence

So for example you will need to comply if you rent out a room in your house to a lodger, or if you have domestic staff who live in your home as part of their job.

The procedures in this kit (suitably adapted where appropriate) can be used in any of these situations.

If your property is sublet – you will still be responsible for gas safety unless the property is WHOLLY sublet AND your agreement with your tenant clearly allocates the responsibility for completing the gas safety check – respect of their tenants (your subtenants).

So if you are party to a ‘rent to rent’ agreement this obligation would need to be clearly set out in the agreement.

What are the relevant gas fittings?

These are the gas fittings to which the regulations apply. This includes all gas appliances that you own and provide for the tenant’s use.

If a tenant has their own gas appliance that you have not provided, then you have responsibilities for parts of the associated installation and pipework but not for the actual appliance.

The HSE also recommend that you include all flues (eg chimneys) connected to gas appliances within your landlord’s gas safety check, even where they do not serve appliances provided by you.

Non-domestic use

Note that the landlords gas safety check does not apply to parts of the premises which are not for domestic use.

Any gas appliance or installation pipework installed in a part of premises used for non-domestic purposes, but (also) serving residential accommodation (eg a central heating boiler) is regarded as a ‘relevant gas fitting’ and therefore covered. However, allowance is made for display of safety check records in some cases.

Penalties for non-compliance

The Gas Safety regulations are enforced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and they are the organisation that will bring any prosecutions for non-compliance.

If this happens to you and you are found guilty you can be fined, or in serious cases, a custodial sentence may be imposed.

Generally relatively few prosecutions are brought and the HSE have been criticised for failing to enforce as rigorously as they should. However, this should not deter you from ensuring that you are compliant!

The HSE will however not normally bring a prosecution if you are able to show that you have taken all reasonable steps to comply with the law.

Generally, if you are able to show three documented attempts to gain access to carry out the inspection, the HSE will accept this. They will, though, expect you to continue to attempt to reach an agreement with your tenants to allow access and not just sit back after the third attempt and do nothing!

Note also that if you fail to serve a gas safety certificate on your tenants before they move into the property, you may be unable to serve a valid section 21 notice, while section 21 is still with us. After 1 May 2026, when the Renters Rights Act comes into force, section 21 will be repealed by the Act.

For this and all the other reasons set out here, you should never rent out property until you have had the property inspected and are in possession of an up-to-date gas safety certificate.

We will be looking at the steps you can take if your tenants refuse to allow access and provide draft letters in Part 2 of this kit.

The Renters Rights Act 2025 provides for a Landlord Database, which is expected to come into force sometime after late 2026. This will require landlords to provide safety information about the property, including gas safety certificates. There will be penalties for non-compliance.

Part 1 - Legal Background

Part 2 - Persuasion

Part 3 - Injunctions

Part 4 - Possession claims

You can arrange for a reminder to be sent to you by the Gas Safe Register – click the ‘remind me’ button.

If you smell gas – do not cut off the tenants supply!

You should contact the National Gas Emergency Number on 0800 111 999.

Further Information:

The Health and Safety Executive

The HSE is the body tasked with enforcing the Gas Regulations and has a wealth of help and guidance on their website

The Gas Safe Register

All installers who carry out gas safety checks must be registered with the Gas Safe Register – whose website also has a huge amount of helpful information

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