Gas safety records for a block's own gas appliances: keep 2 years, copy within 28 days, and the early check that keeps the date, worked

A managing agent takes on a block of 14 flats with a caretaker's flat on the ground floor, let on a tenancy by the landlord company, which is the landlord of its boiler and cooker. The handover pack has a gas certificate dated January. The agent's file needs to say when the next one is due, and whether the old record is kept.

What HSE says

The page lists landlords among those who need gas safety checks, and says checks apply to "any gas appliances (permanent or portable), and gas flues that you are responsible for as landlord", provided for tenants' use. It says "You must ensure that a gas safety check is done every year on each gas appliance/flue."

On records, HSE says:

• the record must describe each appliance or flue checked and where it is, and name the engineer, the date, the property address and the landlord, with any defects and the action taken;
• keep records for at least two years;
• give existing tenants a copy within 28 days of the check, and prospective tenants a copy before they move in;
• a check may be done up to 2 months before the date it needs to be done, with the original deadline still applying, and early-check records are kept until two further checks have been carried out.

The pages I read did not mention communal areas or shared boilers, so I have not said what a block's common-parts boiler needs. Ask the engineer or take advice on those.

The early check, worked

Our arithmetic. If an agent restarts the year from each early check and again does the next one 2 months early, the cycle slips two months each time: 10 March 2026, 10 January 2027, 10 November 2027, 10 September 2028, 10 July 2029, 10 May 2030. After five years the diary is 10 months ahead of the original date. That is safe in law but pays for engineer visits earlier than needed. The reverse mistake is the dangerous one: counting a year from a late check and slipping past the due date.

Why the diary matters

A gas record is the kind of paper nobody looks at until a tenant, an insurer or an inspector asks for it. The date on the certificate, the date the copy went to the tenant and the date of the next check are three separate entries, and a handover from one managing agent to another often carries only the first. Writing the three down on the schedule, with the engineer's name, means the answer exists before the question is asked.

What to have to hand

• A schedule of the appliances the landlord company is responsible for as landlord, with the location and the next due date.
• A records folder by address, kept at least two years and longer for early checks.
• The tenant copy log, with the date sent.
• Related duties. For the other safety checks on the same schedule, see lift thorough examination, legionella and fire door checks.

I did not read the registration rules for engineers, the maintenance pages for appliances, flues and pipework, or the penalties.

Overlyft builds AI staff who join your block-management team and keep the schedule of gas appliances and due dates, chase the certificate and the tenant copy, and put the record on the file for the property manager to check.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check HSE and the engineer's certificate for your own block.