How to keep gas, EICR and EPC certificates in date across a portfolio

You keep gas safety certificates, EICRs and EPCs in date across a portfolio by holding one register with a row for every certificate, opening each renewal at a fixed lead time before its date, and treating the job as finished only when the new document is filed and the tenant has their copy. The risk is less in forgetting a date than in starting too late for a contractor and a tenant to agree a day. This guide uses the rules for England.

What do the gas, EICR and EPC rules require?

• Gas safety. Every gas appliance and flue the landlord provides is checked every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer. The record goes to the existing tenant within 28 days of the check, and to a new tenant before they move in. Records are kept for at least two years, and where a check was done early under the two-month rule, until two further checks have been carried out.

• Electrical. In England the installation is inspected at intervals of no more than five years, or sooner if the last report says so. The report, usually called an EICR, goes to each existing tenant within 28 days, to a new tenant before they occupy, and to the local housing authority within 7 days of a written request. If it calls for remedial work, that is done within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so, and confirmed in writing.

• Energy. An EPC lasts 10 years and a valid one is needed before a property is marketed to rent, so the date matters most when a tenancy is about to end. In England and Wales a property covered by the minimum standard cannot be let, or continue to be let, with a rating below E unless an exemption is registered.

The duty in each case is the landlord's; whether your agency arranges the checks depends on your management agreement.

How to track certificate expiry, step by step

1. Build one register. One row per certificate, not per property: the property, the type, the expiry or next-due date, the landlord, the contractor, and where the document is filed. Take every date from the document itself, not from the diary. List every property with no document on file; that list is your first week's work.

2. Set a lead time for each type. A gas check can be done up to two months before its due date and still keep the same deadline date, so open each gas renewal about two months ahead. For an EICR, allow long enough for remedial work to be quoted and done before the date. For an EPC, act before the property is next marketed.

3. Open the job. At the lead time, instruct the contractor and write to the tenant with proposed dates. Check the likely cost against the landlord's limit before anything is booked.

4. Chase until a date is confirmed. The contractor for a slot, the tenant for access. Record each attempt as you make it.

5. Check the document when it arrives. The right address, the date of the check, the engineer's details, and the result. An unsatisfactory electrical report, or any appliance marked unsafe, goes straight to a property manager.

6. Deliver, file and reset. Send the tenant their copy inside the 28 days and keep proof that you sent it. Enter the next date in the register.

What if the tenant will not give access?

For gas, HSE says a landlord has to show that they took all reasonable steps to comply. It recommends leaving a notice that a visit was attempted, writing to the tenant to explain that the check is a legal requirement and for their own safety, and keeping a record of all correspondence. Force must not be used to enter. The electrical regulations likewise say a landlord who can show all reasonable steps is not in breach.

Which steps can an AI worker take on?

An AI worker works to a written job within set limits, and a named person checks its work. In this job it can take step one and the written side of steps three to six: the register and its gaps, the instruction and the access request in your approved wording, the chasing by email, and the filing, the tenant's copy and the next date once the certificate is in. The role is specified on the renewals and expiry tracking page, and the referencing, repairs and rent work an agency can hand over with it are on our page for letting agents.

What waits for a person, and why

• Any cost above the landlord's limit, and the choice of contractor.

• Refused access. What counts as a reasonable next step depends on the tenant and the circumstances; it may need a phone call or a visit.

• An unsatisfactory report or an unsafe appliance. What to do, how fast, and what to tell the landlord and tenant is a property manager's judgement.

• A rating below E. Whether to improve, register an exemption or stop letting is the landlord's decision.

• A date that has already passed. What to do about a lapsed certificate is not a filing job.

What to settle before you hand the register over

• The list of properties you are instructed to manage certificates for.

• Each landlord's spending limit.

• Your contractors and how each prefers to be instructed.

• The wording of the access request and the two reminders that follow it.

• Your rule for the day a tenant has not answered: who is told, and when.

The argument for handing this work over is in how to scale a letting agency without hiring more staff.

Kept by an AI worker, a letting agency's register would have every renewal opened early and chased to a filed certificate, and a property manager would decide the exceptions. Certificate dates kept in a spreadsheet and somebody's memory belong in a register. Talk to our agent.