Gas Safety Certificate for New Tenants: The Before-Move-In Rule

The Rule Is Straightforward

Regulation 36(6)(b) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 requires you to give every new tenant a copy of the last Landlord Gas Safety Record before they take up occupation. Not on the day they move in, not the day after — before physical occupation begins.

This applies every time a new tenant moves into a property with gas appliances, regardless of whether the property was recently vacated or the outgoing tenant's check was still within date.

What Counts as a "Current" Record

The record must be valid on the date the tenant moves in. That means the inspection date on the CP12 is less than 12 months old. If your last check was on 15 March 2026, the record is valid until 14 March 2027. A tenant moving in on 10 March 2027 can receive that record. A tenant moving in on 16 March 2027 cannot — you need a fresh check first.

Watch out for void periods. If the property stood empty for several months after the last tenancy, the 12-month clock kept ticking. The record doesn't pause because the property was unoccupied. HSE guidance also recommends confirming appliance safety before re-occupation if the gas supply was capped off or the property was left unattended, even if the record hasn't technically expired.

First Lettings: No Existing Record Exists

If you're letting a property for the first time — converting your home to a rental, or letting a newly purchased property — you won't have an existing Landlord Gas Safety Record. Before a tenant can move in, you must:

1. Engage a Gas Safe registered engineer to conduct a full Regulation 36 safety check
2. Verify the engineer's business registration and ID card categories match the appliances in the property
3. Receive the completed record with all nine statutory fields
4. Deliver it to the incoming tenant before they take up occupation
5. Confirm a carbon monoxide alarm is installed in each room used as living accommodation that contains a fixed combustion appliance (excluding gas cookers), and check it works on the day the tenancy begins (Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022)

This can take a week to arrange, so build it into your lettings timeline. Don't leave it to the day before the tenancy starts.

Buying a Tenanted Property

If you acquire a property with tenants already in situ, you should obtain the previous landlord's gas safety records as part of the conveyancing process — ideally covering the preceding two years. If the seller can't produce them, instruct a Gas Safe engineer to carry out a fresh check on completion day. Serve the new record on existing tenants within 28 days and file it as the starting point of your own compliance history.

Delivery Evidence for New Tenants

The strongest approach is to build the record delivery into your check-in process:

• Include the Gas Safety Record in the check-in pack alongside the tenancy agreement, inventory, and deposit paperwork
• Get the tenant to sign a delivery acknowledgement (a single line confirming receipt of the record, dated and signed)
• Keep a photocopy of the signed acknowledgement in your compliance file

If you're handling check-in remotely, email the record as a PDF attachment before the tenant collects the keys. Save the sent email with delivery confirmation.

The point isn't ceremony — it's that you can produce evidence of pre-occupation delivery if anyone ever asks. Handing the record over with the keys and saying "here you go" leaves you with nothing to show.

Our Gas Safety Compliance Guide covers the full new-tenancy protocol, including a delivery receipt template and a void-period checklist for properties being re-let.

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