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Kept in date

A utility cupboard on a limewashed stone wall: a white gas boiler with copper and yellow gas pipework below it, a plain white consumer unit beside it, and a blank buff tag hanging from the gas pipe, lit softly from a small window.
Five years of one home’s checks, counted in years from the day the last reports were written
  • Gas every 12 months, booked in the two months before
  • Electrics every 5 years, sooner if the report asks
  • Energy certificate 10 years: still running when the strip ends

A home’s safety checks run on their own clocks: twelve months for gas, five years for the electrics, ten years for the energy certificate. Keeping them is a matter of knowing each date before it arrives, and booking inside the window the rules allow. Put in the dates from the last reports and the next ones are worked out below, with the rule behind each.

A picture made for this page; the strip is drawn from the rules quoted below.

Safety-check due datesWhen is each one next due?

The date on the engineer’s record.
Only if the report asks for one sooner than five years.
Today, unless you change it.

The dates

Enter at least one date and the next due dates appear here, with anything falling due in the next 90 days set out first. Nothing you type here leaves this page; to keep a home’s dates between visits, use the owners’ and residents’ portal.

The rules behind the datesWhat each check asks for

Gas
The gas appliances and flues an owner provides are checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer at least once every twelve months. The check can be carried out up to two months before the deadline and the original deadline is kept, so an early booking does not shorten the year that follows.
The engineer’s record is kept for two years. A copy goes to the people living in the home within 28 days of the check, and to anyone moving in before they move in. Where the management agreement gives the agent this job, the same duties fall on the agent. HSE, gas safety for landlords.
Electrics
Under the Electrical Safety Standards regulations for England, the installation is inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every five years, or sooner where the last report asks for it. A copy of the report goes to the people living there within 28 days, and to the local housing authority within seven days of a written request.
Remedial work or further investigation that the report calls for is done within 28 days, or the shorter period the report gives, and written confirmation follows within 28 days of completion. SI 2020/312, regulation 3.
Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
Since 1 October 2022: a smoke alarm on every storey with a room used as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any such room with a fixed combustion appliance, gas cookers excepted. Alarms are checked on the day each new tenancy begins, and a faulty alarm is repaired or replaced as soon as reasonably practicable once it is reported. SI 2022/707.
Energy certificate
An EPC is valid for ten years from its date. The tool shows when it runs out so that a new assessment can be arranged before it is needed again.
Fire doors in blocks
Since 23 January 2023, residents of any building with two or more flats must be given information about fire doors. In buildings with a storey above eleven metres, the fire doors in the common parts are checked every three months, and flat entrance doors at least once a year on a best-endeavours basis. SI 2022/544.
Fresh lime mortar pressed into the joint between two weathered sandstone blocks, the old crumbled joint beside it.

Where the dates come fromRead the rules for yourself

The arithmetic follows the rules quoted on this page as they stand in November 2026. Where an engineer’s report sets an earlier date, that date wins, and the management agreement decides who books what.