Landlord Gas Safety Certificates (CP12) in Kingston: What You Need to Know

If you let a property in Kingston or anywhere across SW London, a Landlord Gas Safety Record — the CP12 — is a legal requirement, not paperwork you can leave until it's convenient.

Every gas appliance, flue and length of gas pipework in the property has to be checked for safety by a Gas Safe registered engineer at least once every 12 months. You're required to give tenants a copy of the record within 28 days of the check, and give it to new tenants before they move in. Records need to be kept for two years.

This trips up more landlords than anything else. A CP12 confirms the appliance is safe on the day of the check. It doesn't clean, test or adjust it to keep it running efficiently — that's what a service does. Most landlords book both together, since it's one visit, one tenant appointment, and a boiler that's far less likely to break down mid-tenancy.

A check carried out in the last two months before the current certificate expires keeps the original expiry date and simply extends it by another 12 months. Renewing in good time before expiry costs you nothing and removes the risk of a lapse if a tenant's hard to reach for access.

Your legal duty to have the check done doesn't go away, but you need to be able to show you took reasonable steps — written requests, dated records of attempts, and a clear paper trail. Evening and weekend appointments solve most access problems before they become a genuine compliance issue.

Non-compliance can mean unlimited fines and, in serious cases, imprisonment. It also invalidates landlord insurance and can block a Section 21 notice. Against that, a CP12 is one of the cheapest pieces of compliance a landlord buys all year.

If you manage multiple properties, consolidated invoicing and automatic renewal reminders mean nothing lapses because a date got missed in a spreadsheet.