Roof lineWhy the dates run from issue
Certificates are drawn as the roof of the building at step one because they sit over every shelf at once. A flat is not more compliant because it is let for twelve months than because it is let for two nights. The intervals run from the date a document was issued, which is almost never the date anybody moved in, and that mismatch is the single most common way a certificate is allowed to lapse: the diary is kept against tenancies instead of against documents.
The three main intervals drawn to one scale. The shortest of them comes round before most tenancies do.
IntervalsThe three that drive the diary
The gas safety record is obtained every twelve months for every relevant appliance and flue in the property, and a copy goes to the occupier within the period the regulations allow. A new occupier gets a copy at the start of their occupation, which on the short-stay shelves means the current record is available in the flat rather than posted to each guest.
The electrical installation condition report runs for five years unless the report itself specifies a shorter interval, which it sometimes does, and when it does the shorter one is what goes in the diary. Any item the report codes as requiring remedial work is instructed against a works order and the confirmation that it was done is filed with the report rather than separately.
The energy performance certificate runs ten years from issue. It is the longest of the three and the easiest to forget for exactly that reason, so it is diarised on the day it is received and not when a let is being arranged.
Not certificatesAlarms, furniture and the fire assessment
Some obligations are not documents with expiry dates and are easier to miss because of it. A smoke alarm on every storey and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance, both tested at the start of every occupation and the test recorded with its date. Upholstered furniture carrying its fire safety labelling, checked when it is bought and checked again if it is replaced mid-tenancy by somebody who did not know.
Where accommodation is let as short stay, a fire risk assessment applies to the premises and is reviewed rather than renewed: reviewed when the layout changes, when the furniture changes, when a detector is moved, and otherwise on a stated interval. A review that finds nothing is still written down with the date it was done.
MethodHow a date gets into the diary
Three entries are made the day a certificate arrives and not later. The expiry date itself. A reminder eight weeks before it, which is enough to book an engineer and still have room to rebook if the appointment is missed. And a second reminder at four weeks, which is the point at which the occupier is contacted about access rather than the contractor about availability, because access is what actually delays these appointments.
The certificate is filed against the address rather than against the tenancy, so that it survives the tenancy ending. A file that is organised by occupier loses its certificates every time somebody moves out.