Before You Sign

The agent emails three PDFs and a payment link. Before you pay, read each record for what it checked and when. A gas safety record is like an MOT certificate: proof the boiler passed on a date, not a promise about this morning.

• Gas safety record: the landlord’s gas appliances and flues need checking every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and a new tenant should get the record before moving in.
• Electrical report (usually an EICR): inspection and testing by a qualified person at least every five years, or sooner if the report says so. Read the result and ask for proof that any required work was done; a report existing doesn’t mean it passed.
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC): rates energy efficiency, not safety, and normally lasts ten years. Where the minimum energy rules apply, an F or G rating needs a valid exemption or improvement before the home is let.

Check that the address and dates match. If something is missing or out of date, ask; don’t open a gas appliance or an electrical panel to look for yourself.