Is the LGSR the same as a 'CP12' or a 'gas safety certificate'?
They describe the same thing, but only one name is the legal one. The proper term, used in HSE guidance, is the Landlord Gas Safety Record. 'Gas safety certificate' is common everyday usage, and 'CP12' is a legacy industry form code that predates the current paperwork. Both are informal. The record is not a certificate you frame or register anywhere; it is evidence that the safety check required by regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 was carried out. Nothing in the regulations requires you to display it. What matters is that the record exists, that it reaches your tenants on time, and that you keep it. If a contractor or a letting agent talks about a CP12, they mean the LGSR — the wording has simply lagged behind the law.
How often is a gas safety check required?
Each appliance and flue you provide must be checked for safety within 12 months of being installed, and then at intervals of no more than 12 months since it was last checked. That 12-month interval is the load-bearing number under regulation 36 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. There is a practical wrinkle worth knowing: you can arrange the check up to two months before the current record runs out without losing the original expiry date, so the new deadline still counts from the old one rather than resetting to a later day. This flexibility came in with the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2018, and it only holds if you can show the previous check was done in time; otherwise the 12-month cycle resets from the latest check. The allowance lets you book early around tenant availability without quietly pushing your renewal date forward year on year. Alongside the annual check, regulation 36 places a continuing duty on you to keep relevant gas fittings and their flues maintained in a safe condition.
Who can carry out the check?
Only a Gas Safe registered engineer. The regulations require the work and the safety check to be done by a competent person approved by the Health and Safety Executive, and in practice that means a member of the Gas Safe Register. HSE guidance is blunt about it: any gas safety check record given to you after 1 April 2009 is valid only if the engineer is registered with Gas Safe Register. You must use a registered engineer for maintenance and safety checks on the gas equipment you own and provide for tenants. Any gas appliance that you own and provide for the tenant's use falls within your legal duty, so check the engineer's registration and the categories of work they are qualified for before they start, rather than after.
What must the record contain, and when do tenants get it?
The engineer makes a record of the check, and the regulations prescribe what it holds: the date of the check, the address, your name and address, a description and location of each appliance or flue checked, any defect found, any remedial action taken, confirmation that the check meets the requirements, and the engineer's name, signature and registration number. Two deadlines then apply. You must give a copy to each existing tenant within 28 days of the check. For a new tenant, you must give a copy of the latest record before they occupy the premises. HSE guidance restates both points in plain terms, so there is no ambiguity about timing.
How long must you keep the record?
Two years from the date of the check. Regulation 36 requires you to make a record and retain it for two years, and HSE guidance confirms the same period. Because checks happen annually, that means you should usually have at least the current and previous year's records on hand. Keeping them in one place matters more than it sounds: when a tenancy turns over or a dispute arises, the question is rarely whether the check happened and almost always whether you can show it happened and that the tenant received their copy in time. A scattered trail across email and paper folders is where landlords come unstuck, even when every check was done properly.
What happens if you do not comply?
Gas safety is regulated by the Health and Safety Executive, with the Gas Safe Register as the official registration body. HSE treats gas safety as a high priority and will act to secure compliance. Non-compliance can lead to prosecution, and under the wider health and safety regime that can mean an unlimited fine and a custodial sentence. There is no fixed penalty figure to quote here, and you should be wary of anyone who gives you one — the point is that the consequences are serious and open-ended, not capped at a tidy number. The reliable defence is simple and boring: the check done on time by a Gas Safe engineer, the record kept, and the copy given to the tenant within the deadline.