Chasing landlords and contractors for safety certificates

Four chases, one date #

Say a gas safety record expires in six weeks. HSE requires a gas safety check every year on each gas appliance and flue, so the date is fixed and known in advance. What happens next is not one task.

1. Tell the landlord it is due and get authorisation Landlord

   For some landlords this is a reply, for others it is three reminders and a phone call.

2. Book a contractor with capacity in the right week, in the right area Contractor

3. Get access agreed with a tenant who works Tenant

   This is usually where the week is lost.

4. Get the certificate back from the contractor Document

   Check it covers what it should, file it, send the tenant their copy and update the next due date.

Multiply that by a portfolio with a mix of gas, electrical and alarm obligations and the renewals never stop. They are not seasonal. They arrive every week, all year, and each one lands in the same inbox as the maintenance and the enquiries.

What the deadlines actually are #

Getting the check done is only half of it. The paperwork has its own clocks.

• The gas safety record

  Goes to existing tenants within 28 days of the check being completed, and to prospective tenants before they move in. Records are kept for at least two years.

• The electrical installation report

  An electrical installation is inspected and tested at least every 5 years. The report goes to the existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection, to a new tenant before they occupy the premises, to a prospective tenant within 28 days of a request, and to the local council within 7 days of a request.

• Remedial work the report requires

  Where the electrical report requires further investigative or remedial work, that work is completed within 28 days, or a shorter period if the report specifies one, with the tenant and the council supplied with written confirmation from the qualified person.

Councils may impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000 on landlords in breach of the electrical duties.

Where the time actually goes #

Ask a property manager which part of certificate work costs most and they rarely say the booking. They say access. A contractor with a slot on Tuesday, a tenant who cannot be there on Tuesday, and a landlord who wants it done this month is a three way negotiation, and every round of it is a message that has to be composed, sent, tracked and remembered.

Second on the list is the document coming back. A certificate that arrives as a photo in a WhatsApp message from an engineer, or a PDF attached to a reply with no property reference, has to be identified, renamed, filed and read before the next due date can be updated. That is transcription, and transcription is where the re-keying problem lives: the compliance diary is only as good as what gets typed back into it.

Which parts run on rules #

What to measure before changing anything #

Two counts settle most arguments. First, for the last twenty renewals, how many messages were sent per renewal, and to how many parties? Second, how many renewals went past their due date, and at which of the four stages did each one stall?

If most stalls are at landlord authorisation, the problem is a communication loop. If most are at access, it is a scheduling problem. They have different answers, and guessing which one you have is how agencies end up buying software that solves the wrong half.

Maintenance has the same three way shape and is covered in maintenance reporting. To put an hours figure on the chase, start with the free tools.