The dates, in one table #
These are the landlord's and the agent's own duties. They are set out here in one place because a scattered set of deadlines is the thing that makes the work expensive, not any individual deadline.
| Duty | The date it creates |
|---|---|
| Gas safety check | Every year, on each gas appliance and flue |
| Gas safety record to the tenant | Within 28 days of the check being completed; to prospective tenants before they move in; records kept at least two years |
| Electrical installation inspection and test | At least every 5 years |
| Electrical report to the tenant | Existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection; new tenant before occupation; prospective tenant within 28 days of a request; local council within 7 days of a request |
| Electrical remedial work where the report requires it | Within 28 days, or a shorter period if the report specifies one, with written confirmation supplied |
| Deposit protection and prescribed information | Within 30 days of receiving the deposit |
| Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms | Checked in proper working order on the day a new tenancy begins, and repaired or replaced once reported and found faulty |
| Right to rent follow up check | Just before the later of the expiry of the tenant's permission to stay or 12 months after the previous check |
Alongside those sit the agency's own standing obligations rather than the property's: an agent holding client money in England must belong to an approved client money protection scheme and display the certificate in any office dealing with the public and on its website, and letting agents and property managers must be members of a redress scheme.
Why the diary fails, and it is always the same way #
Not because anybody forgets a date. Because the date lives in the wrong place. In practice the failure modes are these:
-
The date is in a certificate, not in a system
The expiry is a line on a PDF in an email thread, so knowing it requires opening the PDF.
-
The date is in one person's head
It works until they are on holiday.
-
The reminder fires but nothing owns the outcome
An alert at eight weeks that nobody actions is the same as no alert, and it trains everyone to ignore alerts.
-
The evidence is not where the date is
You can prove the check happened but it takes fifteen minutes and three searches, which matters when the council asks for the electrical report within seven days.
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Nothing distinguishes a date from an overdue date
A list that shows everything due this year is not a work queue.
What runs on rules here #
Almost all of the diary itself.
Runs on rules
- Reading an expiry date off a certificate and holding it
- Calculating the next due date
- Producing a list of what is due in the next 30, 60 and 90 days
- Sending the first chase to a landlord or a contractor
- Noticing that the chase was not answered
- Filing the new certificate against the right property
They start from a trigger, they produce the same output every time, and two people doing them would get the same answer.
Needs a property manager
- Deciding what to do about a landlord who will not authorise remedial work
- Judging whether an access problem is a tenant refusing or a tenant working nights
- Deciding when a compliance problem becomes a conversation about ending the management instruction
Those are the calls a property manager is paid for, and they are the first thing to disappear when the diary is manual.
The honest caveat #
What a rule driven diary changes is narrower and still worth a lot: it makes the date visible early, makes the evidence findable, and makes the exceptions obvious. The judgement stays with you.
The chase that follows a date is covered in chasing safety certificates, and the single tightest deadline of the lot has its own page: deposit protection. For a first estimate of what the diary costs in hours, use the free tools.