Gas Safety Certificate in London

Gas safety certificate cost

Our gas safety certificate is £85 + VAT. It is the same figure that appears on our price list, and it is a fixed price rather than a starting point. It covers the annual safety check of the gas appliances and flues you are responsible for, and the record the engineer issues at the end. All our prices exclude VAT, so VAT is added on top.

It is worth being precise about what sits outside that figure, because this is exactly where a cheap-looking gas price usually hides its costs:

• A boiler service is a separate job, not a cheaper version of the same one.
• Remedial work is quoted before it is done, never added to the bill afterwards.
• If the check cannot be completed, because a flue is buried in a ceiling with no hatches or nobody can reach the meter, you have a building problem rather than a gas problem, and we will tell you so plainly rather than book a second wasted visit.

The reason we publish the number at all is that compliance work should not need a negotiation. You have a date, you have a duty, and you should be able to put a figure in the calendar next to both without three phone calls.

Who needs a gas safety certificate

If you let a flat or house with gas appliances, you do. Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, landlords must have a gas safety check carried out every year on the gas appliances and flues they are responsible for, by a Gas Safe registered engineer. The engineer produces a record, the document everyone calls a gas safety certificate, or CP12 out of habit. The landlord must keep it and give a copy to the tenant, and new tenants should receive it at the start of the tenancy.

There are statutory periods for giving the record to tenants and for how long records must be kept. Rather than restate them here, where they can be misquoted and then relied on, we point you to the source: the Health and Safety Executive's guidance for landlords on gas safety sets out the current rules. The practical rule is simpler: do the check before the last one expires, and hand the record over immediately rather than when asked.

Only a Gas Safe registered engineer may carry out the check. It is not something a general handyman can cover, and a plumber without gas registration cannot sign it. Our engineers are Gas Safe registered, and you can check any engineer on the Gas Safe Register website. If you are having other work done, our plumbing call-out is from £80 + VAT, but gas work is a separately registered discipline, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a reason to end the conversation.

What the check covers

The engineer looks at the appliances and flues in your flat and whether they are safe and working as intended. Broadly, that means checking that:

• appliances burn correctly
• the flue removes the products of combustion properly
• ventilation is adequate for the appliance
• safety devices operate

What it is not: it is not a service. A check tells you whether the boiler is safe now. A service cleans and maintains it so it stays that way and lasts longer. They are different jobs, they take different amounts of time, and a price that looks cheap is often a check only. Ask which you are buying. In a flat with an old boiler that runs all winter, the service is arguably the better investment; the check is the one the law requires.

It is also not a survey of the whole building's gas installation. In a block, the incoming supply, the riser and the meter arrangements usually sit outside your flat and belong to the freeholder. Where the boundary lies is a matter for your lease, and leases differ, so check yours or ask the managing agent to confirm it in writing.

How to book: a photo is enough to start

1. Send a photo of the boiler and any other gas appliances, by WhatsApp, through the quote form, or to Ayda, our assistant, in the chat on this page. Tell us the address, the expiry date of the last record, and who holds the keys.
2. We confirm the price and the access: the tenant, the porter or managing agent, and where the meter is.
3. The engineer carries out the check and tells you on the day if anything needs attention.
4. You receive the record the same day, ready to pass to your tenant.

If something needs work, we tell you what is required and what is only advisable, separately, so you can decide. Any defined work that follows is covered by a fixed quote.

The Central London complications

Flues in voids

This is the big one in purpose-built and converted flats. Where a boiler's flue runs horizontally through a ceiling void or a duct to reach an outside wall, which is common when the boiler sits in an internal kitchen or cupboard, the engineer has to be able to inspect it. That normally requires inspection hatches in the ceiling along the flue run. Where those hatches do not exist, the engineer cannot see the flue, cannot verify it, and is entitled to record the installation accordingly.

Landlords are frequently blindsided by this. The boiler works, nothing smells, nothing is obviously wrong, and the engineer still cannot sign the flue off. The fix is to have hatches installed, which is a small piece of building work. In a leasehold flat, cutting hatches into a ceiling may itself need the freeholder's or managing agent's agreement, especially if the ceiling is a party structure or the flat is listed. Resolve it once, properly, rather than rediscovering it every year.

Porters, service lifts and hours

Mansion blocks in St John's Wood, Maida Vale and Little Venice generally run on rules: contractors sign in, use the service entrance, book the lift, and work within set hours. Blocks around Mayfair and Marylebone are often stricter still. An engineer who arrives without being booked in may simply not be let past the front desk, and the visit is lost. If a managing agent controls access, arrange it in the same message as tenant access. Our guide to porter access for mansion block works has the detail.

Meters you cannot get to

Where the meter and the emergency control valve sit in a communal cupboard, someone with a key needs to be present. In converted terraces around Bayswater and Paddington the meter is very often in a hallway cupboard, under a stair, or in a basement area nobody has opened for months. Establish where the isolation point is before the engineer's visit rather than during it.

Old pipework and long runs

A great deal of this stock has had gas run through it repeatedly over a century. Pipework threaded through voids, buried in walls, or running through a neighbouring flat is not unusual. Anything in that category is likely to involve the freeholder as well as you, and it is a conversation worth starting now rather than at renewal.

When the engineer condemns something

If an appliance is found to be immediately dangerous, it will be disconnected or capped with your permission, and if permission is refused the engineer has reporting obligations of their own. If it is at risk, it will typically be turned off and labelled. Either way you now have a tenant with no heating or hot water, and that is a repairing obligation with its own urgency, separate from gas safety.

This is the practical argument for doing gas checks in the autumn rather than in January. If a boiler fails a check in September you have time. If it fails in the first cold week of the year, so has every other boiler in the postcode, and you are joining a queue. Where the honest answer is a new boiler, our boiler installation starts from £700 + VAT, with a fixed quote first. For day-to-day faults, see our guides to a boiler not heating water and a boiler losing pressure.

Records, portfolios and other certificates

Keep the record. Keep proof you gave it to the tenant, with a date. Keep previous years' records too: a run of records tells you whether an appliance is heading towards replacement, which is far more useful for budgeting than a single sheet.

If you hold several flats, put gas on the same annual rhythm as the rest of your compliance. The five-yearly EICR for landlords will not line up with the gas anniversary every year, but in the years when they do, one attendance covering both saves a tenant access negotiation, a porter booking and a day of your life. Our guide to EICR landlord requirements covers the electrical duty. Our page for estate agents and managing agents sets out how we handle scheduled compliance across a portfolio, and routine maintenance can usually be booked into the same visit.

Gas, bathrooms and refurbishment

If you are altering a flat, gas has an awkward habit of dictating the programme. Moving a boiler is not a small job: it changes the flue route, which changes what has to be inspectable, which can change what consent you need from the freeholder. Any bathroom refurbishment that touches the boiler, the hot water or the ventilation route needs the gas work sequenced early, not squeezed in at the end. The same applies to a wider refurbishment where a kitchen moves: settle the gas run, the flue and the consent for both before anyone orders cabinets. Bathrooms also bring Building Regulations of their own, covered in our guide to building regulations for bathrooms.

What to ask before booking anyone

• Is this a safety check only, or a check and a service?
• Is the engineer Gas Safe registered, and can you see the registration?
• How many appliances is the price based on?
• What happens if the flue cannot be inspected because there are no hatches?
• Who is arranging access with the tenant, and with the porter or managing agent?
• Will the record be emailed to you, or only left in the flat?

Why landlords book with us

The check is a fixed £85 + VAT. A fixed quote covers any defined work that follows, there is one point of contact, and the record is sent to you the same day rather than a week later. If a flue cannot be inspected, we tell you what would make it inspectable, including who you may need to ask, rather than leaving a note and driving off. If you want gas, electrical and maintenance on one calendar across several flats, say so at the start and we will build it that way.

This is practical guidance rather than legal advice. Gas regulations and the guidance around them are updated from time to time, so confirm your specific obligations for your property with the HSE guidance or your solicitor before relying on them.