Best App to Send Gas Safety Certificates to Landlords (UK, 2026)
Written by Tom Ellis · Senior Trades Editor
Last updated: November 2026
Quick Answer
- →Best overall: Sleepless Tradesman — generates the CP12 on the job card, sends to landlord and tenant in one step, stores the record against the property and sets the annual renewal reminder automatically.
- →Legal requirement: Landlords must give tenants a copy of the gas safety record within 28 days of the check. New tenants must receive it before they move in. As the engineer, sending both copies from your app removes the risk of non-compliance.
- →Free tier available: Sleepless Tradesman includes certificate storage and digital delivery on its free plan — no subscription required to get started.
Every gas engineer who works with landlords faces the same admin cycle. You complete the check, fill in the CP12, and then need to get copies to the landlord, to the tenant, and filed somewhere you can find them again in 12 months. If you are doing this by hand — printing certificates, posting them, or attaching PDFs to individual emails — that is 10 to 15 minutes of admin per job that earns you nothing.
The right app handles all of it in one step from the job card. This guide covers what to look for, what the law actually requires, and which app does it best for independent gas engineers in the UK.
Legal Requirements for Landlord Gas Safety Records
Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, landlords are legally required to have all gas appliances in their rental properties checked every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer. After each check, the engineer issues a gas safety record — commonly called a CP12 — and the following must happen:
- The landlord must receive a copy of the record. This is the billing contact — usually the landlord themselves or their letting agent.
- The current tenant must receive a copy within 28 days of the check being completed. If a new tenant moves in before those 28 days are up, they must receive it before or on their move-in date.
- New tenants must receive the most recent certificate before they move in, even if the check was done months earlier.
- The landlord must keep copies for at least two years. As the engineer, keeping your own copy on the job record is essential — certificate requests from landlords and letting agents arrive regularly, often months or years after the original check.
The key complication is that there are always two recipients: the landlord and the tenant. They may be the same person (in some HMO arrangements), but most of the time they are different — with different email addresses, different contact preferences and different reasons for needing the record. An app that handles both in one action is significantly more efficient than sending separate emails.
What the App Needs to Do
A basic app that lets you email a PDF certificate is the minimum. But for a gas engineer doing regular landlord work, that creates a fragmented record — certificates scattered across your Sent folder, renewal dates in a separate spreadsheet, landlord contacts in your phone. Here is what a proper gas safety certificate app should do:
Store the landlord and tenant as separate contacts on the same job
The landlord is the billing contact and receives the invoice. The tenant is the site contact and must receive the certificate. These are different people and the app needs to handle both on the same job record — not force you to choose one.
Generate the CP12 from the job card
Rather than filling in a separate certificate form, the app should pull the relevant job details — appliance make and model, Gas Safe registration number, test results, engineer details — and generate the certificate directly. This eliminates double-entry and reduces errors.
Send to both landlord and tenant in one action
The certificate delivery step should be a single button that emails the record to both recipients. If you have to send two separate emails, one will eventually get forgotten.
Store the certificate permanently against the property
The certificate lives on the job card, linked to the specific property address. When a letting agent calls six months later asking for a copy, you search by address and resend in one click — no filing system, no hunting through emails.
Set the renewal reminder automatically
When a CP12 is issued, the app should create a follow-up reminder — typically 10 to 10.5 months later — linked to the property and the landlord. The reminder should alert you so you can rebook before the certificate expires, keeping the landlord compliant without them having to remember themselves.
Sleepless Tradesman
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Best App for Gas Engineers: Sleepless Tradesman
Sleepless Tradesman is built for independent gas engineers and small gas engineering businesses in the UK. The certificate workflow is designed around the CP12 cycle: you complete the check on the job card, the system generates the certificate using the details you have entered, and you send it to both the landlord and the tenant from the same screen. The renewal reminder is created at the same time — no separate calendar entry required.
The job card structure handles the landlord/tenant split properly. You can record the landlord as the billing contact and the tenant as the site contact on the same job, so both appear on the certificate delivery and the annual reminder captures both parties.
| Feature | Sleepless Tradesman |
|---|---|
| CP12 generated from job card | ✓ |
| Send to landlord + tenant in one action | ✓ |
| Certificate stored against property | ✓ |
| Automatic 10.5-month renewal reminder | ✓ |
| Landlord account with multiple properties | ✓ |
| One-click certificate resend | ✓ |
| Free tier available | ✓ |
| iOS and Android app | ✓ |
| Works offline on site | ✓ |
The free tier includes certificate storage and digital delivery, which is unusual — most apps in this space require a paid plan before you can email certificates from within the app. For a gas engineer doing two or three landlord checks a week, the time saving on the admin alone pays for any subscription many times over.
Managing Landlord Accounts With Multiple Properties
A property portfolio landlord or a letting agency managing dozens of properties creates a specific problem: each property has its own annual check date, its own tenant, and its own compliance status. Without a system, you end up with a spreadsheet of expiry dates that grows harder to manage every year.
The right app lets you create a landlord account that sits above the individual properties — so you can see all of a client's properties in one view, with the certificate status and renewal date for each. When a letting agent sends you a list of properties due for their annual check in the next 90 days, you can see exactly which are upcoming and which have already been booked.
Sleepless Tradesman supports this structure. A landlord or letting agent is a customer account; each property is a separate location under that account; each CP12 job is linked to both. The compliance overview for a property portfolio landlord is visible in a single screen rather than spread across individual job records.
Setting Up Annual Renewal Reminders
The annual renewal reminder is where most gas engineers either win or lose repeat landlord business. A landlord who gets a reminder from you 6 weeks before their certificate expires — giving them time to book the check and avoid a lapse — will rebook with you automatically. A landlord who has to remember it themselves will sometimes call you, but sometimes call whoever comes up first on Google.
The reminder cadence that works best is two touchpoints:
- 10.5 months after the certificate date: a reminder email or text to the landlord that their annual gas safety check is coming up in six weeks, with a direct booking link.
- 11.5 months after the certificate date: a follow-up if no booking has been made — this catches the landlords who saw the first reminder but meant to book and forgot.
This sequence, running automatically for every CP12 you issue, means your landlord clients are retained by the system rather than by memory. For a gas engineer doing 50 to 100 landlord checks a year, the renewal reminder system effectively books half the following year's work automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best app for sending gas safety certificates to landlords?
Sleepless Tradesman is the best option for independent gas engineers. It generates the CP12 on the job card, sends it to both the landlord and tenant in one action, stores the record permanently against the property, and sets the annual renewal reminder automatically when the certificate is issued.
Does a landlord gas safety certificate have to be sent to the tenant?
Yes. Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, the landlord must give the tenant a copy of the gas safety record within 28 days of the check being completed. New tenants must receive a copy before they move in. As the engineer, sending both copies from your app in one action removes the risk of either delivery being missed.
How long does a gas safety certificate last?
A gas safety certificate (CP12) is valid for 12 months. Landlords are legally required to have a new one issued every year for each rental property. Set the renewal reminder at 10 to 10.5 months to give enough lead time to rebook before expiry.
Can I send a gas safety certificate by email?
Yes. A digital copy sent by email satisfies the legal requirement, provided the tenant has agreed to receive documents electronically. Most landlords and letting agents now prefer digital delivery. An app that generates and emails the certificate directly from the job card is the most efficient approach.
How do I manage gas safety certificates for a landlord with multiple properties?
Create a customer account for the landlord or letting agency, then link each property to that account as a separate location. Each CP12 job is recorded under the relevant property, and the renewal reminder is linked to both the property and the landlord contact. This gives you a single view of all properties, their compliance status and upcoming renewal dates.
What information does a CP12 gas safety record need to contain?
A valid gas safety record must include: the engineer's name and Gas Safe registration number; the date of the inspection; the address of the property; a description of each appliance checked; details of any defect found; confirmation of whether each appliance is safe to use; and the engineer's signature. An app that generates the certificate from the job card ensures none of these fields are missed.