The short answer
Most lets in England need three certificates: a gas safety record every year where there are gas appliances, an electrical installation condition report (EICR) at least every five years, and an energy performance certificate (EPC), which lasts ten years. Missing one is rarely about not knowing the rules. It is about three different cycles across many properties, tracked in one spreadsheet. Voco keeps the dates for you, shows what is due, and sixty days before a certificate runs out it starts the renewal with your own contractor.
The three certificates and how often each renews
| Certificate | How often | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Gas safety record | Every year | A check of gas appliances, flues and fittings by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Only needed where the property has gas. |
| EICR | At least every five years | An inspection and test of the electrical installation by a qualified person. |
| EPC | Valid for ten years | The property's energy rating. Rented homes need a rating between A and E. |
Tenants must be given copies, and new tenants should have them before they move in. Summary from Harlow Council's landlord responsibilities guide. Rules change, so check current GOV.UK guidance for your property type before relying on any summary, including this one.
Why do spreadsheets miss renewals?
One property is easy. Ten properties with three certificates each means thirty dates on three different cycles, and the spreadsheet only works if somebody opens it at the right time. Then a property changes hands, a certificate is renewed early and the old date stays in the sheet, or the person who kept it leaves.
The fix is to stop relying on someone remembering to look. The dates need to live with the property, and the renewal needs to start on its own.
How does Voco keep the dates?
Each property in Voco has its certificates alongside it. Upload a certificate as a PDF or a photo and Voco reads the dates from it, so you are not typing them in. You check them and save.
Every certificate then shows one of four states:
- Valid, with more than sixty days to run.
- Due soon, within sixty days of running out.
- Expired.
- Missing, where a property should have one and there is none on file. A property marked as having no gas is never shown as missing a gas safety record.
That gives you one view across your portfolio of what is fine, what needs attention and what is overdue.
What happens sixty days before a certificate runs out?
Every morning Voco checks for gas safety records, EICRs and EPCs that run out within sixty days. For each one it:
- Opens a renewal job with the property, the certificate and the date it must be done by.
- Offers the job to your own contractor: your gas engineer for a gas safety record, your electrician for an EICR, your energy assessor for an EPC. The offer goes by text or email, and if the first contractor cannot take it, the next one on your list is asked.
- Puts a card on your Compliance board, so the renewal is visible alongside everything else that needs doing.
- Lets the tenant know by text, where the property has a current tenancy.
Voco never picks a contractor you have not added. You add your trades once, and renewals go to the people you already use and trust.
Starting renewals is on by default. If you would rather approve each one, change it to ask you first.
When an inspection finds a problem
Not every renewal is a formality. A gas engineer may condemn an appliance, or an EICR may come back unsatisfactory with remedial work listed. Plan for that inside the sixty days rather than after them:
- Book the inspection early in the window, so there is time for any remedial work before the old certificate runs out.
- Treat remedial work as a repair. In Voco the renewal is a job on your Repairs board, so follow-on work can be raised against the same property and tracked in the same place. If you log repairs in Fixflo, Voco can also send tenant repair reports there through its Fixflo integration.
- Upload the new certificate when it arrives. The status goes back to valid, and Voco tracks the new expiry date from then on.
Giving tenants their copies
Tenants must be given copies of these certificates, and new tenants should have them before they move in. Voco keeps the certificates against the property, which makes them easy to find, but sending copies to tenants is still your step. Make it part of your move-in routine and note when it was done.
What Voco does not track
Being clear about the edges matters with compliance:
- HMO licences, deposit protection, legionella risk assessments and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are not tracked as certificates. Keep them in your existing checklist.
- Other certificates can be stored against a property, but Voco does not start their renewal for you.
- Voco does not give legal advice. It keeps dates and starts jobs. Whether a property meets the rules is still your call.
Setting it up
- Add your gas engineer, electrician and energy assessor as contractors.
- Mark which properties have gas.
- Upload the current certificate for each property and check the dates Voco reads.
- Open the Compliance board and deal with anything already due soon or expired.
For a small portfolio that is an afternoon's work, done once. Voco costs about 29p a minute with no monthly fee and no contract.
Certificates sit alongside tenancies and rent in Voco. For the rent side, see chasing late rent without the awkward phone call. For tenant repair calls and out-of-hours reports, Voco's service for property managers covers triage, and the lettings overview shows how it all fits together.
