Renters' Rights Act 2025 Gas Safety: Landlord Guide

Under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, gas safety duties themselves have not changed: you still need an annual gas safety check and a CP12 record from a Gas Safe registered engineer. What changed on 1 May 2026 is enforcement - Section 21 is abolished, councils have stronger powers, civil penalties reach £40,000, and a new national database will list your gas safety certificate.

If you let property in Surrey or South London, this is the biggest shake-up of the private rented sector in a generation, and gas safety compliance is part of it. In this guide we walk through what the Act says, the dates that matter, what stays exactly the same under the 1998 gas regulations, and the practical steps we recommend to every landlord we work with. If you just need a certificate sorted, our landlord gas safety certificates page has prices and booking details.

What is the Renters' Rights Act 2025?

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 is the law that reforms the private rented sector in England. It received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025 and is the largest change to renting since the Housing Act 1988. Its headline measures are the abolition of Section 21 "no fault" evictions, a move to periodic assured tenancies for everyone, a new private rented sector database, a landlord ombudsman, and the extension of Awaab's Law and a Decent Homes Standard to private rentals. The full official summary is in the government's guide to the Renters' Rights Act on gov.uk.

The Act is being switched on in phases. Some parts are already live, the big tenancy reforms landed on 1 May 2026, and other parts - including the database that will hold your gas certificates - arrive later. Here is the timeline.

Key dates: the landlord compliance timeline

These dates come from the government's official implementation roadmap, published in November 2025. Anything marked "to be confirmed" is still subject to consultation, so treat it as direction of travel rather than a fixed deadline.

Section 21 abolition: what it means for your gas safety certificate

For the last decade, many landlords only really thought about their gas certificate when they wanted their property back. Under the old rules, a Section 21 notice was invalid if you had not given the tenant a copy of the gas safety record. Solicitors called it the "CP12 trap", and plenty of evictions failed on it. It trained a generation of landlords to see the certificate as eviction paperwork rather than a safety document.

From 1 May 2026, that whole dynamic is gone, because Section 21 itself is gone - for existing tenancies as well as new ones. If you want possession now, you need one of the reformed Section 8 grounds, such as selling the property, moving in yourself, or rent arrears, and most grounds require four months' notice with evidence a judge will scrutinise.

Losing the CP12 trap does not mean gas compliance matters less. It matters more, because enforcement has moved from the eviction courtroom to your council's enforcement team. Since 27 December 2025, councils can demand documents and access third-party data to check compliance. A landlord who cannot produce a current gas safety record is no longer just risking a delayed eviction - they are exposed to civil penalties, rent repayment orders of up to 24 months' rent, and criminal prosecution under gas safety law. If your certificate has already lapsed, our guide on what to do when a landlord gas certificate has expired covers the recovery steps.

Landlord gas safety certificate rules that have not changed

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 did not rewrite gas safety law. Your duties still come from the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and the Health and Safety Executive still enforces them. The HSE's landlord gas safety pages remain the definitive reference. The baseline is exactly what it was:

• ◆An annual gas safety check on every gas appliance and flue you provide, carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer
• ◆A gas safety record - the CP12 - issued after every check
• ◆A copy of the record given to existing tenants within 28 days of the check being done
• ◆A copy given to any new tenant before they move in
• ◆Records kept for at least two years
• ◆An ongoing duty to maintain gas appliances, pipework and flues in a safe condition between checks - the annual check alone is not enough

The MOT-style renewal window still applies

One helpful rule carried over from the 2018 amendment to the regulations: if you have the new check done in the 10 to 12 months after the last one, the renewal keeps the original expiry date, just like a car MOT. That means booking early never costs you certificate time, and there is no excuse for letting one lapse. We explain the whole document in plain English in our CP12 landlord gas safety certificate guide.

The PRS database will list your gas certificates

We think landlords are underestimating this change. The government's implementation roadmap confirms the new private rented sector database will record "Safety information - Gas, Electric and Energy Performance Certificates". Regional rollout starts in late 2026, with full launch expected in 2027, and every landlord will have to register themselves and each property.

Today, a missing CP12 usually only surfaces if a tenant complains or something goes wrong. Once the database is live, your gas safety position becomes visible to your local council as a matter of record. A lapsed certificate stops being a private oversight and becomes a flag on a government system. Failing to register at all carries a civil penalty of up to £7,000, rising to £40,000 or criminal prosecution for continued breaches.

We advise getting your certificate renewals onto a fixed annual cycle now, well before registration opens, so the database only ever shows you in-date. Our landlord services hub explains how we run that cycle for portfolio landlords and letting agents across Surrey and South London.

Awaab's Law and the Decent Homes Standard: what is coming next

Awaab's Law sets legally enforceable timeframes for landlords to investigate and fix serious hazards, such as damp, mould and dangerous heating defects. It already applies in social housing, where regulations came into force on 27 October 2025. The Renters' Rights Act extends it to private rentals, but the start date for the private sector is still to be confirmed following consultation.

The Decent Homes Standard will, for the first time, apply to private rented homes too, requiring properties to be free from serious hazards and in reasonable repair - again with timing subject to consultation. For heating specifically, a broken or unsafe boiler left unfixed will eventually carry statutory repair deadlines, not just unhappy tenants. Landlords who already respond quickly to heating faults and keep written repair logs will barely notice the change. Landlords who sit on problems will feel it.

Penalties for non-compliance under the new regime

Two penalty systems now sit side by side: civil penalties under the Renters' Rights Act, enforced by councils, and criminal liability under the 1998 gas regulations, enforced by the HSE. Both can apply to the same failure.

Set those numbers against the cost of compliance. A landlord gas safety certificate from us is £85, or £155 bundled with a full boiler service. There is no version of the maths where skipping it makes sense - full prices are on our pricing page.

What Surrey and South London landlords should do now

Here is the action list we give landlords and letting agents when they ask us about the Act. None of it is complicated, and it turns compliance into a routine.

• ◆Diarise every property's CP12 renewal inside the 10 to 12 month window so the expiry date never moves and never lapses
• ◆Serve tenants their copy of the gas safety record within 28 days of every check, and keep proof you did - email with the PDF attached works well
• ◆Audit each property's compliance file now: gas safety record, electrical report and EPC, so database registration in late 2026 is a form-filling exercise rather than a panic
• ◆Log every tenant-reported heating or gas fault in writing, with dates and what you did about it - this is your Awaab's Law preparation
• ◆If you manage several properties, put them on one renewal cycle so a single visit day covers the lot
• ◆Work through our full landlord gas safety checklist to catch anything you have missed

How we help landlords stay compliant

We are CAF Heating, a family firm founded in 1996 by Carlton Fuller and now run with his sons Simon and Stephen, all Gas Safe registered engineers. From our base in Horley we cover 19 towns across Surrey and South London, and landlord work is a core part of what we do: CP12 certificates at £85, a service and CP12 bundle at £155, and a £240 a year Service Agreement that includes the annual service, the CP12 and priority call-out. We track your renewal dates so certificates are booked inside the window, and we send the paperwork straight to you or your agent the same day. Call us on 01293 774592 or get in touch online if you would like us to take the whole cycle off your plate.

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