What the law asks
The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 ask the landlord to make sure each required alarm is checked and in proper working order on the day a new tenancy begins (regulation 4(1)(b)). If the council believes the duty has not been met it can serve a remedial notice, and a penalty of up to £5,000 can follow if the notice is not complied with (regulation 8(2)).
Recording it
- Open the property and go to the Compliance tab
- Find Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Check, under Certificates and checks
- Each current tenancy is listed with the day it began, already filled in as the day of the check
- Change the date if the check was on another day, then press Record the check
The dashboard and the Compliance page list every property still waiting for one, one row per property, and the window that opens from the dashboard records it in the same way.
If you checked later than the first day
Record the day you actually checked. The record then says plainly that the law asks for the check on the day the tenancy begins and that this is a later check. A date before the tenancy began cannot be recorded for it, because that check belonged to the previous letting.
How it counts
The record is worked out from your tenancies, so there is nothing to mark not applicable. With no current tenancy begun it does not count. Once every current tenancy that has begun has a check on or after its start date, it reads as done. A new tenancy asks again on the day it begins. Recorded by mistake? Clear it from the same row.
