A certificates inbox that logs gas, EICR and EPC dates and chases renewals

Who it’s for

Letting agents and self-managing landlords in England with anything from five to a few hundred lets, whose certificates arrive as email attachments from contractors

Time to set up

About 75 minutes once, then 10 minutes a week

Difficulty

Intermediate

Monthly cost

£0

You help a letting agent or landlord in England file safety certificates. I will paste the text of one or more documents: gas safety records, electrical installation condition reports (EICRs) and energy performance certificates (EPCs). Use ONLY what is written in them: never guess a date, address, result or name. Do not work out deadlines or due dates yourself, and do not say whether a property is compliant. PART 1, TABLE: one row per document, with columns Property, Type (Gas safety record, EICR, EPC or Other), Date of check or issue, Next date printed on it (leave blank if none is printed), Result, and Engineer or assessor with registration number. Write dates as DD/MM/YYYY so I can paste the rows into Google Sheets. For Result, give an EICR's overall assessment plus every C1, C2 and FI code with a few words on each; a gas record's defects or remedial action, or "No defects recorded"; an EPC's rating. PART 2, ACTION FLAGS: one line for every C1, C2 or FI code, every gas appliance marked unsafe or with a defect, and anything a document is missing (such as a date, an address or a registration number). If there is nothing to flag, say so. PART 3, TENANT EMAILS: for each gas safety record or EICR, a short, friendly email to the tenant saying the copy is attached, with no legal claims. RULES: British English, plain and direct. If a document is hard to read, cut off, or doesn't say something you need, add a short note in brackets saying in plain words what to check, for example (check the date of the check on page 1). Documents: [paste]

A landlord with “over 10 properties” put it plainly on Property Tribes last month: they were thinking of “having a separate email address for all legislative purposes such as all the certificates”, then getting an AI to “look at all the attachements”. It drew two dozen replies, and it’s a question a lot of small agencies and portfolio landlords are asking. Certificates arrive from a dozen contractors, as PDFs in a dozen formats, and every one of them starts a clock.

There are a lot of clocks. A gas safety check at least every 12 months, and a copy to the tenant within 28 days (legislation.gov.uk). An electrical inspection at least every 5 years, a copy within 28 days, and any remedial work the report calls for done within 28 days of the inspection (GOV.UK). An EPC before you market the property (GOV.UK). And the government says the new landlord database “will launch on 15 December 2026, starting in the West Midlands” (GOV.UK). If Parliament approves the regulations (committees in both Houses debated them on 28 October; the final approval votes are still to come), the draft rules add one more: each registered property’s entry updated within 28 days of its information going out of date, for example when a new gas safety record replaces the old one (legislation.gov.uk).

This guide gives every certificate one place to land, files it, and lets a spreadsheet do the counting.

What does this automation do?

1. A Gmail filter forwards every certificate email to a private address that Make gives you.
2. Make saves each attachment into a Google Drive folder and adds a row to your certificates log.
3. Once a week, you paste the new certificates into ChatGPT. It reads the property, dates, codes and engineer off each one, and drafts the tenant emails.
4. Google Sheets formulas work out every deadline: tenant copy, remedial work, register update, the next check, and when to book it.
5. A Due soon tab and red cells show you what needs doing before it’s late.

What do you need before you start?

• A Google account for the business, with Gmail. A Google Workspace account connects to Make with a normal Google sign-in. A personal @gmail.com account can still use Google Sheets, but Make’s Google Drive app needs an extra Google Cloud step for @gmail accounts (more in Step 5).
• A free Make account.
• A free ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini account.
• A list of your properties, and the last few months of certificate emails to try it on.
• About 75 minutes.

How do I set it up?

Step 1: Decide where certificates should arrive

You’ve got two choices, and both work.

• A dedicated address, such as certificates@ on your domain or a new Gmail account. Give it to every gas engineer, electrician and EPC assessor, and forward everything that lands there. This is what the Property Tribes landlord had in mind, and it’s the cleanest.
• Your normal inbox, plus a filter. Leave contractors sending where they already send, and let a Gmail filter pick out certificates by sender or subject.

Start with the filter if you’re not sure. You can always move to a dedicated address later without changing anything else.

One question to settle first if you’re an agent: whose job is this? HSE says the management contract “should clearly specify who is responsible” for gas safety checks and the records. If it makes you responsible, the landlord’s duties apply to you too (HSE).

Step 2: Build the certificates log

Create a Google Sheet called “Certificates log”. In File › Settings, set the locale to United Kingdom, so 05/03/2025 means 5 March and not 3 May. On the first tab, name it “Certificates”, add these headings in row 1:

Columns F to K come straight from the prompt’s table, in the same order, so you can paste them in one go.

Step 3: Add the deadline formulas

Put these in row 2 and fill them down. They count the day of the check as day 1, which is the cautious reading of the 28-day rules.

• L, Due by: =IF(G2="EPC",IF(I2<>"",I2,IF(H2="","",EDATE(H2,120))),IF(H2="","",IF(G2="Gas safety record",EDATE(H2,12)-1,IF(G2="EICR",IF(I2="",EDATE(H2,60),MIN(I2,EDATE(H2,60))),""))))
• M, Book renewal from: =IF(L2="","",EDATE(L2,-2)+1)
• N, Tenant copy by: =IF(AND(H2<>"",OR(G2="Gas safety record",G2="EICR")),H2+27,"")
• O, Remedial work by: =IF(AND(G2="EICR",H2<>"",REGEXMATCH(J2,"\bC1\b|\bC2\b|\bFI\b")),H2+27,"")
• P, Register update by: =IF(H2="","",H2+27)

Here’s where each one comes from:

• Gas: 12 months. Appliances and flues must be checked “at intervals of not more than 12 months” (legislation.gov.uk), so column L puts the due date the day before the anniversary of the last check, the cautious reading. HSE explains that a check done “up to 2 months before” it’s due keeps “the original deadline date”, so booking early costs you nothing. That’s why column M starts on the first day of the 2-month window that ends on the due date. A check any earlier would move the renewal date forward. Either way, keep each record “until two further gas safety checks have been carried out” (HSE). The regulation sets that rule for every record, with 2 years only for an appliance that’s been removed (legislation.gov.uk).
• EICR: 5 years, or sooner. The rule is “at intervals of no more than 5 years”, or sooner if the last report says so (legislation.gov.uk). The formula takes whichever is earlier: the date printed on the report, or five years on.
• EICR remedial work: 28 days. If the report needs remedial or further investigative work, it must be done “within 28 days or any shorter period if specified” in the report (GOV.UK). The regulation counts it “starting with the date of the inspection and testing”. C1 means “Danger present”, C2 “Potentially dangerous” and FI “Further investigation required without delay”. C3, “Improvement recommended”, doesn’t start the clock. If the report gives a shorter period, overwrite the formula with that date. Once the work is done, get written confirmation from the electrician, and send it with the report to the tenant and the council within 28 days of the work being finished (legislation.gov.uk). Councils “may impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000” for breaches of these duties.
• EPC: 10 years. An EPC is “valid for 10 years”, and you must have one “before you market your property to sell or rent” (GOV.UK). The formula uses the valid-until date if it’s printed.
• Register: 28 days, once you’re registered. The draft regulations say an entry must be updated “before the end of the period of 28 days beginning with the day the information or documents became out of date” (legislation.gov.uk). They’re still a draft and only apply if Parliament approves them, and column P only matters once your region has opened and the property is registered. Until then, leave column R blank and ignore the date.

Then the colours. Select A2:T, go to Format › Conditional formatting, choose Custom formula is and add two rules:

• Red: =AND($M2<>"",$M2<=TODAY(),$S2=""), for a renewal you should be booking now.
• Amber: =AND($N2<>"",$Q2="",$N2-TODAY()<=7), for a tenant copy due within a week.

Finally, add a second tab called “Due soon” with this in A1. It lists everything you should book in the next 60 days, soonest first:

=SORT(FILTER(Certificates!F2:P,Certificates!M2:M<>"",Certificates!M2:M<=TODAY()+60),8,TRUE)

Step 4: Point Gmail at a Make mailhook

In Make, create a scenario and add Webhooks › Custom mailhook. Make describes it as an instant trigger that runs “by sending an email to the email address generated by this module” (Make). Copy the address it gives you.

In Gmail, open Settings › See all settings › Forwarding and POP/IMAP, choose Add a forwarding address and paste the mailhook address (Gmail Help). Gmail sends a verification message to it. Run the scenario once in Make, find that message in the mailhook’s output and open the verification link in it, as Google’s help describes.

Now the filter. In Gmail’s search bar, open the search options and set it to catch certificates and nothing else. For example, Has the words: subject:(gas safety OR EICR OR "electrical installation" OR EPC OR "energy performance"), ticking Has attachment. Or list your contractors’ addresses in From. Choose Create filter, tick Forward it to the mailhook address, and add a label, such as Certificates, so you can find the originals too. If you’ve set up a dedicated address in Step 1, just forward everything.

Make’s limit is 25 MB per email, attachments included (Make). That’s a lot of PDFs, but a contractor emailing a year’s certificates in one go could go over it. Big scans can also fail at the Drive upload, so check the file-size limit on your Make plan.

Step 5: File each attachment and log it

Add three more modules after the mailhook:

1. Flow Control › Iterator, with the Array set to the mailhook’s Attachments. Make’s own example for this module is saving email attachments to Google Drive, one file at a time (Make).
2. Google Drive › Upload a File, into a folder called “Certificates inbox”. Map the file name and data from the Iterator.
3. Google Sheets › Add a Row, into the Certificates tab. Map Received (the email’s date), From, Subject, the file name, and the file’s link from the Upload a File module’s output into columns A to E. Send yourself a sample certificate first, so the output shows the link field and you can pick it.

The @gmail catch: Make’s Google Drive docs say that to connect an account ending in @gmail or @googlemail, you need to create a custom OAuth client in Google Cloud first, and the connection must be reauthorised every six months or the scenario stops (Make). Make’s docs walk you through it. When you’ve finished, set the Google Cloud project to In production: Make says a project left in Testing has to be reauthorised every week (Make). Don’t want to? Leave out the Drive module. The sheet still logs every certificate that arrives, and the PDF stays in Gmail under your Certificates label.

Turn the scenario on. Make’s Free plan gives 1,000 credits a month (Make). If you already run one of our other guides on it, check your plan has room for another active scenario.

Step 6: Read the dates with ChatGPT once a week

Every Monday, open the sheet and look for new rows with an empty Property column. Open each PDF, copy the text (or upload the PDF if your AI tool allows it), and paste the lot into the prompt below.

You get three things back:

• A table with the property, type, date of check, next date, result and engineer, in the same order as columns F to K.
• Action flags: every C1, C2 and FI code, every gas defect, and anything missing, such as an EICR with no scheme number.
• Tenant emails, one per gas record and EICR.

Then check each row against its PDF before you paste. The property is the one to watch, then the dates. The AI is told not to work out deadlines or say whether a property is compliant. That’s the sheet’s job, and yours. A certificate is personal data, so keep it to what you need. If you’d rather not upload it, paste just the parts with the property, dates, results and engineer.

Step 7: Send tenant copies and book renewals

Send each tenant email yourself, with the certificate attached, and put the date in column Q. For gas, HSE says an electronic copy is fine “if your tenant is happy to receive their copy electronically”, but “you must give them a paper copy if they ask for it” (HSE). A new tenant needs the gas record before they move in (GOV.UK) and the electrical report before they occupy the property (legislation.gov.uk).

Then work the Due soon tab: book anything red, and put the booking date in column S. If a tenant won’t give access for a gas check, HSE says to keep a record of all your correspondence and keep trying (HSE). Add a Notes column (U) and put each attempt there.

Once your region of the database is open and the property’s registered, update the entry and put the date in column R. That’s ten minutes a week, and a log that shows exactly when every certificate arrived, went out and was renewed.

The copy-paste prompt

You help a letting agent or landlord in England file safety certificates. I
will paste the text of one or more documents: gas safety records, electrical
installation condition reports (EICRs) and energy performance certificates
(EPCs). Use ONLY what is written in them: never guess a date, address, result
or name. Do not work out deadlines or due dates yourself, and do not say
whether a property is compliant. PART 1, TABLE: one row per document, with
columns Property, Type (Gas safety record, EICR, EPC or Other), Date of check
or issue, Next date printed on it (leave blank if none is printed), Result,
and Engineer or assessor with registration number. Write dates as DD/MM/YYYY
so I can paste the rows into Google Sheets. For Result, give an EICR's overall
assessment plus every C1, C2 and FI code with a few words on each; a gas
record's defects or remedial action, or "No defects recorded"; an EPC's
rating. PART 2, ACTION FLAGS: one line for every C1, C2 or FI code, every gas
appliance marked unsafe or with a defect, and anything a document is missing
(such as a date, an address or a registration number). If there is nothing to
flag, say so. PART 3, TENANT EMAILS: for each gas safety record or EICR, a
short, friendly email to the tenant saying the copy is attached, with no legal
claims. RULES: British English, plain and direct. If a document is hard to
read, cut off, or doesn't say something you need, add a short note in brackets
saying in plain words what to check, for example (check the date of the check
on page 1). Documents: [paste]

What can go wrong?

• The AI puts a certificate on the wrong property. An AI model can copy one certificate’s address onto another, or add codes that aren’t on the page. Check the property and dates on every row against the PDF.
• Dates in the wrong format. If the sheet’s locale isn’t United Kingdom, 05/03/2025 becomes 3 May. Set the locale before you paste anything.
• A C2 hiding in an “unsatisfactory” report. The 28 days for remedial work run from the inspection, not from when you open the email. Read Part 2 of the AI’s answer first.
• The filter misses a contractor. An engineer who sends “Job 4471 complete” with no keywords won’t be caught. Ask contractors to put the certificate type and address in the subject, or move to a dedicated address.
• The Drive connection quietly expires. On a personal @gmail account, Make says you must reauthorise every six months, or every week if your Google Cloud project is still in Testing. Set it to In production, and put a six-month reminder in your calendar.
• Treating the register dates as final. The 28-day register rule is in draft regulations. We’ll update this guide when they’re made.
• Outside England. The electrical safety rules and the landlord database are England’s, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules for those. The gas safety regulations also cover Wales and Scotland. Check the local rules before you use this outside England.

Before your region’s database opens, our landlord register readiness tracker works out who registers when, and its certificate columns can come straight from this log. Repairs that a C2 turns into fit neatly into the tenant maintenance messages log, and if you’re reviewing rents too, the Section 13 rent increase diary keeps those dates in the same habit. One practical automation like this, with the £ and the hours it saves, lands in your inbox every Friday if you join our free email.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. GOV.UK: Private renting, your landlord's safety responsibilities
2. GOV.UK (MHCLG): Electrical safety standards in the private and social rented sectors, guidance (1 November 2025)
3. GOV.UK: Selling a home, energy performance certificates
4. GOV.UK (MHCLG): Stronger protections and greater confidence for renters (9 September 2026)
5. legislation.gov.uk: Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 36
6. legislation.gov.uk: Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, regulation 3
7. legislation.gov.uk: The Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026 (draft)
8. UK Parliament: Private Rented Sector Database Regulations 2026, statutory instrument timeline (committee debates 28 October 2026)
9. HSE: Gas safety check records and what to keep
10. HSE: Who is a landlord? (letting and managing agents)
11. HSE: Gas appliances, getting access
12. Make Help: Iterator (save email attachments to Google Drive)
13. Make: Webhooks app, custom mailhook
14. Make: Google Drive app (connection and modules)
15. Gmail Help: Automatically forward Gmail messages to another account

This guide is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Tool prices and screens change; we re-check every guide regularly. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.