Tenants: the safety checks your landlord must provide

If you rent privately in Scotland, your landlord must give you a copy of the latest electrical safety report (EICR) and the gas safety record, and an EPC, and must have interlinked smoke and heat alarms fitted. If they don't sort a safety problem after you've told them in writing, you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber).

We help landlords find specialists to carry out these checks, but we don't take enquiries from tenants and we never pass tenants' details to contractors. This page is here so you know what to expect and how to ask for it.

What you should have been given

• EICR (electrical safety report): a copy of the latest one before your tenancy started. It has to be renewed at least every 5 years.
• Gas safety record: if there's gas, a copy before you moved in, then a copy within 28 days of each yearly check.
• EPC: the Energy Performance Certificate and its Recommendations Report.

What should be in the home

• Interlinked smoke alarms in the living room and every hallway and landing, and a heat alarm in the kitchen, all on the ceiling.
• A carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a boiler, fire, non-electric heater or flue.
• An RCD (residual current device) in the electrics. The fuse box should have one.
• Appliances supplied by the landlord, such as a kettle or washing machine, tested (PAT).

Your landlord should also have told you about the water safety measures they've put in place, like not turning down the hot water temperature and keeping showerheads clean.

How to ask

Ask in writing, by email if you can, so you have a dated record. Keep it short and polite: say which documents you'd like a copy of, or what's missing, and ask when they'll sort it.

It may help to send them our page that lists every check in one table, so you're both looking at the same thing:

Send your landlord this page

That opens a ready-written email in your own email app, with a link to our landlord certificates checklist. Nothing is sent to us.

If your landlord doesn't act

If the home doesn't meet the Repairing Standard and your landlord won't fix it, you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber). Before you apply, you must tell your landlord in writing what work needs doing. The tribunal can then look at the case and, if it agrees, order the landlord to do the work through a Repairing Standard Enforcement Order.

mygov.scot's page on what to do if your private landlord doesn't do repairs walks through the steps, and the Housing and Property Chamber's repairs page explains how to apply.

Alarms if you own your home

The fire alarm rules apply to every home in Scotland, not just rented ones. If you're a homeowner, our interlinked fire alarms page has the room-by-room list, and you can use our form there to get a quote for fitting them.