Do you know how much you should be paying for your CP12 certificates?

Whether you’re a landlord or letting agent, I find this question does come up a lot, and with so many different prices out there, it can be a bit confusing.

In fact, I’ve had numerous calls from clients looking for prices, only for some of them to say they’re going to shop around and that another company has quoted cheaper. Many of these same clients come back after much time spent on the phone or internet, having realised the cheap deal advertised wasn’t all it seemed.

In this blog post, I’m going to use my years of experience as a heating engineer to tell you what you should be paying for your CP12 certificates, and which factors can affect the cost.

Are you sitting comfortably?

What is the average cost of a gas safety certificate?

I’m afraid the average cost of a CP12 right now is very fragmented. A quick search on Google will come up with companies offering gas safety checks and a CP12 certificate for just £40 – £45. However, most manufacturers advise gas appliances are also serviced every year, and these same companies will charge an extra fee for this.

Looking at national company Homeserve, for instance, you’ll find they charge £66.00 for a service and CP12 certifcate for the first year, but then that price goes up to £127.80 for renewal in the second year.

National company Scottish Gas charges £75.00 for a gas safety check (without service) and CP12 certificate for the first year, and then they will contact you to inform you of the renewal price for the second year.

What can affect the price of a CP12 certificate?

Sometimes factors such as necessary remedial work may need to be carried out so that the gas appliance conforms to current regulations. For instance, this could mean fitting a stability bracket to a cooker, fitting an isolation valve to a hob, or fitting an air vent to a fire or other appliance.

These quick fixes may add around £34 – £45 onto the overall cost of the gas safety check and CP12 certificate. Many landlords choose to specify beforehand that if rectification work is going to be under £80 – £100 to just carry this out to save time, inconvenience and second visits.

What about bulk discounts?

Most of the time, bulk discounts are commonly available to both landlords and letting agents. So, we’ve already looked at the cost of one property above, now let’s take a look at the type of discounts available.

Landlords

If you’re a landlord with more than 10 properties, you’d be looking at a bulk discount of around 10%-15 off the cost of your gas safety check, service and CP12.

Letting agents

If you’re a letting agent looking for one company to service and check around 30 – 100 properties per year, you’d be looking at a wholesale bulk discount of around 20%-25%

Get a few quotes

The best advice I can give you is to really do your research, contact a few reputable companies and ask them each for a fixed price quote, as well as exactly what this service includes. You should realistically be looking for servicing a boiler, cooker and providing a CP12, as well as carrying out any minor rectification if required.

Most companies will be happy to give you a quote over the phone for this type of work, as unfortunately due to time restrictions and traffic, engineers usually cannot justify travelling out to conduct free visits and give you a costing in person.

You’ll find they’ll usually be able to give you a cost for each additional appliance, and indicative costs for any minor remedial work which may need to be carried out. Again, you can expect a bulk or wholesale discount on multiple properties to be certified, but check you are happy with this before moving forward.

TIP: If you’re looking for an idea of exactly how much you can expect to pay from the large multinational companies, their websites have particularly detailed costs and tell you what’s included and what isn’t. Their prices are very realistic and their process and documentation is carried out swiftly.

Conclusion

So, there we have it! I really hope you’ve come away from this article with a much better understanding of CP12 costs, although unfortunately the market is particularly fragmented and it’s always best to get a few different quotes and find out in detail exactly what you’ll be paying for.

Got any specific questions about CP12 costs? Feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll do my best to answer as helpfully as possible.