Compliance

Compliance is where you keep each property’s certificates and licences: Gas Safety, EPC, EICR, HMO licence, fire and health and safety checks, and more. COHO reminds you before they expire, shares the key documents with your tenants, asks tenants to acknowledge them, and shows you which properties are missing something.

For step-by-step instructions, see Compliance: how-to. For problems, see Compliance: troubleshooting.

Why you’d come here

You want to…	Usually you start from	Go to
Record a new certificate after an inspection	The property’s certificate panel, for example Gas Safety Certificate	Add a certificate
Deal with a renewal reminder	An Action, or a panel message such as “A new gas safety certificate is due in 14 days”	Renew a certificate
See what’s expired or expiring across all your properties	Menu > Compliance	The organisation Compliance panel
Set up a new property so nothing is missed	The property’s Services section	Switch on a certificate panel
Prove a tenant was given their certificates	The room’s Compliance panel	The room Compliance panel
Get documents to a new tenant before they sign	The contract step of onboarding	Compliance documents and contracts
Change when you’re reminded, or have a maintenance issue raised	The panel’s settings cog	Change reminder settings
Keep an owner informed about their property’s certificates	The panel’s settings cog: Alert owner	Alert the owner
Stop reminders for something that doesn’t apply	The panel’s settings cog: Off	Switch off a certificate panel

Which panel to use:

Panel	Use it when you’re thinking about
Organisation (Menu > Compliance)	Your whole portfolio: what’s expired, expiring or missing, and planning renewals
Property (the certificate panels, such as Gas Safety Certificate or Fire Safety)	One property’s certificates: adding them, their history, and their reminder settings
Room (Compliance)	One tenancy: which documents each tenant has been given and acknowledged

How it works

1. Each certificate type has its own panel on the property page. You switch each panel on (Manual) or Off for each property, and accept its terms the first time.
2. You add certificates with their dates and files. COHO keeps the latest one at the top and earlier ones under Past certificates.
3. COHO checks the dates several times a day. When a certificate is within your reminder period, or has expired, or none has been added, you get an Action. If you’ve asked for it, COHO also raises a maintenance issue.
4. Tenants get the key documents. Gas Safety, EPC, EICR and HMO licence can be shared with tenants. Shared documents appear in tenants’ COHO accounts, can be emailed to them, and tenants are asked to acknowledge them.
5. New tenants acknowledge them when signing. When you send a tenancy agreement, COHO includes the property’s current shared certificates, and each tenant acknowledges them as part of signing.

Where to find it

Level	Where	Shows
Organisation	Dashboard: Menu > Compliance	Expired, expiring and missing certificates across your properties
Property	A property page: its certificate panels, and Services at the bottom of the page	That property’s certificates and settings
Room	A room page with a tenancy: its Compliance panel	That tenancy’s documents and acknowledgements

The certificate panels

These panels can appear on a property:

Panel	What you record	Can be shared with tenants?
Gas Safety Certificate	Valid from and to dates, and the certificate	Yes
Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)	Dates, Current score, Potential score, Rating, and the certificate	Yes
Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)	Dates and the report (use it for an EIC too)	Yes
HMO Licence	Dates, HMO licence number, and the licence	Yes
Fire Safety	Separate checks, each switched on as needed: Fire Risk Assessment, Fire Risk Assessment Review, Fire Alarm Test, Fire Alarm Test Certificate, Smoke Detector Test, Heat Alarm Test, Emergency Escape Lighting Test, Emergency Escape Lighting Test Certificate, Fire Extinguisher Test, Fire Blankets Visual Test, Fire Blankets Full Test, Fire Suppression System Inspection, Dry Riser Service, Automatic Opening Vents Service	No
Health & Safety	Carbon Monoxide Detector Check, Legionella Risk Assessment, Legionella Risk Assessment Review, Asbestos Monitoring, Mould Monitoring	No
Portable Appliance Test (PAT)	Date completed, Number of devices tested, and the record	No
Boiler Servicing	Date completed, and the record	No
Other Certificates	A Certificate type from COHO’s list, dates and the certificate	No
Mortgage and Building Insurance	Policy or product details and dates	No

Other Certificates has a fixed list of types: Air Tightness Test, Evacuation Plan Signage Inspection Log, Gutter/Drainage Cleaning Logs, Lift Inspection Certificates (LOLER compliance), Pest Control Inspection Reports, Roof Inspection Reports, Selective Property Licensing, Swimming Pool Service, Sump pump / Macerator Service, UV Lamp Service, Septic Tank Emptying, Wood Burner Service, Wood Burner Sweep, Chimney Sweep and Waste Transfer Note. If you need another type, contact COHO support.

What a panel shows

On screen	What it means
“Gas safety certificate is valid until [date]”	The latest certificate and its expiry
“A new gas safety certificate is due in [n] days”	You’re within the reminder period
“A new gas safety certificate is [n] days overdue”	The latest certificate has expired
“You need to add a gas safety certificate”	The panel is on but nothing has been added
Building certificates / Property certificates	Certificates held for the whole building, and for this property
Not visible to tenants	The certificate wasn’t shared with tenants
Past certificates	Earlier certificates, kept for your records
New certificate	Adds a certificate (the button is highlighted when one is needed)
Remove	Deletes a certificate
Settings cog	Opens the panel’s settings

Fire Safety and Health & Safety show each check separately, with when it was last carried out, how long it’s valid for and when the next is due. Fire Safety also has a Fire safety report to download.

Property or building

If the property belongs to a building in COHO, you choose whether each certificate applies to the Property or the whole Building. A building certificate shows on every property in the building, under Building certificates. Health & Safety records are always for a single property.

The organisation Compliance panel

Open it from Menu > Compliance. When closed it reads “Monitor compliancy across your entire portfolio”.

On screen	What it does
Date filter	Expired, Expiring within 7 days, 14 days (the default), 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or 180 days, All, Not started, Property service disabled, or Expired or not started
Property filter	Shows only chosen properties
Filter	Applies the filters
Cards	How many items match for each type: Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, HMO Licence, Fire Safety, PAT and Health & Safety, plus All. Click Fire Safety to see a card for each check
Property, Type, Status, Carried Out, Expiry Date	The list. Click a property to open it. Expiry Date shows “To be added” when there’s no certificate yet, or “Will not expire”
Export (CSV)	Downloads the list

Boiler Servicing, Other Certificates, Mortgage and Building Insurance aren’t included; check those on each property.

Statuses in the list:

Status	Meaning
Valid	A certificate is on file and hasn’t expired
Expired	The latest certificate has expired
Not Started	The panel is on, but no certificate has been added
Not Enabled	The panel is off for that property

The room Compliance panel

Open a room that has a tenancy, then its Compliance panel. When closed it shows how many items are “awaiting response”, and warns if any documents couldn’t be served.

For each document, and each tenant, it shows:

On screen	Meaning
“Uploaded on [date]”	When the document was added
“Available on their COHO account since [date].”	The tenant can see it in COHO
“Served on [date] via their email address ([email]).”	It was emailed to the tenant, and when it was delivered
“Acknowledged on [date].” / “Signed on [date].”	The tenant acknowledged it, or acknowledged it while signing a contract
Awaiting response	Not yet acknowledged
Served	Emailed, not yet acknowledged
Acknowledged / Acknowledged manually / Signed	Done
Bounced, Complaint, Errored, Error while serving	The email didn’t get through; the reason is shown
Not applicable	Nothing is needed from this tenant for this document
Mark as acknowledged	Records that you served the document yourself, outside COHO
Compliance report	Downloads a PDF for the tenancy: each Gas Safety, EICR, EPC and HMO licence document, deposit information and inventory, with how and when it was served and acknowledged. Documents sent with Send document are in the Communications panel’s notices report instead

Tip

The panel reminds you that your contracts should say compliance documents can be served by email and through the tenant’s COHO account.

Sharing documents with tenants

When you add a Gas Safety Certificate, EPC, EICR or HMO licence, you choose:

Option	What happens
Share with tenants (available in their portal)	Tenants of the property’s current and future tenancies can see it in their COHO account (once they’ve joined), and are asked to acknowledge it
Serve documents via email to all existing and future tenants	It’s also emailed, with the files attached, to each of those tenants at the email address on their tenancy. The panel records it as served
Neither	Only your team sees it. It shows Not visible to tenants, and it isn’t included in new contracts

Both options are ticked when you add a certificate to a property, and unticked when you add one to a building; check them each time. A replacement certificate starts with the same choice as the one it replaces.

The email goes to tenants whose tenancy is current or future at the time you add the certificate. People who become tenants later get the property’s shared certificates when they sign their contract.

Other panels (Fire Safety, Health & Safety, PAT, Boiler Servicing, Other Certificates, Mortgage and Building Insurance) are for your records only. To send tenants other documents and ask them to acknowledge them, use Send document in the room’s Communications panel, with Require acknowledgement from tenants ticked.

Compliance documents and contracts

When you create a tenancy agreement, during onboarding or for an existing tenancy, its Additional information step lists the “Documents for [tenant] to acknowledge”. COHO adds these for you:

• the property’s latest Gas Safety Certificate, EPC, EICR and HMO licence that are shared with tenants, where that panel is on (building certificates for the property’s building are included too);
• the deposit information, where Deposit Management needs it;
• the room’s inventory, and any documents you’ve already sent the tenant.

You can’t pick documents in this step. Files you add to the contract itself (Additional Files) are part of what’s signed.

Signing method	Tenants acknowledge the documents?
COHO eSignature	Yes. In Important information they must click Acknowledge on each document before they can sign
Wet Signature	Yes, in the same way
Already Signed	No. When you confirm the contract, COHO records the documents as Acknowledged manually

On the tenant’s side, the step reads “Read and acknowledge the following information”. If they try to go on without acknowledging, they see “Please acknowledge all compliance items”. You can follow progress under Document acknowledgements when you confirm the contract, and later in the room’s Compliance panel.

If a certificate is missing or expired, the contract form shows “Items are missing or expired:” with a list, for example “Gas safety certificate has expired”. This is a warning: it doesn’t stop you sending the contract, so add or renew the certificate first.

Note

How to Rent guide: since 1 May 2026, COHO no longer adds the How to Rent guide to contracts or asks tenants to acknowledge it, in line with the Renters’ Rights Act. Earlier records still show on the tenancy’s Compliance panel and in its compliance report. For the new written statement of terms and information sheet, see your contract templates in Onboarding Settings.

Settings

Open a panel’s settings from its settings cog, or from Services at the bottom of the property page.

Setting	What it does
Off / Manual	Off stops the panel and its reminders; certificates already added are kept. Manual turns it on. On certificate panels Automatic shows as “Coming soon”. Mortgage and Building Insurance also offer Automatic, which reminds you in the same way
Terms and conditions	Accept them once to use the panel; Set as default for future properties applies your choice to new properties
How many weeks before it’s due should we remind you?	How early you get the renewal Action (not on HMO licence or Other Certificates)
Create maintenance issue automatically	Also raises a maintenance issue when the reminder starts
Alert owner	Gas Safety, EPC, EICR and HMO licence, shown only for properties managed for an owner: emails the owner about an expiring, expired or missing certificate. Set How many weeks before it’s due should we remind the owner? and, optionally, a Template (Optional); without one, COHO uses its standard wording
Required?, Valid for / Frequency, Reminder	Fire Safety and Health & Safety: which checks apply, how often, and when to remind you
Allow tenants to carry out this check?	Fire alarm, smoke detector, heat alarm, fire extinguisher and carbon monoxide checks: tenants record the check. Add Guidance to housemates and choose How long after should the manager be alerted if it hasn’t been carried out by housemates?
Remind me to update the council when there is a new Gas Safety Certificate	HMO licence: an Action when a new Gas Safety Certificate is added. On by default
Create annual reminder actions…	HMO licence: a reminder 2 weeks before each anniversary of the licence’s start date, while it has more than 2 months left to run. Off by default
Yearly service reminder	Boiler Servicing
How frequently would you like to be reminded to carry out a PAT?	PAT
Save for all properties / Save for all properties in this building	Copies the whole form to other properties, overwriting their settings

Other Certificates and HMO licence have no reminder setting: see Reminders.

Caution

Save for all properties copies everything, including Off or Manual. Saving from a property where the panel is off switches it off across your portfolio.

Who can use it

To	You need
See Gas Safety, EPC, EICR, HMO licence, Fire Safety and Health & Safety, the organisation panel and room panels, and download compliance reports	View permission for Compliance
Add or remove those certificates, change their settings, or mark documents acknowledged	Edit permission for Compliance
See or change Boiler Servicing, PAT, Other Certificates, Mortgage and Building Insurance	View or edit permission for Property services

All of COHO’s standard roles include full Compliance access; a custom role may not. Property owners who have joined COHO can see their properties’ certificates in their own account. Tenants never need a permission: they acknowledge documents from their own account.

Rules and automatic behaviour

Adding certificates

• Required: dates and at least one file. Notes can be up to 2,000 characters; an HMO licence number up to 30.
• No editing: a certificate can’t be changed once added. Remove it and add it again.
• Latest wins: the certificate with the latest expiry is shown as current; the others move to Past certificates.
• Removing a certificate also removes tenants’ acknowledgements of it.

Reminders

• COHO checks the dates several times a day, and again whenever you add a certificate or save a panel’s settings.

• You get an Action when the current certificate is within your reminder period, when it has expired, or when the panel is on and nothing has been added yet.

• Reminders only run for panels that are on (Manual) and whose terms are accepted, and not for deactivated properties.

• Reminder periods:

  Panel	When the renewal Action appears
  Gas Safety, EPC, EICR, Building Insurance	Your How many weeks before it’s due should we remind you? setting before the Valid to date (4 weeks unless you change it)
  Fire Safety, Health & Safety	Each check’s own reminder setting, counted from the date completed plus how long the check is valid
  Boiler Servicing	Your reminder setting before the first anniversary of the last service, when Yearly service reminder is on
  PAT	Your reminder setting before the next test is due (the date completed plus How frequently would you like to be reminded to carry out a PAT?)
  HMO licence	4 weeks before the licence expires (not adjustable)
  Other Certificates	From 6 weeks before each certificate expires (not adjustable)
  Mortgage	Your reminder setting before the fixed term ends (17 weeks unless you change it)
  Building certificates	From 6 weeks before the building certificate expires, once per certificate

• Setup tasks: for a new property, the “add a certificate” Actions are grouped as Setup tasks while the property’s setup checklist is open. End this process turns them into normal Actions; it can’t be undone.

• Who’s told: a renewal Action goes to the property’s property manager (or your organisation’s), unless your Action rules say otherwise. If nobody is set, everyone with access to that panel is notified. Each person can turn these notifications off in their own notification settings. Setup tasks don’t send notifications.

Maintenance issues

When Create maintenance issue automatically is on (Gas Safety, EPC, EICR, Boiler Servicing, PAT, and each Fire Safety and Health & Safety check), COHO raises a maintenance issue within a minute of the renewal Action. It’s private, low severity, titled for example “Gas Safety Certificate Review”, and has the certificate’s due date. It isn’t assigned to anyone: you assign a contractor. Turning the option on applies from the next renewal Action; for EICR it’s also applied to an open one.

Tenants doing checks

When Allow tenants to carry out this check? is on, the lead tenants of current tenancies who have joined COHO get an Action when the check is due, for example “Smoke Detector Test Due”. They record it in their account, and you get an Action to approve or reject it, for example “Smoke Detector Test Approval Required”. Your own reminder still appears; for Health & Safety checks it waits for the number of days you chose.

What COHO sends

When	Who gets it	How
A certificate is due, overdue or missing	Your team (see Who’s told above)	An Action, with an email and app notification
You add a shared certificate with Serve documents via email…	Tenants of current and future tenancies	Email: “You’ve been served a new [document] record for [property]”, with the files attached
You add a shared certificate	Tenants of current and future tenancies who have joined COHO	An Action asking them to view and acknowledge it, for example “You must acknowledge the latest gas safety certificate for your home”
You save Alert owner settings, and the certificate is within the owner’s reminder period, expired or missing	The property owner’s email address	One email per certificate, for example “Gas safety certificate expiring”, or your own template
A new certificate is added (for Boiler Servicing, when the next service is within your reminder period or overdue)	Owners who have joined COHO	An Action to view it, for example “You have a new Gas Safety Certificate to view”
Allow tenants to carry out this check? is on, and a check is due	Lead tenants who have joined COHO	An Action to carry out the check
You add a new Gas Safety Certificate to a property with an HMO licence	Your team	“Send your updated Gas Safety Certificate to your local licencing authority” (unless you turn the setting off)
2 weeks before each anniversary of the HMO licence	Your team	A reminder Action, if Create annual reminder actions… is on

What COHO does automatically

• Raises renewal Actions from the expiry dates you enter, and clears them when you add a newer certificate.
• Raises maintenance issues when Create maintenance issue automatically is on. For Fire Safety, it closes one that nobody has assigned, scheduled or updated once a valid record is on file.
• Shares and serves documents with tenants of current and future tenancies, when you choose to.
• Adds the latest shared certificates to contracts for tenants to acknowledge when signing.
• Switches HMO licence off by default for new single lets, short-term lets and blocks. You can switch it on.

What COHO doesn’t do

• Block anything when a certificate has expired. Contracts, onboarding and lettings carry on; COHO warns you on the contract instead.
• Book inspections or engineers. (Automatic shows as “Coming soon” on the certificate panels.)
• Assign maintenance issues to a contractor; you assign them.
• Let you delete a renewal Action. Add the certificate, or switch the panel off.

Related guides

• Compliance: how-to: step-by-step instructions.
• Compliance: troubleshooting: fixes for common problems and error messages.
• Onboarding: compliance documents in the contract step.
• Deposits: deposit prescribed information, which tenants also acknowledge.
• Maintenance, Actions, Buildings and Communications (Notices).