A landlord certificate tracker is simply a reliable way to answer three questions for every let: what is due, when, and where is the proof? For England’s private rented sector that usually means gas safety, EICR and EPC dates — plus smoke/CO notes and anything local licensing adds.
You do not need fancy software on day one. You do need one place that survives a phone upgrade, a full inbox, and a busy January of renewals.
What a useful tracker records
- Property address (one row or card per home).
- Certificate type: gas safety, EICR, EPC, and any extras you care about.
- Issue date and expiry / next-due date.
- Reference, engineer or assessor details.
- Link or path to the filed PDF.
- Status you understand at a glance: valid, due soon, overdue.
- Optional: date a tenant copy was provided.
DIY options (and where they strain)
Camera roll / WhatsApp: fine for capturing a certificate on the day — poor as a system. Photos lack property labels, expiry columns, and multi-year history.
Cloud folders: better if every file is named POSTCODE-gas-2026-01-15.pdf and each property has its own folder. Still easy to miss dates without a separate diary.
Spreadsheet: excellent for dates and sorting; weaker for storing PDFs, reminder emails, and a readable trail when someone asks for “everything on Maple Terrace”. See the compliance spreadsheet guide.
Calendar only: good nudges, weak evidence store. When the alert fires you still need the file.
Pain points that show up after a few properties
- Identical boiler models — wrong PDF attached to the right address.
- Five-year EICR cycles that feel distant until they are not.
- Tenant turnovers where nobody can find last year’s gas certificate.
- Reminder fatigue: one calendar entry per certificate does not scale.
- Handing a messy zip of downloads to an adviser instead of a tidy property pack.
When a dedicated let book helps
LetBook is built as a modern let book: certificate dates and reminders organised by property, with uploads and an evidence pack on paid plans. Free covers one property with dates and reminders. Paid is £6.99/month or £69/year when you need more properties, file uploads and exports.
It does not inspect boilers, grade electrics, or declare a home lawful to let. It keeps the dates and files you enter in one place so renewals are harder to lose.