Certificate Types
Acquaint stores Certificates to help take care of remembering expiry dates of safety, certificates, HMO licences and insurance premiums. Prompts on the Home Page remind you to renew them.
Certificate Types are the names of the Certificates such as Gas Safety, Proof of ID etc. Certificate Type settings allow to you to add new Certificate Types, change behaviour and reminder durations. Add new, manage the behaviour and reminder durations of Certificate Types via from File → Configuration → Contacts → Certificate Types.
Certificates are managed from the Certificates List screen.
The following Certificate Types are created by default in Acquaint but create additional ones as required. Some Certificates are statutory legal requirements of which you should be aware. These laws help protect both the Tenant and Landlord alike. Various fines and penalties exist in instances where these legal requirements have not been met.
Appliance Guarantee | Store guarantees for household appliances, scan and attach copies of warranties |
Carbon Monoxide Alarm Certificate | The landlord is specifically required to carry out a check to ensure that smoke alarms or carbon monoxide alarms are in proper working order |
Chimney Sweep & Inspection | The landlord is responsible to have all chimneys swept annually in a rental property. |
Contractor Liability Insurance | The Contractors you use are required to have public liability and professional indemnity insurance. They should provide you a copy of their certificate which you can store against a Contractor Liability Certificate Type |
Electricity Safety Certificate | By law landlords are required to ensure that the electrical installation in a rented property is safe when tenants move in and maintained in a safe condition throughout its duration. That any appliance provided is safe and has at least the CE marking (which is the manufacturer’s claim that it meets all the requirements of European law). To meet these requirements a landlord will need to regularly carry out basic safety checks to ensure that the electrical installation and appliances are safe and working. To meet these requirements a landlord or letting agent will need to ensure regular basic safety checks take place to ensure that the electrical installation and appliances are safe and working. Scan and store details of the Electrical Safety Certificate. |
Fire Alarm Certificate | Where a landlord controls flats, bedsits or hostels there must be a risk assessment in place to comply with the Fire Safety Order. It should be in writing. Further information on the Fire Safety legislation can be found here |
EPC Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards Exception | For Properties which are exempt from having to meet the EPC minimum Energy Efficiency you can add an EPC Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) Exception Certificate. This will ignore the Property from the Low EPC Home Page Reminder |
Gas Safety Certificate | Landlords are legally responsible for the safety of their tenants in relation to gas safety. By law they must make sure gas equipment they supply is safely installed and maintained by a Gas Safe registered engineer, have a registered engineer do an annual gas safety on each appliance and flue and give the tenant(s) a copy of the gas safety check record before moving in, or within 28 days of the check. Scan and store details of the Gas Safety Certificate. By default Gas Certificates are set to prompt to send the certificate to the Contacts when they are renewed. |
Landlord Registration | If a Landlord is required to provide accurate and up-to-date information about themselves and their properties then Landlord Registrations can help keep track of these. |
Legionella Risk Assessment | Landlords are under a duty to ensure that the risk of exposure to tenants, residents and visitors by Legionella is properly assessed and controlled. Store details of Legionella Risk Assessments using the Legionella Risk Assessment type. ARLA provides guidance on this here |
Oil Boiler Service | Landlords are responsible to stay on top of oil fired boiler maintenance by having the boiler serviced annually |
Portable Appliance Testing | Where there is a requirement for portable electrical appliances to undergo a PAT Test, details of these can be stored under a Certificate Type of Portable Appliance Test |
Property Licence HMO | Houses in multiple occupation (HMO) that is a property rented out by at least 3 people who are not from 1 ‘household’ require a licence to be obtained from the Council. A licence is valid for a maximum of 5 years and must be renewed before it runs out. A separate licence is required for each HMO a landlord runs. Government guidance can be obtained here. |
Rent Guarantee | Scan and store details of the landlords rent guarantee insurance against a certificate type of Rent Guarantee. |
Proof of I.D. | Right to rent checks have been put in place to ensure landlords only let property to people with a right to rent in the UK. Landlords should not let to people who do not have the right to be in the UK. If you are found letting to someone who does not have the right to be in the UK, and you cannot show that you have made right to rent checks, then you could face a penalty. Store copies of their identification documents in Certificates using the Proof of ID Certificate Type. Further Government guidance can be obtained here |
Adding a new Certificate Type
The system includes some standard Certificate Types. However, you may wish to create a new Certificate for instance for a Registration certificate.
Access Certificate Types from File → Configuration → Contacts → Certificate Types
Click New
Under the General Details tab enter a Description
Select the Issuer Type (i.e. Contact Type) for example for a HMO licence this would be a Local Authority, for Gas Safety this would be a Contractor
Set the Duration this how long it typically lasts, the dates can still be adjusted when the Certificate is added.
Specify when to be reminded in Expiry Reminder. If you don't want to be reminded set this to No Reminder
Order Action if this is set to Work Order the Certificate can be batch ordered from the Home Page.
Select the Must be linked to a Property check box if the Certificate must be attached to a Property
Select Allow Only One Active if there can only be one active Certificate of that type. For example, generally you would only want to have one active Gas Safety certificate at one time.
Home Page Reminder - if this is select a Home Page reminder
Under the Requirements tab specify the requirements the Property must have to necessitate a Certificate
Click Save
Once the Certificate has been create it you add it against Contacts/Properties using Certificates.