Last updated: 2026-06-26
The four cert types
Anchorlet's compliance dashboard tracks four Irish landlord obligations per property. Each one has a known validity window, an authority that issues it, and a default renewal cadence.
BER (Building Energy Rating)
A BER rates how energy-efficient a property is, from A1 (best) to G. One assessment produces two related documents, and Anchorlet treats them differently — only one of them is a compliance record.
Certificate vs advisory report at a glance:
| BER certificate | BER advisory report | |
|---|---|---|
| Required to let the property? | Yes | No |
| Has an expiry date? | Yes — 10 years | No |
| Counts toward compliance? | Yes | No |
| What it's for | Proof of the energy rating | Recommended energy upgrades |
| Where it lives in Anchorlet | Compliance dashboard | Documents → Inspection Reports |
BER certificate — the one that counts
- Issued by: an SEAI-registered assessor.
- Required when: advertising the property to rent or sell, and at the start of a new tenancy.
- Validity: 10 years from the assessment.
- What Anchorlet stores: the rating (A1–G), BER number, assessment date, and expiry date.
This is the authoritative record. It's what shows on your compliance dashboard with a status pill, and what counts toward the property being compliant.
BER advisory report — guidance, not a cert
Alongside the certificate, the assessor produces an advisory report — a longer document recommending energy upgrades (insulation, heating, and so on) to improve the rating. It carries the same BER number and rating letter, but it has no expiry date and no regulatory weight: it's advice, not proof of compliance. Anchorlet keeps it with your documents under Inspection Reports — it never becomes a compliance record and never triggers an expiry alert.
If you previously saw a property with several BER entries, the extras were almost certainly advisory reports being filed as certificates; since the May update Anchorlet stores the two separately, so your compliance count reflects real certificates only.
RTB Registration
- Issued by: Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
- Required when: any tenancy starts. Annual renewal under the Residential Tenancies Act.
- Validity: 12 months from registration.
- What Anchorlet stores: registration number, issued date, expiry date.
Annual renewal regardless of tenancy length.
Gas Safety Certificate
- Issued by: an RGI (Registered Gas Installer in Ireland).
- Required when: annually for any property with gas appliances.
- Validity: 12 months from issue.
- What Anchorlet stores: engineer name, Gas Safe number, certificate number, issue + expiry dates.
If the property has no gas (electric-only heating, no gas hob), this record is optional — leave it blank.
Electrical Safety Certificate
- Issued by: a Safe Electric / RECI / ECSSA-registered electrician.
- Required when: every 4 years for periodic inspection. Some property types vary — check with your electrician.
- Validity: 48 months by default (overridable per record).
- What Anchorlet stores: electrician name, certificate number, issue + expiry dates.
How records work
- One active record per (property, type). Uploading a new BER for a property soft-deletes the old one — but the soft-deleted record stays in Recently Deleted for 30 days if you need to roll back.
- Records can be created manually (typed in via Add manually) or extracted (auto-pulled from an uploaded cert PDF).
- Status pills colour-code by urgency: Expired / Critical (≤7 days) / Warning (≤30 days) / Upcoming (≤60 days) / OK.