Your written record that the alarms are in and tested

Nobody issues you a certificate for smoke alarms. You fit them, you test them, and unless you write it down there is no record that either happened. This statement is that record: every alarm, where it is, what type it is, whether it was working on the day, and the date you tested it.

What this statement is

A written declaration, signed by you, listing the alarms fitted at one property. The finished document opens with the property, the landlord, the assessment date and the number of floors. Then it sets out the legal requirement in a short section, lists every alarm in a table with its location, its type and whether it was working at the test date, and records any fixed combustion appliances room by room.

It is a self-declaration by design. Alarms are something a landlord can fit and test without a professional installation certificate, which is exactly why the written record matters more here than it does for the documents an engineer hands you.

Build yours in minutes

Say how many floors the property has. The form suggests a number based on the property type and you change it if that is wrong.

Then add each alarm: the room it is in, and its type from smoke, carbon monoxide, heat, or a combined smoke and CO unit. Tick whether it was working when you tested it. Add as many rows as the property needs.

Then list any fuel-burning appliances by room. The list covers a gas boiler, a gas fire, a wood burner, an open fire, an oil boiler, or something you type in, and the rooms offered include the kitchen, living room, dining room and hallway, with the bathroom and utility room available too.

Add the test date, attach a supporting file if you have one, and you are done. Previewing is free and unlimited with no account and no card. £9 buys this document type at this property permanently, with free regeneration, and Pro is £9.99 a month or £89 a year.

When to make one

At the start of every tenancy, because that is the moment the alarms have to be in working order and the moment the record is most useful to have.

Again when an alarm is replaced. A new unit in a new position changes the table, and an out-of-date statement describing alarms that are no longer there is worse than none.

And again after any test you want on the record. Regenerating the statement costs nothing once the document type is bought for that property, so there is no reason to let it go stale. Update the test date, adjust anything that changed, and download a fresh copy.

What it records

Four things, in this order.

Each alarm. Its location in plain words, so "landing, first floor" rather than a code. Its type. And a tick or a cross for whether it was working at the test date, which prints as a visible mark in the table rather than being left to inference.

The number of floors. This sits in the header block because the requirement is expressed per storey, and a reader checking the statement wants to see the two numbers next to each other.

Fixed combustion appliances. Room by room, with the appliance named. This is the part landlords skip, and it is the part that explains why a carbon monoxide alarm is where it is.

The test date, and your declaration. The document is signed and dated by you. That is the whole evidential value of it: a dated statement, made at the time, by the person who did the testing.

England and Scotland

The statement exists for both and the document itself is the same. Its legal requirement section sets out the position under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022 for England, at least one smoke alarm on each storey with living accommodation, a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker, and all alarms in working order at the start of each new tenancy. It then notes that similar requirements apply in Scotland and in Wales.

The practical difference in Scotland is the standard the alarms have to meet rather than the shape of this document: interlinked alarms, with a heat alarm in the kitchen, which is why the type list here includes a heat alarm option. You do not pick a jurisdiction version of the statement.

While the property is empty is also the sensible time to build the legionella risk assessment and the inventory and schedule of condition. See all 47 templates for the rest of the set.

One document, used in both jurisdictions. The legal requirement section of the statement sets out the England position under the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (Amendment) Regulations 2022, then records that similar requirements apply in Scotland under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 as amended and in Wales under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2022. There is no separate Scottish file to choose.

What the England section says. At least one smoke alarm on each storey of the property where there is a room used wholly or partly as living accommodation. A carbon monoxide alarm in any room used wholly or partly as living accommodation which contains a fixed combustion appliance, excluding gas cookers. All alarms in proper working order at the start of each new tenancy.

Why a heat alarm is in the type list. The Scottish standard expects interlinked alarms with a heat alarm in the kitchen, so the alarm type list here offers one. A landlord letting on both sides of the border uses the same form and simply records what is actually fitted.

It is a self-declaration, not a certificate. Alarms can be fitted and tested by the landlord; no professional installation certificate exists for them. The statement is your dated record that the work was done, which is the only document that is going to exist unless you make it.