Proof of service: how a landlord proves a tenant was given a document
The short answer
How do I prove I gave my tenant a tenancy document?
A landlord proves service with a dated, contemporaneous record showing which document went to which tenant, when, and how: the email with the file attached and its sent time and recipient; a hash of the exact file so the copy can be matched later; or, for post or hand delivery, a note made at the time with the date, the address and any witness. Courts and tribunals do not take a landlord's word for service — where a tenant denies receipt, a landlord with no record loses, and possession claims have been refused because service of a gas safety record could not be shown. The record has to exist before the dispute, not be reconstructed afterwards.
What a good record contains
The document (by name and by file hash), the recipient's name and address or email, the date and time, the method, and — for email — the message identifier. For a printed document: the date, who handed it over or posted it, from where, and any witness.
Why hashes
A SHA-256 digest is a fingerprint of the exact bytes of a file. Recording it with the send lets anyone check, years later, that the PDF the tenant produces is the one that was served, and that it has not been altered. A single changed byte gives a different digest.
Why the record must be tamper-evident
A record a landlord could quietly edit after the event is worth less than one they could not. Hash-chaining — where each entry's hash includes the previous entry's — means any later change breaks every entry after it, so the log can vouch for itself.
Email service and consent
Serve by email only where the tenant has agreed to it in writing, and attach the document rather than linking to it. Keep the tenant's written agreement with the tenancy record.
Questions landlords ask
- Is a 'sent' email enough?
- It is far better than nothing. Better still is a record that also carries the file hash and the message identifier and that cannot be edited afterwards.
- Does the tenant have to acknowledge receipt?
- No, but an acknowledgement helps. The duty is to give the document; the evidence is of the giving.
- What is a certificate of service?
- A document listing every service event for a tenancy — recipient, time, method, file hashes — produced from a tamper-evident log, that a solicitor can put in a bundle. ServeProof generates one per tenancy.
Sources
verified 2026-09-03- Practice: Tozers LLP, 'Show me the proof: evidencing service of documents on tenants'
- Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 reg. 36(6)–(7) (copy to tenant)
Next step
See how a hash-chained proof row is verified
ServeProof generates the statutory documents free, serves them as files, and keeps a hash-chained proof row for every send. England only.
This is not legal advice and not a substitute for a solicitor.