diff --git a/app/models/contact_list.py b/app/models/contact_list.py
index 9d4dfaaa7..355991c61 100644
--- a/app/models/contact_list.py
+++ b/app/models/contact_list.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from os import path
 from flask import abort, current_app
 from notifications_utils.formatters import strip_whitespace
 from notifications_utils.recipients import RecipientCSV
+from notifications_utils.timezones import utc_string_to_aware_gmt_datetime
 from werkzeug.utils import cached_property
 
 from app.models import JSONModel, ModelList
@@ -21,7 +22,6 @@ class ContactList(JSONModel):
 
     ALLOWED_PROPERTIES = {
         'id',
-        'created_at',
         'created_by',
         'service_id',
         'original_file_name',
@@ -112,6 +112,10 @@ class ContactList(JSONModel):
             contact_list_id=self.id,
         )
 
+    @property
+    def created_at(self):
+        return utc_string_to_aware_gmt_datetime(self._dict['created_at'])
+
     @property
     def contents(self):
         return self.download(self.service_id, self.id)
diff --git a/tests/app/models/test_contact_list.py b/tests/app/models/test_contact_list.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fb1f01c11
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/app/models/test_contact_list.py
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+from datetime import datetime
+
+from app.models.contact_list import ContactList
+
+
+def test_created_at():
+    created_at = ContactList({'created_at': '2016-05-06T07:08:09.061258'}).created_at
+    assert isinstance(created_at, datetime)
+    assert created_at.isoformat() == '2016-05-06T08:08:09.061258+01:00'