British Gas condemning Boiler HELP!

stphnstevey

We were due to take on a British Gas servicing agreement and the engineer has come out and condemned our boiler. I have read alot in the press about BG condemning boilers just so they can get their sales commision from a salesman selling you a new boiler. Has anyone else experienced this?

They have turned the boiler off - can I turn it back on somehow?
Should I get a second opinion?

dan23uk

have you been told or given any information on why the boiler has been condemned?

silvercar

Take off the condemmed sticker, call out a CORGI engineer for a landlord's check. You'll soon find out if its safe or not.

Skiduck

leave the sticker on there! phone up a local heating installer and explain the situation - most decent ones will come out and verify BG's claim (cost about 50 quid) and they will be more honest with you.
If the boiler has no known safety issue, it shouldn't have been condemned. Did they say why?

BobProperty

stphnstevey wrote:

We were due to take on a British Gas servicing agreement and the engineer has come out and condemned our boiler. I have read alot in the press about BG condemning boilers just so they can get their sales commision from a salesman selling you a new boiler. Has anyone else experienced this?

Given that it is an engineer who has condemned it, I don't see how they will benefit from "sales commission". As has already been said, you should have a notice stating why it is unfit.

stphnstevey wrote:

They have turned the boiler off - can I turn it back on somehow?

Yes but see the second opinion below.

stphnstevey wrote:

Should I get a second opinion?

My opinion is you shouldn't mess about with gas if you don't know what you are doing. If you want a professional second opinion then get a private CORGI reg engineer out to give you a second opinion on the problem and the cost of fixing it.

Skiduck

BobProperty wrote:

Given that it is an engineer who has condemned it, I don't see how they will benefit from "sales commission". As has already been said, you should have a notice stating why it is unfit.


Yes but see the second opinion below.

My opinion is you shouldn't mess about with gas if you don't know what you are doing. If you want a professional second opinion then get a private CORGI reg engineer out to give you a second opinion on the problem and the cost of fixing it.

totally agree, whether or not you believe BG are acting in their own interests is irrelevent to your safety. If you are that concerned about their motives, pay for the second opinion.
I'd rather be £50/60 out of pocket than 6 feet under.

djohn2002uk

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to remove the sticker or to turn it back on.
BG get accused of lots of underhand things but if they condemn a boiler you can be sure it's serious.
The usual practice used to get you to buy a new boiler is nothing more than advising you of lack of spares, condemning a boiler for the wrong reasons would be too risky. They would be in serious trouble.

Tom_Jones

Absolute rubbish British Gas are notorious for condeming perfectly good boilers, in fact they condemed a boiler in one of my houses that had only been installed one month previously. They condem boilers for frankly stupid reasons, so unless they have given you a form detailing the faults with the boiler take no notice of the advice given to you, get a reputable Corgi gas engineer to inspect your boiler, and if you do require a new boiler, NEVER accept BG price, go to local plumbers and get quotes, you will save hundreds of pounds.

BTW BG engineers are on a bonus scheme if they report a faulty boiler and the customer has it replaced by BG

BobProperty

Tom_Jones wrote:

Absolute rubbish British Gas are notorious for condeming perfectly good boilers, in fact they condemed a boiler in one of my houses that had only been installed one month previously.

Why were BG looking at a boiler that had only been installed 1 month?

Tom_Jones wrote:

They condem boilers for frankly stupid reasons....

I rather think they would have to justify condemning a boiler, equally you are going to have to come up with a very good reason for ignoring them.

Tom_Jones wrote:

BTW BG engineers are on a bonus scheme if they report a faulty boiler and the customer has it replaced by BG

IMHO this is an old story and BG stopped the system years ago because of the conflict of interest. I'll try and find the link to a post about this by an ex-BG engineer.

Bob63

BG didn't outright condemn our old boiler but they wouldn't take it onto their service plan because of a serious fault. From memory it was an Ariston boiler and the gasket on the front cover of the boiler had welded itself closed. As it was vastly underpowered for the house (which had been extended to almost double its original size) we took the decision to get a new boiler. For a giggle we let BG quote us. Oh how we laughed when we saw their price.... Then we got a couple of proper quotes and went with a superb local company.

Mike

Debt_Free_Chick

What I've heard .....

BG only carry a certain amount of spares and can't be bothered to source parts that are more difficult to come by. One of the reasons why they condemn a boiler.

But the main reason is that they have incredibly high standards - some suggest "unreasonably" high. Every single part of your existing boiler has to be 100% perfect, even though it could be perfectly safe & usable at, say, 80% perfect.

If there are too many parts that are less than perfect, they condemn the whole thing.

These are generally "text book" engineers - the part's not perfect, so replace it.

Some engineers have had much more experience at trying to keep a boiler working by the "let's try this and see if it works, if not I'll have to replace the part". I had a fantastic boiler engineer when in Birmingham who was like this. He soldered and fixed the control panel twice, before I finally had to replace it - and that was some five years later.

So .... I would personally get a second opinion from a good local boiler engineer. If only out of curiosity.