No boiler install certificate for house we're buying?

lyndasharp

We're pretty much at the point of exchange for the house we're buying, but still waiting for the last pieces of paper to come from the sellers. Our solicitor is asking (for the third time) for the buildings regs certificate from the relatively new boiler and central heating system in the house, installed 2009. The first time we asked, we got a receipt for the slightly later servicing of the boiler and gas fire. The second time, we got a note from the installer saying 'we installed boiler model x'. No date, no mention of any compliance, nothing :eek:

Should we be worried? What happens if the certificate doesn't exists or was never applied for? It's already been noted in the survey that the boiler is not cross bonded, would that mean it may not have been properly installed? We already budgeted for renewing most of the electrics, so we're not unduly concerned about that part of it, but if the install was a bit dodgy that might be something to be concerned about.....

danielley

I am currently buying and selling, and last time i did this was back in 2004/2005 and it seems that compliance on things like this has tightened up immensely.

It used to be that you bought a house 'sold as seen', yes that sellers told you that the boiler worked, but you never really knew until you moved in.

It's up to you really, are you planning on reselling the property in the next 10-15 (the lifetime of the boiler) If you were to do so, any buyer solicitor would also want those documents from you and you would not have any means of producing them.

Also, as you have mentioned, you also have the concern that it was not installed correctly and that you may have to outlay money for rectifying any issues.

Things always feel jittery near to exchange, Solicitors will only present you with facts, I.E. 'the vendors have not produced an installation certificate' but they will not tell you whether or not this is important enough to proceed without!

Just weigh up all the options, personally I would request that the vendor pay for a gas installer to go and inspect the system before you exchange and get their professional opinion.

Good luck!

firstaspect

There should be a gas safety certificate to show that it was tested successfully. If they don't have one then as said above I'd ask the vendor to pay for a GasSafe registered installer to check the boiler and do the certificate. If there's no problems then it shouldn't cost very much and be quick to do.

mchale

AFAIK, you don't need a build regs cert for a boiler install, as stated above your brief shud ask for a gas safe cert.

Jenniefour

lyndasharp wrote: »

Our solicitor is asking (for the third time) for the buildings regs certificate from the relatively new boiler and central heating system in the house, installed 2009.

Are you certain your solicitor is asking for building regs certificate for the installation of boiler and radiators - as far as I know building regs are not needed for that. What is needed is that the boiler be installed by a Gas Safe (Corgi) registered plumber. That should be clear from the note from the plumber. Should have his reg no on it.

It's already been noted in the survey that the boiler is not cross bonded, would that mean it may not have been properly installed? We already budgeted for renewing most of the electrics, so we're not unduly concerned about that part of it, but if the install was a bit dodgy that might be something to be concerned about.....

So boiler is not cross bonded - possibly installed by someone who doesn't know what they're doing. And maybe that's the only part that needs sorting out. And you could send your own Gas Safe registered plumber around to have a look at it so you can decide what to do.

poppysarah

Well worth checking it's been safely installed before you go any further.

When a gas safe person installs the gas boiler they fill in a sheet with all the measurements on to show it's been tested and installed right.

This should be an official record they keep in their files - the householder would have got one too.

Ring and get some quotes to have a gas safe engineer check it out.

lyndasharp

Jenniefour wrote: »

So boiler is not cross bonded - possibly installed by someone who doesn't know what they're doing. And maybe that's the only part that needs sorting out. And you could send your own Gas Safe registered plumber around to have a look at it so you can decide what to do.

Thanks everyone!

We had a buildings regulation compliance certificate combined with a gas safe one sent out to us when we had the boiler in our current house replaced last year. It had a big note on to say how important it was and that we had to keep it somewhere safe... so that's what we're trying to get hold of from our sellers! I can't remember the exact wording on ours as it's now with our solicitors for our sale.

The installer did have a 'gas safe' logo on his letter.

I've had another look at the paperwork mountain and there is a 2 year old free gas safety check certificate supplied by one of the energy companies, which I am pretty certain is the same boiler, and refers to no cross bonding but has passed OK.

I am tempted by the idea of asking for someone to go in and chek it out though, I guess it's the best way to be sure all is OK, and stop us worrying about potential extra costs!

puddleduck

We had a new boiler installed just over a year ago. We received, in the post, about 6 months after the installation, information from the Gas Safe Register and a certificate. The certificate is called "Buildings Regulation Compliance Gas Safety Certificate" (I have it in front of me!), and the main title on the certificate is "Building Regulations Compliance". We were asked for it by our solicitor (before our buyer lost their buyer and we ended up back on the market!).

I think this is what you need, and hopefully that clarifies why it's being called a building regulations certificate.

It specifies that the installation was done within the Gas Safety Regulations and within section 4 and 7 of the building regulations in England, Wales & the Isle of Man.

It also includes our address on it, a certificate number, the date the boiler was installed and the details of the Gas Safe Registered installer.

Hope that helps. I would definitely keep following it up before exchanging - at present it sounds like you don't even know if it was done or checked by someone who was Gas Safe Registered. If it hasn't been done properly, you could be facing all sorts of problems.

sonastin

My mum had a boiler installed in late 2009 and the "gas safe registered" engineer turned out to be a complete cowboy. She never received any paperwork from him and gave up chasing after a while becuase she was sick of hearing his excuses. When she had a new kitchen last year, the gas engineer who installed the cooker found a gas leak on the boiler and fixed it for her. She filed a complaint with gas safe who came out and did an inspection. Long and short of it, because the cooker guy fixed the bits that were unsafe on the gas side, the inspectors report was a very timid "does not meet current standards" on all the other bits that the guy did wrong. And Gas Safe as an organisation has no power to enforce the building regs side of things.

In order to avoid situations like this one when she comes to sell, she'll now have to get the council's building inspector to come out and issue a regularisation certificate for the boiler, once she's had someone else come back and put right the mess the other guy left behind. Its left me very much with the impression that gas safe is a pretty toothless organisation - it doesn't offer anywhere near the consumer protection that I thought it did.

Back to the OP - by all means have an inspection to check it is safe, but if they've provided you with a safety cert, that would be enough for me. If you want the building regs installation certificate, the only way to get this would be to involve the council...

damo.c_2

Jenniefour wrote: »

So boiler is not cross bonded - possibly installed by someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

Not at all. Under 17th Edition of BS7671, if the circuit supplying the boiler is RCD protected, then bonding is obsolete. The only bonding required under these regs is main equipotential bonding to the gas and water services.

antrobus

puddleduck wrote: »

We had a new boiler installed just over a year ago. We received, in the post, about 6 months after the installation, information from the Gas Safe Register and a certificate. The certificate is called "Buildings Regulation Compliance Gas Safety Certificate" (I have it in front of me!), and the main title on the certificate is "Building Regulations Compliance". We were asked for it by our solicitor (before our buyer lost their buyer and we ended up back on the market!).

I think this is what you need, and hopefully that clarifies why it's being called a building regulations certificate.

Yes, I think it's because the law was changed so that you are now supposed to notify the Buildings Regulation people if you intend doing something like installing a new gas boiler so they can come along and check it and ensure that it complies. But if the work is carried out by someone who is Gas Safe registered they do all that for you and the Gas Safe Register people send you a certificate of compliance.