Gas/Boiler Certificate

Hello123_2

Hi,

I really hope someone can help me as I'm worried sick about this...

We had a brand new central heating system and boiler fitted a couple of months ago. The property never had heating before.

We used someone recommended by our builder. We have his name, company name and full address.

We thought he did a great job, paid him and that was the end of it. I asked him about certificates (eg for when we sell) & he asked me to fill in a card which he would send off to Vaillant to activate our warranty & get our certificate.

Yesterday I called Vaillant as we have not received anything from them. They advised me my boiler has not been registered and therefore no warranty exists. I explained a few months have passed etc and they asked me to check the back of the installation book & check the benchmark/commission page had been completed...turned to the page and it is blank.

I have since been frantically searching the internet & gas safe website but cannot seem to find anything linked to his name or business name. After reading all the things I should have checked on the Gas Safe website I feel an absolute idiot.

I could call him and ask why he hasn't completed the book but I'm worried I'll scare him off/won't answer phone to us again. My OH has suggested we get him to come to our house to look at another job & then whilst he is here approach him about it.

Or perhap's I'm being paranoid & he genuinely forgot? As I said, I have his name etc if anyone could help me?

If we discover it is illegal what the hell can we do to get it all certified & safe?? Please help!!

Canucklehead

Hello123 wrote: »

Hi,

I really hope someone can help me as I'm worried sick about this...

We had a brand new central heating system and boiler fitted a couple of months ago. The property never had heating before.

We used someone recommended by our builder. We have his name, company name and full address.

We thought he did a great job, paid him and that was the end of it. I asked him about certificates (eg for when we sell) & he asked me to fill in a card which he would send off to Vaillant to activate our warranty & get our certificate.

Yesterday I called Vaillant as we have not received anything from them. They advised me my boiler has not been registered and therefore no warranty exists. I explained a few months have passed etc and they asked me to check the back of the installation book & check the benchmark/commission page had been completed...turned to the page and it is blank.

I have since been frantically searching the internet & gas safe website but cannot seem to find anything linked to his name or business name. After reading all the things I should have checked on the Gas Safe website I feel an absolute idiot.

I could call him and ask why he hasn't completed the book but I'm worried I'll scare him off/won't answer phone to us again. My OH has suggested we get him to come to our house to look at another job & then whilst he is here approach him about it.

Or perhap's I'm being paranoid & he genuinely forgot? As I said, I have his name etc if anyone could help me?

If we discover it is illegal what the hell can we do to get it all certified & safe?? Please help!!

Hi: see the advice section on Gas Safe Register. Do us all a favour if he is illegal and report him.

RGIs do not forget
1. to complete the Benchmark as it is part of the commissioning,
2. notify the installation via GSR,
3. register the warranty with the manufacturer

but cowboys/illegals do 'forget'...funny that.

Canucklehead

Hello123_2

Canucklehead wrote: »

Hi: see the advice section on Gas Safe Register. Do us all a favour if he is illegal and report him.

Canucklehead

I certainly will report him if he is illegal - just trying to find this out!

What will happen if/when I report him? Hopefully it won't come to that but if it does where do we stand? What should we do to get the system checked & certified?

Hello123_2

The Gas Safe Website is a bit of a pain as I havn't got his ID number.

His company name is not showing up though nor his postcode :-( I'm so worried about this and feel an absolute fool.

Canucklehead

Hello123 wrote: »

The Gas Safe Website is a bit of a pain as I havn't got his ID number.

His company name is not showing up though nor his postcode :-( I'm so worried about this and feel an absolute fool.

It doesn't matter...click on the link in my previous post and fill in the form. You don't need an ID number because if he is illegal he won't have. GSR can give you advice on how to proceed.

Canucklehead

screwedagain

Building control approval will most likely be required for this as well, if there was previously no gas fired heating to the property. Based on my own experience this will involve them coming out to visually inspect the installation, and taking a copy of the installation engineer's completed commissioning certificate. A building control cert should follow in the post a couple of weeks afterward. This is the certificate you really need for when you sell, rather than the boiler warranty.

As an aside any warranty on the boiler may not be valid if the installer isn't GSR registered.

Hope you get sorted OP, don't blame yourself. This scenario is typical of why the onus for statutory approvals should be on the installer, not the customer.

Hello123_2

screwedagain wrote: »

Building control approval will most likely be required for this as well, if there was previously no gas fired heating to the property. Based on my own experience this will involve them coming out to visually inspect the installation, and taking a copy of the installation engineer's completed commissioning certificate. A building control cert should follow in the post a couple of weeks afterward. This is the certificate you really need for when you sell, rather than the boiler warranty.

As an aside any warranty on the boiler may not be valid if the installer isn't GSR registered.

Hope you get sorted OP, don't blame yourself. This scenario is typical of why the onus for statutory approvals should be on the installer, not the customer.

I hadn't even thought about Building Control. My OH is going to call the installer later & see what he has to say about not filling in the book.

I'm just trying to find out where to go/what to do next as it's highly unlikely he is registered as I cannot find him on the gas safe website.

We have made sure we had all the cert for electrics & building regs for small extension, just wish I had checked on him before we hired him!

Forgot to ask how much £ are we looking at to get the LA out and check it? Wil be able to activate our warranty then? One of the reasons we chose that boilder was for the 5 year warranty can't believe this!

macman

Even if he were GSR, which seem very unlikely, the warranty is invalid now anyway, as the paperwork has not been done or submitted to Vaillant.
Did you ask him if he was GSR? Why did you pay the balance owing without receiving the paperwork or signing it off?
You first call should be to the installer to ask him to explain why the boiler has not been reg'd. Then contact GSR.
It's not entirely impossible that he's ceased to be GSR in the last couple of months.

Hello123_2

macman wrote: »

Even if he were GSR, which seem very unlikely, the warranty is invalid now anyway, as the paperwork has not been done or submitted to Vaillant.
Did you ask him if he was GSR? Why did you pay the balance owing without receiving the paperwork or signing it off?
You first call should be to the installer to ask him to explain why the boiler has not been reg'd. Then contact GSR.
It's not entirely impossible that he's ceased to be GSR in the last couple of months.

He was recommended by our builder, so we thought it would be better to use a recommendation especially from a tradesperson.

Anyway he came out to give us a quote, looked around the property etc, asked us what sort of rad sizes we wanted & advised us to get this particular Vaillant boiler.

I 100% asked if we would get a certificate and he said yes.

I presumed he was all registered etc as he turned up in a company van and was speaking to my OH about some of the courses he had been on! I know I'm an idiot before people start asking why I didn't check - the reason is because I had no idea about gas safe lists and forms that needed filling in - I trusted him.

When I filled in the warranty card, he said he would send it off and we would receive a cert in about 6 weeks.

I'm so angry with my self as I'm always so careful. I'm just looking as to how to overcome this problem now.

macman

All you can do is get the install checked out for safety (this time by a registered GSR RGI) and report him if he fails to explain himself.
You could then take a civil action against him to recover the value of the lost warranty and any other expenses arising, but I doubt that you'll ever recover anything TBH.

Johnandabby

Give the installer a call first - when we got our boiler replaced last year we found the search function on the GSR website to be useless, and only found our installer on the register by having the ID number, even knowing company name and address!

We registered the boiler warranty with Vaillant ourselves over the phone, so you should be able to do this knowing the GSR ID number, and the model and serial numbers from the front of the boiler. Our GSR certificate also took a couple of months to come through - apparently they get behind during winter months, given large number of boiler replacements.

Obviously if the installer isn't registered then he deserves to get the book thrown at him, but worth calling him first