My plumber did not give me a certificate after central heating installation

Thunderbird_2

Hi

I would really appreciate any advice on this.

My plumber has installed a full central heating, to include a system boiler and unvented mains pressure hot water cylinder. He also done all the water circulation around the house and the bathrooms. Work has been finished 3 months ago. Paid in full. I was promised that he will submit the paper work to Gas Safe, who will notify Building Control and then I should received my certificate in the post within 28 days.

Now we are more than 3 months and nothing. I contacted the plumber 4 weeks ago and he said he will check. 3 weeks later, he stopped responding to my attempts to contacting him.

Is there a way I can get him to finish what he was paid for so that I get my certificate? Failing that, is there a way I can get a certificate from Building control after they inspect the work?

Spending more than £15,000 and no certificate at the end is not particularly what I expected to be honest.


Many thanks

southcoastrgi

you could phone gas safe yourself & check to see if the boiler & cylinder has been reg, if you get BC to do it you will get charged, you can also check he is gas safe reg on the web site if you know his gas safe number.
BTW to install or work on an unvented cylinder you must have the G3 cert did you check he has this ?

0800 408 5577
http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/

Thunderbird_2

Thank you for your reply.

No, I did not check this (the G3 cert) I did not know this. I thought Gas Safe register is enough.

If the boiler is not registered, is the Building Control certificate is as good as the one from the installer? Any rough ideas how much it will cost?

many thanks

macman

Is your 'plumber' actually GSR? Did you check? A plumber is not qualified to do such work, they need to be GSR (and is this case G3 as well).
Why did you pay him the balance before he provided the paperwork?
Did he complete the benchmark documentation when he commissioned the system?
If not, I am beginning to think that your plumber is somewhat dubious.
If he's not answering his phone, write to him by RD giving him 14 days to provide the cert, or you will pursue a claim against him. I presume that you do have proper contact details for him, given the very high value of this contract?

casey

Hi , I would contact Gas Safe myself, as was previously mentioned.If it turns out that he was not registered/has not passed details on , it may be possible to get another Gas Safe registered plumber/gas fitter to inspect and pass. Not sure about this but it may be worth asking the question.

southcoastrgi

casey wrote: »

it may be possible to get another Gas Safe registered plumber/gas fitter to inspect and pass. Not sure about this but it may be worth asking the question.

good luck with that one most RGI's won't cert someone elses work, why should we ? we didn't get the work in the first place, plus the danger of not knowing what the un reg guy illegally has done & they are normally cheaper, we are trying to get rid of illegal installs not just let them carry on & just go behind them, i'm not saying this is the OP's case as the value seems to be high but def worth checking on the web site if the OP has details or with gas safe by phone tomorrow, the installer has 20 days to reg the install & then it takes 3/4 weeks for the cert to come through so you could be waiting upto 2 months before you see anything

macman

The install was 3 months ago. 20 days + a month has long passed, and he doesn't answer his phone. I wouldn't hold out much hope.

Thunderbird_2

macman wrote: »

Is your 'plumber' actually GSR? Did you check? A plumber is not qualified to do such work, they need to be GSR (and is this case G3 as well).
Why did you pay him the balance before he provided the paperwork?
Did he complete the benchmark documentation when he commissioned the system?
If not, I am beginning to think that your plumber is somewhat dubious.
If he's not answering his phone, write to him by RD giving him 14 days to provide the cert, or you will pursue a claim against him. I presume that you do have proper contact details for him, given the very high value of this contract?

He is on the Gas Safe register. I have checked. But I have just saw that there is nothing about G3 or unvented cylinders on his list of "competencies" on Gas Safe website.

I paid him in full because he said he has finished the work and all he needs to do is submit the paperwork which he is going to do tomorrow and I should get the certificate in the post within 28 days. He was very nice guy and I have no reason not to trust him at that stage. I interviewed 9 plumbers before giving the job away.

I am not sure what your mean by Benchmark Documentation, but he did fill some paperwork from the boilers packaging and he took some labels off the boiler (serial numbers or something) and attached to that paperwork. He said this is for registering the boiler.

As I mentioned earlier, the work has finished more than 3 months ago. So what are my options here? Shall send him a last text before the letter stating that if he does not provide the certificate, I will have to consider my options? I know all his contact details and I know where he lives.

What are my options to solve this amicably?

mr_vampy

The Benchmark document is normally a blue log book the installer fills in when installing, commissioning and servicing the boiler. Failure to complete the Benchmark Commissioning Checklist will invalidate the warranty for Gas Boiler installations.
It should look something like this.

http://www.centralheating.co.uk/system/uploads/attachments/0000/4348/Gas_Boiler_System_Commissioning_Checklist___Service_Record_V4_0710.pdf

southcoastrgi

unfortunately if he doesn't have unvented on the GS web site then he shouldn't have fitted one, it's not a gas safe issue it's building regs & safety, unless he can get someone to sign that off then it's building control (although most of them haven't got a clue what they are looking at) & as for the cost i don't really know as i have the G3 cert so i don't need to get involved with them but i would think you are looking in the hundreds rather than tens, you should have a label on the side of the cylinder that he should have filled in but i bet he hasn't, if you can post up some pics of the cylinder & pipework one of us maybe able to tell you if it looks ok, although we won't be able to tell if it's wired correctly & safely, i could post up a vid to show why you need to be reg to fit these & what could happen if it's done incorrectly but i guess you are stressed enough, BTW an unvented cylinder must be serviced yearly with the boiler it's not like a normal cylinder ie fit & forget.

macman

If he's not G3 then that is why you will get no certificate via him, he's not proven to be competent to fit the cylinder. Report him to GSR.
I don't know of any way that you can get a warranty now if he failed to complete and hand you the benchmark paperwork, I doubt that this can be done by another GSR retrospectively. I'd start by speaking to the manufacturer of the boiler.
Then maybe a small claims action to recover your losses?
In future always retain say 10% of the invoice value until the job is complete.