gas safety check on bought house

ConfusedofYorkshire

We've always rented so have always had a gas safety certificate.
We've just bought a house and the boiler was serviced in February. We did ask for the vendor to get the fire checked but it's unclear as to whether this was done.

So, as a novice home owner- do all your gas appliances normally get checked if you get your boiler serviced? Or do we need to get a gas safety check? Everything I can find online is for landlord.

patricia..xx

I would call the company who serviced it and check. Whenever we had ours done they did a whole check of the system, but we didn't have a fire, just boiler and radiators.

A service generally is a GSC, they just don't fill in the same piece of paper if you own the house. That's what they told me anyway

jjlandlord

There is no obligation to service appliances (though it may be required under warranty) or to obtain an annual gas safety certificate.
The latter is only compulsory in rented properties, hence why all the references are for landlords.

It is up to you to decide.

Personally, I would have a boiler service and gas safety check done when moving in and install gas/CO detectors. Then I wouldn't bother with further annual gas safety checks.

Note that a boiler service and a gas safety check are not the same thing.
As can be guess from the names a service will check that the boiler works properly and perhaps clean or adjust it.
A gas safety check will take CO measurements on all gas appliances.

cattie

Usually checking of other gas appliances costs extra if the engineer offers this service.

I haven't ever had my gas fire checked when I get my boiler serviced. Many gas engineers are only experienced in servicing boilers & you need a competent person with relevant experience to service a gas fire.

I always used a registered guy who only worked on fire fitting & servicing to service my gas fire & got the paperwork relevant for the fire. When I sold documents were passed to buyer via solicitor.

If you want to get fire checked, be sure to do it before autumn sets in, only once the cold weather starts to dawn, gas engineers can be quite busy & you often have to wait a couple of weeks or more if calling them out in colder weather. I used to get my fire serviced in September each year.

ConfusedofYorkshire

Thank you guys.
I now have the receipt and it says 'boiler and fire service'. Is this good enough?
Who does the gas safety checks and how much do they cost?

cattie

Boiler circa £75 & fire circa £55-£75 depending on type is a rough price. You need to ensure the person you use is Gas Safe registered. You can get details of Gas Safe registered engineers in your area from the Gas Safe website.

Usually when you get a fire or boiler serviced, you get paperwork documenting what tests/works etc. have been carried out on them & what the results/readings were & date of next service due.

With some boilers or fires if they are still under guarantee, unless they have been regularly serviced by what the company might term a 'recommended' service person/installer (someone who is very familiar with or only works on their particular brand of appliance) then the warranty can be invalid.

ConfusedofYorkshire

It seems the person who serviced it was the person who installed it. He is from a local company, his own company by the looks of it. He's corgi registered. They were both installed in 2008.

We pushed for a certificate but they kept saying they only had a receipt and with everything else going on it was time to stop pushing.

I just don't know if I'm being overly cautious or if I should get it checked again for peace of mind.

Newly_retired

I think you are bring overly cautious, given that both boiler and fire were fully serviced in February and there is paperwork from a Gas Safe engineer to prove it.

ConfusedofYorkshire

Newly_retired wrote: »

I think you are bring overly cautious, given that both boiler and fire were fully serviced in February and there is paperwork from a Gas Safe engineer to prove it.

I think it's the lack of service record and certificate that is niggling. What I have is a certificate to show when it was installed, and a hand written receipt, although it is on headed receipt paper.

katejo

ConfusedofYorkshire wrote: »

I think it's the lack of service record and certificate that is niggling. What I have is a certificate to show when it was installed, and a hand written receipt, although it is on headed receipt paper.

That is what I get each year when I have my boiler serviced. When I have a lodger, i also have the more formal gas safety certificate.

giraffe69

If I had evidence of a recent service and also a CO detector then I would be content.