British Gas disconnected my boiler

Ianne

I first contacted the national grid emergency on Thursday because my gas supply had just suddenly stopped, an engineer came and found that my meter was faulty, he rebooted the meter and everything was working again, he told me he would have change the meter but the one that he had was too big to fit into where my meter is, so he advised me to contact my gas supplier to have it replaced.

The next day, my gas supply suddenly stopped again, so I then contacted BG, and they sent 2 engineers within 2hrs and they replaced the meter, and everything was working again, but then upon checking all the appliances that uses gas, they found some black marks on the wall on the top left and right of the boiler, they took pictures of it, I then asked if there was anything wrong with the boiler, they said its not normal and they are not sure what it was, so they told me they sent the pictures to their office and out they went to their van, and when they came back and told me they have to disconnect my boiler because it was unsafe. I asked them if they can repair it, they said they don't do boilers. They then disconnected my boiler and told me to get an engineer to check it out.

I immediately phoned homeserve and I took their fixit and cover it deal, which is one off payment of £99 + £10.80/month for 12months. So they sent the engineers the same day, and they found no fault to the boiler, they were checking it for nearly 2hrs.

are the BG engineers right in disconnecting my boiler by just taking pictures of it and sending to their office without further inspection?

enfield_freddy

homeserve v BG


sit back and get your popcorn


PS how can homeserve check anything with no gas supply?


clever arn,t they , or told you porkies

Ianne

enfield_freddy wrote: »

homeserve v BG


sit back and get your popcorn


PS how can homeserve check anything with no gas supply?


clever arn,t they , or told you porkies

The homeserve engineers reconnected the boiler and checked for any spillage, and found none.

enfield_freddy

ok , have they given you a full test certificate to show its safe or just a verbal comment?


the spillage isn,t a liquid spillage , its possibly one that relates to fumes/gasses , that may harm you.


did BG cap off or apply tape to the boiler saying "dangerous , do not use"

Ianne

enfield_freddy wrote: »

ok , have they given you a full test certificate to show its safe or just a verbal comment?


the spillage isn,t a liquid spillage , its possibly one that relates to fumes/gasses , that may harm you.


did BG cap off or apply tape to the boiler saying "dangerous , do not use"

homeserve did give me a repair certificate, and it says everything is ok.


For BG they put a warning do not use sign to the pipes of the boiler, and after that they went and returned after 2hrs and cut off the gas pipe for the boiler.


the homeserve engineers said its probably just burnt dust.

footyguy

Ianne wrote: »

...are the BG engineers right in disconnecting my boiler by just taking pictures of it and sending to their office without further inspection?

Were they gas safe registered engineers, specifically registered to work on gas boilers? (some gas safe registered engineers may not be)
If not, they shouldn't have touched your boiler.

However, if they were and they had good reason to condemn it, then they did the right thing.

Apparently, according to this website of which I am not affiliated with, have no prior knowledge of and so cannot endorse, they claim only about 10% of condemned boilers actually need replacing.
http://www.mobileplumbers.co.uk/Condemned-Boilers.htm

I see they charge £65, which is about the typical cost of a gas safe registered engineer call out, or indeed about the cost of a CP12 certificate of safety (for landlords or home owners)

Ianne

footyguy wrote: »

Were they gas safe registered engineers, specifically registered to work on gas boilers? (some gas safe registered engineers may not be)
If not, they shouldn't have touched your boiler.

However, if they were and they had good reason to condemn it, then they did the right thing.

Apparently, according to this website of which I am not affiliated with, have no prior knowledge of and so cannot endorse, they claim only about 10% of condemned boilers actually need replacing.
http://www.mobileplumbers.co.uk/Condemned-Boilers.htm

I see they charge £65, which is about the typical cost of a gas safe registered engineer call out, or indeed about the cost of a CP12 certificate of safety (for landlords or home owners)

I don't know if they were gas safe registered engineers, but when I asked them if they could fix the boiler they said they only deal with meters, also when I asked them what was wrong with the boiler, they just took pictures of the boiler with their phone and sent it to their office.


Anyway, I phoned homeserve earlier and managed to get a refund without ease, as there was no repair made.

HomeServe_company_representative

Hi Ianne,

I have just noticed your comments regarding HomeServe and was wondering whether you need to discuss anything? If you do need any assistance with anything, please do not hesitate to contact our email address which can be found on our homepage.

Kind Regards

Anna
Here To Help Team
HomeServe

Ianne

HomeServe_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Ianne,

I have just noticed your comments regarding HomeServe and was wondering whether you need to discuss anything? If you do need any assistance with anything, please do not hesitate to contact our email address which can be found on our homepage.

Kind Regards

Anna
Here To Help Team
HomeServe

Hello, I am very happy with the service I had received with homeserve, especially the engineers who spent nearly 2hrs trying to find out the fault, so I have no problem with them and would actually recommend your company.

Its those British gas engineers who I'd like to discuss and I think were wrong by just condemning my boiler by just taking pictures and sending it to their office, without proper inspection. I haven't made a complaint against them yet because I am not sure if they have the rights to do what they did.

chanz4

If they feel a supply maybe unsafe, under the gas act they can disconnect pending you obtaining an inspection. If they didn't and anything happened they would of been liable.

footyguy

Ianne wrote: »

I don't know if they were gas safe registered engineers, but when I asked them if they could fix the boiler they said they only deal with meters, ...

This is why I asked the question

Perhaps they were gas safe registered, but not specifically registered to work on boilers.

Or perhaps they were fully registered, but are only employed to work on meters.

You really should check the credentials of those who intend touch any gas appliance or installation for your own safety.

I agree, in simple terms, what chanz4 syas, but would suggest if they were not specifically registered to work on boliers, they would simply refuse to reconnect your gas supply (rather than disconnect a specific appliance) until a suitably qualified engineer had issued you with an appropriate safety certificate.