Gas engineer caused gas leak and charged 5 x agreed price to my card!

Laurenrl

Hello!

First post as a new homeowner!

Unfortunately we haven't had a great first experience owning a home after today

Our new gas hob needed connecting so I called a local plumbing company to come out, I needed to give my long credit card number and 3 digit security code to secure the booking. I agreed with her verbally to pay £110.

Gas man came to the house and immediately caused a gas leak by pulling at a pipe!

I called the company to explain the woman was very rude to me and told me she was invoicing me for £110 per hour (by this point the guy had been here 2 hours trying to fix the leak he had caused) I asked her not to invoice me anything yet as the work was not complete and to put right the damage that the plumber had caused? She told me the cost to put it right was £400 which I did not want to pay so the plumber left

We are now without gas as if we turn it on it is dangerous because of the leak

Even worse I checked my bank statement and they have charged my card £500! Immediately called my bank to tell them I had not authorised payment however it had already gone out so Natwest are now treating it as a fraudulent charge (in the mean time it is out of my account)

Does anyone have any advice I feel really stupid for making such a big mistake a week in to owning a house (and freezing with no heating )

Thanks
L

unholyangel

Are your bank sending you any forms?

Hmmm would this be classed as repair/maintenance I'm wondering?
Just figuring out which parts of the consumer contract (information, cancellation & additional charges) regulations apply and which don't.

I mean servicing your boiler? Sure. Maintenance is upkeep. Repairing means fixing. I don't think this would fall into either category - rather one of installation - but I might be wrong.

Anyway, if you suffer any losses due to this, keep the receipts/invoices/any proof you can.

Its going to come down to whether they were in breach of their duty of care by being reckless or negligent...

Any of our regulars gas safe with cookers and able to provide some insight whether the engineer has been negligent/failed to carry out his obligations with reasonable skill?

Laurenrl

The bank are sending me forms, I explained the situation and they said I should be able to claim the money back either on services not received (I still have no working hon and so the work was not completed as agreed) or under an unauthorised charge as I only approved £110 to be taken from the account not the £500 plus that was taken.

arcon5

Send them an email or letter also giving them opportunity to fix the damage before you get somebody else in and send them the bill.

usefulmale

Report the company and the engineer to the Gas Safe Register.

Robin9

arcon5 wrote: »

Send them an email or letter also giving them opportunity to fix the damage before you get somebody else in and send them the bill.

Send your letter by Recorded Delivery and give them 48 hours to rectify their error. Copy it by email to them.

I do hope it was not a plumber but a Gas Safe engineer you called.

lemontart

this may be of use to you http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/help/check_a_business_or_engineer.aspx

Laurenrl

Unfortunately I don't really have 48 hours to allow this to be fixed. I have an open pipe no water/heating etc in the mean time, no family around to be able to use their facilities due to moving to this new house in London

Yes it was a gas safe engineer I have his registration number etc and have used that to report him to gas safe for causing a gas leak and am also ringing trading standards for advice at 9 when they open.

Thanks for the advice so far

hollydays

How did you find this company?

Laurenrl

I found them online, their website address is my town name plumbers.com so assumed reputable! Looked up that they were gas registered etc so thought I had done what I needed!

Rang insurance who advised us to call a different company out and get a report as proof that the damage was caused by the engineer yesterday.

Plumbing force sent someone within the hour, he confirmed and wrote a report that the damage was caused by the initial engineer and told us he could fix it within the hour which we had to pay him call out anyway.

I am now with working, none leaking pipes, a working hob and a report that the damage was caused by the person yesterday.

So now just to recoup my money which I've been advised should be possible at least in part either by the bank or from writing to the company with the proof I now have.

Overall a better day, but still £700 (500 with original company and 200 with one this morning, including parts) lighter for the meantime!

bris

If you turn on the gas and it is still leaking then the engineer is in big trouble with the gas safe register. It is illegal for an engineer to leave an open pipe, turning the gas supply off at the ECV doesn't close the pipe, it needs capped.


It would be impossible however for a third party to say for certain that the gas safe engineer caused the leaking pipe and it will your word against theirs.


This does not excuse the leaking pipe not being fixed. Even if you refuse to allow the engineer to work in the property he still has to file an emergency report to the gas carrier (Transco in Scotland) who have the power to come and force entry to cap the meter( cut off the supply to the property).


This is basic understanding for a gas engineer and all know the seriousness of an open pipe left unattended. It's hard to believe a gas safe registered engineer would leave a property like this, but hey every trade has bad apples. The engineer who fixed it would have to Riddor report the other guy, did he tell you he was reporting him?