Advice Needed - House of Horrors

AdrianC

TonicUK wrote: »

Their client was the vendor. However as Gas Safe engineers have to be registered and would be risking their livelihood (and peoples lives) to certify a dangerous installation as safe, it seems crazy there's no recourse.

There may very well be grounds for complaint against the engineer to Gas Safe themselves.
https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/help-and-advice/complaints-report-an-illegal/gas-work-complaint/

But given that you've had work done on the boiler since then, there's no way to verify the issue, so I suspect you're on a loser unless the other fitters would be prepared to provide written and ideally photographic evidence.

That doesn't give you any recourse against the vendor, though.

TonicUK

need_an_answer wrote: »

The gas safety certification gives an indication on the day,in a similar way as a car MOT will work.

You've subsequently had the installation checked and its been found to be not in a state to pass a cp12 documentation at that point.

What evidence do you have that actually when the original CP12 weas done in august that it failed?

I believe you would have more recourse perhaps if the engineer had been chosen and paid for by yourself,leaving it to others to provide the documentation adds an unnecessary layer for which you cannot substantiate that the boiler wasn't in full working order when tested.

You've had several gas safe registered engineers look at it since...its a shame you didn't ask any one of them to do that original inspection.

Thank you. The Home Emergency cover chap said this has happened over a long time (leaking from recouperator, corroding the chassis and causing permananet overheat lockout) and the pressure relief valve has never been vented to the outside. It's just a pipe coming out of the bottom of the boiler.



I accepted the risk of it failing and/or requiring replacement at some point (caveat emptor and all that), what I didn't expect was to have something dangerous and not properly installed, being given the OK by a Gas Safe engineer.



Will be asking the guy installing the new one to write a full report of the current installation.

TonicUK

AdrianC wrote: »

There may very well be grounds for complaint against the engineer to Gas Safe themselves.

But given that you've had work done on the boiler since then, there's no way to verify the issue, so I suspect you're on a loser unless the other fitters would be prepared to provide written and ideally photographic evidence.

That doesn't give you any recourse against the vendor, though.

Thank you. I haven't had any work done on it, yet (other than the changing of the electrical supply from a lightswitch to fused outlet and the Home Emergency chap taking the cover off). But will be filing a complaint there and getting a full report done on the existing installation.

need_an_answer

TonicUK wrote: »

Thank you. The Home Emergency cover chap said this has happened over a long time (leaking from recouperator, corroding the chassis and causing permananet overheat lockout) and the pressure relief valve has never been vented to the outside. It's just a pipe coming out of the bottom of the boiler.



I accepted the risk of it failing and/or requiring replacement at some point (caveat emptor and all that), what I didn't expect was to have something dangerous and not properly installed, being given the OK by a Gas Safe engineer.



Will be asking the guy installing the new one to write a full report of the current installation.

Have you thought about a complaint via the gas safe register?
I've no idea how it works but there must be a dispute function especially if you are able to get other engineers to substantiate your claim in writing.

You will always face a difficulty in as much as others have said the boiler has been worked on since and its not you who commissioned the original cp12.

Having said that all complaints must start somewhere and in order to out the bad engineers on their register someone has to start the ball rolling...….


Theres also the defence that to some extent "human error" happened but if you genuinely believe the engineer was at fault then maybe you should raise a concern to the gas safe registration.

If the engineer is cutting corners regularly and with pattern its complaints like yours that may help to get a bad one de registered.

You may not get any direct recompense but making someone aware of your complaint may help someone else in the long run

G_M

Your options are



* action against the vendors. For this you'll need evidence that they knew the paperwork was fraudulant - I wonder how you can prove tht?


* action against the gasSafe engineer. You could report the matter to GasSafe who might well investigate (provided the boiler has not been replaced/mended since). If they find that the engineer failed to act in accordance with their processes or issued an erroneous report, then he might well be struck off an/or prosecuted. I doubt you'd get compensated though as you had no contract with him and did not pay him.

walwyn1978

I can completely see why you’re hacked off with the situation, and yes, my read is that the previous owner got someone to do him a favour on the gas safe cert.

But: you’ll struggle to prove anything in legally strong enough terms to get any financial redress and may end up spending a lot of money to get nowhere.

You could if you wish as GM said report it to GasSafe, but again that won’t result in any money coming back to you.

I know this must be hugely frustrating but I think sadly you’re going to have to take this one on the chin.

Hope the renovations go well and there are no more horrors to find!