Gas Safe identified dangerous, leaking gas pipes in my home but refuse to help me claim redress

Chumpenstein

This is long and involved and I'm sorry to have to set all this out here but I'm at my wits end and Gas Safe appear to be giving me the brush off.

The TL:DR version is this. When a gas safe registered business does unsafe work, they are supposed to make it right or risk suspension. But, if Gas Safe cannot pursue the business because they're no longer registered, can I pursue Gas Safe itself as the regulator? I have found tantalising evidence that I can but, Gas Safe are being evasive. Can anyone help?

(A lot) more details below

Two years ago, I bought a real fixer upper of a house and set about having it refurbished. That included new plumbing throughout, a new boiler - the works.

I hired a reputable, Gas Safe registered company to do the work and, initially, things were fine but, as time went on, small, sloppy problems emerged (e.g. compression fittings not done up properly). I picked those up as best I could as we went along but then the company was taken over by a new owner and the working relationship became incredibly hostile with the new owner pusuing us for payment of work not yet complete and not responding to the issues I was raising. Eventually, about three quarters of the way through, we said enough, asked them to regularise the work, paid them for what we owed and told them that we'd get someone else to do the rest. We specifically asked them to get the paperwork in order and, crucially, we paid them for doing so.

After that, we continued to experience a number of small problems with the plumbing (leaking taps etc) but, since we couldn't bear to deal with these awful people again, we got them fixed by others.

Fast forward to July, we had been away from the house a few weeks because of the lockdown and, when we returned, we smelled gas. We got the network out and they confirmed that the leak was on our side of the meter - in the new pipework. That was the final straw, we got Gas Safe in. Gas Safe duly inspected and found a total of 15 faults, ranging in seriousness form the leak to indaequate protection of pipes and poorly located flue. Moreover, they had never completed the commiissioning process (despite being asked to and despite charging for it) and had not registered the boiler and cylinder with Building Contol.

A real cowboy job. "Don't worry" said Gas Safe, "we'll issue a notice and they'll have to come back and fix it within ten days or their registration will be at risk".

But then the report arrived and it said that the company had gone bust a few months previously and the registration had been archived. Gas Safe knew exactly who had done the dangerous work. But... registration archived, nothing we can do.

However, we discovered that the same people, with the same registrations had set up another identical company some months before the original one had gone bust and transferred all their people, and customers over to it. Everyone with whom we had the original contract has simply moved on to the new entity but, apparently, they cannot apparently be held liable in any way - neither by forcing them to fix the work, nor by having their current registration put at risk.

Now, I appreciate that this is tricky because the new company is a legally seperate entity but Gas Safe has told me that their remit is exclusively concerned with safety and, as such, it is surely relevant that this company is staffed by people who knowingly did and charged for work that they knew to be substandard. (Why else would they refuse to register the boiler with Building Regs). Gas Safe also knows that this company left us with a boiler that had not been fully commisisoned and that too must surely be a relevant consideration when it comes to the question of whether they will try to palm people off with sub-standard work in the future. I understand that the engineer himself is facing a disciplinary but Gas Safe won't pursue him for redress because the contract was with the company.

So that's as far as they go, I've got a great long list of faults to rectify and Gas Safe won't lift a finger against the people running a business that's basically identical to the one we hired. (Nor have they offered any advice about how to get the boiler commisisoned - who would want to commission someone else's work when they know that persopn was a cowboy?)

That didn't seem right but Gas Safe did, however, send me a copy of their sanction policy which contained the following tantalising passage in the section dealing with the re-instatement of archived registrations:

"If an archived business, that is deemed responsible for outstanding gas-related defects re-registers with us, and where the costs of rectification work have been covered by the register, we will seek reimbursement of the costs incurred. The amount repayable will be at our discretion and will not be more than the total of monies used to rectify the defects. The re-registration of the business will be suspended until such costs have been recovered."

The meaning of that seems quite clear. It seems to suggest that, if there is a problem with the work done by a Gas Safe registered company and they cannot get the responsible organisation to provide restituion because their registration has been archived (the business has gone bust) Gas Safe may have to pay out. It then becomes their responsibility to claim the money back.

That seems right. If I go on holiday and something goes wrong then I seek redress form the travel company. but, if the travel company goes bust while I'm in Tenerife then it is the trade association, ABTA, which has to get me home. That security is part of the reason you go to ABTA/Gas Safe businesses in the first place.

The problem is that I can't find anything on the Gas Safe website that explains under what circumstances Gas Safe has to pay out on behalf of an archived business (in fact there is very little on the website except an FAQ). Can anyone help with this at all? 

I've asked Gas Safe to provide their policy about when they pay out on behalf of archived businesses. They simply haven't returned my calls. Citizen's advice have also been unable to help beyond suggesting that I might have to go through the Courts under the tort of negligence. But that isn't a perfect fit and it will cost a bundle more on top of the thousands I'm looking at already.

It's incredibly frustrating. I get that I was naive. I get that it's a tricky one but some form of redress for these circumstances clearly exists because there it is in the sanctions policy. All I want to do is find out about and see if it applies. But Gas Safe are barely returning my emails. It generally takes a week for them to respond and I've now been without hot water for six weeks.

If anyone understands this stuff, I'd be immensely grateful.

Fortnite_hero

I believe with gas Safe that it is the gas operative that is liable for the gas work that he/she has completed.
 I would ask them what action they are taking against the operative.

If you get nowhere with gas Safe who is just another rip off private quango that is a waste of paper then report to heath and safety.
A

Wolfy_2

Perhaps a long shot but did you pay using a plastic card? Could explore the s75/chargeback route potentially. 

Chumpenstein

Fortnite_hero said:

I believe with gas Safe that it is the gas operative that is liable for the gas work that he/she has completed.
 I would ask them what action they are taking against the operative.

If you get nowhere with gas Safe who is just another rip off private quango that is a waste of paper then report to heath and safety.
A

It is and it isn't. Apparently, the engineer has been subject to a ticking off but because it was the company with which I had a contract, Gas Safe claims that it is the company that should be liable for any remediation. But the company has been liquidated so screw me apparently.

As to Gas Safe being a rip-off private quango. I couldn't agree more. It isn't just the buck passing I object to either. It's the general attitude.

They basically told me not to get anyone else to touch the boiler/gas until it was all sorted out because it could complicate the question of compensattion if anyone had worrked on it before ethe original people came back to fix it. So I was left without any gas or hot water for six weeks while they made their minds up to do nothing. And when they did, there was no hint of regret about any of this. If they'd taken ten minutes to say, "we're sorry that people we regulate did a crummy job, and we're mortified  that we can't do anything to help with the cost but here is a load  of advice about how you should move forward and if there is anything else we can do, don't hesitate to ask." That would have gone a long way. If they had answered emails promptly or even picked up the phone, that too would have helped to reduce the stress of the entire situation.

But no. 

So I got someone in to at least address the leak yesterday. Turned out that it was a loose compression fitting. For heaven's sake! All this because the fitter didn't tighten a nut. I'd almost be willing to have some sympathy with the guy except a) clearly, he didn't pressure test the system either, or he'd had spotted the problem and b) we've had three leaks in the house, all caused by compression fittings he didn't tighten up. 

shaun_from_Africa

Chumpenstein said:

Gas Safe claims that it is the company that should be liable for any remediation. But the company has been liquidated so screw me apparently.

If the company concerned is no longer in existence, what in reality can Gas Safe or the Health and Safety executive do to them?
This sort of thing has been going on for decades with companies folding to avoid their liabilities and the people running those companies simply starting up again under a new company name and it can happen with just about every type of company be they builders, plumbers gas workers or motor mechanics or retailers.

southcoastrgi

Unfortunately most of GS have been shut down due to C19 which might explain the lack of communication 

shinytop

shaun_from_Africa said:

Chumpenstein said:

Gas Safe claims that it is the company that should be liable for any remediation. But the company has been liquidated so screw me apparently.

If the company concerned is no longer in existence, what in reality can Gas Safe or the Health and Safety executive do to them?
This sort of thing has been going on for decades with companies folding to avoid their liabilities and the people running those companies simply starting up again under a new company name and it can happen with just about every type of company be they builders, plumbers gas workers or motor mechanics or retailers.

Stop the individuals who did the shoddy work continuing to trade as a Gas Safe engineers until they fix it?  Or is that being a bit too biased towards paying customers?