Unregistered gas engineer

walnut77 · 24 November 2020 at 7:18PM

Hello everyone, please can you help me with this nasty problem?
My elderly mother had a new boiler fitted recently . She found the plumber through Checkatrade but didn’t check he was Gas Safe registered. He fitted the boiler and sold her a portable thermostat. Nobody in the family could operate the thermostat so I asked him about it. He implied my mum was too elderly to understand the instructions.
i was a bit suspicious as he left no paperwork, no invoice or warranty bits so I rang him and he said Ideal, the boiler company would have all the details and to just call them if there was a problem. I called Ideal and they had no record of the boiler being registered. I then called Checkatrade and he was no longer on their books (still said he was approved on his website). I called Gas Safe next and they said he wasn’t registered. They sent out an inspector who condemned the work.
So mum has had to pay to get it all put right. He’s still trading and has a sparkly new website saying he’s gas safe registered. I know Gas Safe are prosecuting but can I claim mum’s money back from him for the remedial work?
If so, how do I go about this?

Thank you so much for reading

[Deleted User] · 24 November 2020 at 8:23PM

I would have thought that a simple registered Letter before Action listing the additional costs incurred to put his work right with, say, 28 days to pay would be a good starting point. If there is no response then use the Small Claims Court. That said, there is the possibility that he will just wind up his company and re-emerge as a new entity.