Boiler Service Fail / Gassafe 10 February at 4:11PM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 1 reply 142 views

Moneybox

I am currently with no heating, hot water or hob to cook on for the foreseeable future.

Boiler serviced by trainee with engineer in supervision. Gas leak afterwards sooting up pilot burner and within 6 months had extinguished pilot burner due to soot.

How long would this sooting have taken to extinguish the pilot burner as am told it would have leaked for only a couple of days and wouldn’t have been due to the service?

Company owner attended and claimed the cause of the gas leak was that the olive in the joint wasn’t there and must have disintegrated. I know this not to be true. They did a repair and said it was temporary. I contacted gassafe who attended within 3 weeks of work and they reported a high risk gas leak and have capped gas to property.

Company owner will not remedy. Has told me a gas leak after a service is normal as it’s only like a mot and things break. Has also gone on to tell me no one will touch this job with a barge pole as I involved gassafe and it will have peoples heckles up as soon as they know.

1) The original leak that sooted up pilot burner and extinguished it. How long would this likely to have taken as the original service was 5 months prior.

2) Olives definitely don’t disintegrate do they?!

3) The temporary repair was not explained. I had never imagined a grade 1 high risk gas leak would be identified by gassafe within 3 weeks of the work. He says I saw him test it (which was him running a lighter around the joint and it didn’t ignite). Gassafe used a soapy liquid which showed the leak.

4) I gave the company a chance to respond before I contacted Gassafe and I had no response. They now tell me as I have contacted gassafe no one will touch this job because as soon as they know gassafe have inspected, it will get their heckles up and they will walk away. I had not realised this was going to be the case. Do all tradespersons feel this way about gassafe?

What can I do next? Ombudsman! C Advice?
What possible outcomes can I hope
for?

Thankyou for any advice. With no heating, hot water or gas hob due to the gas being capped to the property it is already having a significant impact on us.

CliveOfIndia

It sounds like the company who serviced the boiler in the first place were complete cowboys.  I mean:  

Moneybox said:

He says I saw him test it (which was him running a lighter around the joint and it didn’t ignite)

Really ???!!!  I'm not suggesting I disbelieve what you're saying, it's more complete flabberghasted-ness that any right-minded person would think this is a sensible way to check for a gas leak.

Moneybox said:

Has also gone on to tell me no one will touch this job with a barge pole as I involved gassafe and it will have peoples heckles up as soon as they know.

They now tell me as I have contacted gassafe no one will touch this job because as soon as they know gassafe have inspected, it will get their heckles up and they will walk away. I had not realised this was going to be the case. Do all tradespersons feel this way about gassafe?

This, again, is complete and utter rubbish.  Any plumber/heating engineer who works on gas appliances MUST legally be registered with the GSR. 

In the immediate term, go to the GSR website and find a properly-qualified heating engineer who can come and sort out what's wrong (there's a search function on there so that you can find someone local).

Secondly, I'd be reporting these cowboys to the GSR - I'm not sure what outcome it will achieve, but if they're not GSR-registered they shouldn't be allowed to carry on servicing people's gas appliances.  I'm assuming they're not GSR-registered?  There's a link on the GSR website to report illegal work.

As to getting any money back from them - I'm afraid I can't help on that one.  CAB is probably a good first port of call, they will probably be able to advise you on the best way forward.