British Gas Homecare

Cmulinder

My elderly mother-in-law had her central heating boiler replaced by BG 2 years ago. She has it regularly serviced by BG Homecare each year. At no point during the installation of a new boiler on pipework 20 years old, was she recommended to have the 'system flushed'. Last week her boiler stopped working and she was told that she couldn't use it and it needed to be flushed. She has been without heating and hot water for over a week until an engineered can come tomorrow at a cost of £900 to flush the boiler!
I know that BG Homecare does not cover flushing but shouldn't the original engineer have recommended doing that before the new boiler was installed? And should BG Homecare not have got an engineer out to her sooner than a week and a half, leaving her using a fan heater in the meantime? I can't help thinking it's a rip off that she won't be able to oppose. They also wanted her credit card details before they arranged the appointment in case of non payment, which made her feel very wary for obvious reasons.

JGB1955

Can you be sure that it wasn't flushed when the replacement boiler was installed - I would consider that part of the installation process.

born_again

Is she on the priority register?

Brie

Yes the system should have been flushed with the installation and yes MiL should be on the vulnerable/priority register and demands be made that this be dealt with now and at little/no cost.

voluted

Cmulinder said:

My elderly mother-in-law had her central heating boiler replaced by BG 2 years ago. She has it regularly serviced by BG Homecare each year. At no point during the installation of a new boiler on pipework 20 years old, was she recommended to have the 'system flushed'. Last week her boiler stopped working and she was told that she couldn't use it and it needed to be flushed. She has been without heating and hot water for over a week until an engineered can come tomorrow at a cost of £900 to flush the boiler!
I know that BG Homecare does not cover flushing but shouldn't the original engineer have recommended doing that before the new boiler was installed? And should BG Homecare not have got an engineer out to her sooner than a week and a half, leaving her using a fan heater in the meantime? I can't help thinking it's a rip off that she won't be able to oppose. They also wanted her credit card details before they arranged the appointment in case of non payment, which made her feel very wary for obvious reasons.

This is typically a busy time of the year for gas engineers, millions of boilers that haven't been used at all or for more than hot water for the past 6 months are suddenly put back into regular service. Quite a few don't appreciate being woken from their slumber.

It's possibly the worst time of year to have your boiler go kaput.

Sooler

Report a concern of substandard work with Gas Safe

https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/gas-safety/concerns-reporting-illegal-gas-work/report-gas-work-concerns/