I have just had the Gas man threaten me with court - sorry, long.

[captainmummy]

Our poxy boiler (less than 1 year old) packed up on christmas eve, so we rang the gas people, who told us that they couldn't get out until Thursday PM. 3 days with no hot water or heating! So, I phoned the plumber, who bless him came out and took off the front of the boiler. There are 2 pipes sticking out of the top, which connect to the AirPressurePump. He blew down one, and the green light came on. Job done, 2 minutes. Canceled the gas. Boiler went again the next day, called the gas, got appointment for today. Got dh to blow down the pipe.Boiler working.
Boiler went off again today, just before the gasmen turned up. Told him what we'd done, got told off for taking the front cover off, for disconnecting the pipe, for blowing down pipe, and he told that if we did it again they could take our plumber to COURT for advising us to touch the boiler at all, even at christmas. I toldhim that if they'd come out on the same day I wouldn't have touched it.
So whose bloody boiler is it?

Well, there's a reason why all people who deal with gas should be Corgi registered. It's because gas can be very dangerous and completely unqualified people fiddling around with gas pipes, etc., probably sends a shiver down the spine of most plumbers/gasmen. You didn't say that your plumber advised you to do what he did and I should hope that he, at least, knew what he was doing.

Yes I realise that gas is dangerous, but so are carbrakes, and if i attempted to fix them myself I wouldn't get this treatment from the AA!! The previous boiler was fromthe 1950's, enormous, and the pilotlight kept blowing out. The gasboard wouldn't cover it, (too old) - so we would re-light it ourselves. I get the impression that this guy reckons we should have to call them out for this too!
And the boiler was fitted by the plumber, not british gas, so he should know about it.

The difference being is that it is not against the law to fix your own car brakes as long as the car can pass an MOT.

It IS against the law to meddle with gas if you are not CORGI registered.

Your plumvber should be (I hope) CORGI registered, if so, then he is perfectly within his rights to fix it as long as he has the right type of registration, domestic heating I guess.

He should not have advised you to do it, then again from what you have told me he didn;t actually TELL you to do it, you just took it upon yourself so in which case the "gas people" whoever they are are being unreasonable.

By the way, if your boiler is under 1 year old it should still be under warranty so your plumber should contact the manufacturers and you shouldn't be charged.

I can understand lots of different points of view in this post, but when i thought about it, I wouldn't want anyone in my street messing about with anything to do with gas - after all, if they caused an explosion they could take a fair few people with them! I know that's a fairly extreme consequence though...

I dont know if the plumber said that it would only be a temporary measure, but assuming he didn't I'd be a bit miffed if someone came out to repair something and it was broken again a few days later. I'd also be furious that a boiler that was less than one year old had packed up.