Gas and electrical safety certificates?..........any experience?

[Becaroooo]

...long story short - we moved into out new house in December.

After being here about 2 weeks we realised that the kitchen hob didnt work properly (have had to replace it) and that the conservatory roof leaked (have had to pay out to get it fixed) and the boiler didnt work properly (i.e. it didnt provide much hot water) and it stopped working altogether yesterday so now we have no hot water or heating

To say I am not happy is a bit of an understatement.

A gas and electrical safety certificate were both done a month before we moved in and stated no problems.

We have been told by the plumber that
a) the boiler wasnt plumbed in properly (it was put in in 2003) and
b) the electrical wiring isnt safe.

We are having a new boiler put in tomorrow but I am wondering if we have any redress against the companies who provided these certificates?

Probably a long shot........?

Are you renting or have you bought the house?

No, you probably don't have redress against the companies, as they don't have a contract with you. But you might have redress against the landlord/previous owner, as you do have a contract with them.

We have bought the house seabright from a building company as the previous owners part ex on a new build.

Can I get in touch with the building company?

I presume there is a complaints procedure through the certification scheme - have a look at the certificate and see what that says.

Yes, your contract is with the seller of the house, so contact them first.

Solicitor is contacting the vendors and we contacted the electrican (as he is local) and he came yesterday and sorted it out.

Have to wait and see now........

For gas, there is a regulatory body - the Gas Safe Register, you can always ask them out to do a free gas safety check for you and give the last gas safety check certificate to them if you feel the gas inspection wasn't done correctly, they can follow it up for you. But the chances are, the gas engineer who did the last check (usually only valid for a year) would not have checked the plumbing side of things, he is required to do simple gas safety related check to ensure the gas appliances are safe to you. He may do a gas consumption check and visual inspection of the appliances and probably that's it.

For your current boiler installation, make sure the gas engineer is Gas Safe registered who should let you see his ID with an expiry date on the back of it. On completion, you should also receive a Commission Certificate from Gas Safe Register or your Local Building Control 1-3 months later.

For electricity, you can go back to the body that electrician is registered with such as NICEIC / NAPIT etc, they should be able to deal with your complaint about that electrician's competency in carrying out such checks. In the periodic inspection report issue, the electrician would have to report any faults or improvement recommendation (usualy in numerical values 1-4), on one of the pages of the report. Again, you can also ask the registered body to send their investigation engineer out to do a check of the electrician's work or certificate issue, if you have concerns. Again this should be free of charge.

In terms of redress, because the installation of the old gas boiler and electrical wirings, may not have been done by those engineers who did the tests, so they may not be full liable for the problems, as the tests they carried out would not have necessarily pick up certain inherited faults.

I am saying this as chartered surveyor and housing inspector in a London council, as the above matters form part of my job.

Let us know how you get on with your solicitor. Good luck.

Thanks kbjin

Our new boiler was fitted yesterday by a gas safe registered chap (he did work for us at the old house too so we know him and his work) I have hot water and heat!!!!

We contacted the electrical company and they came out and redid the wiring (after saying they werent obliged to!) so thats sorted.

Will let you know what happens re: boiler issue!