On ruddy nora. Gas boiler condemned and no money for a new one!

[edam]

Arrggh etc. etc. etc. Had the gas man round today because our central heating wasn't working properly, only for him to tell us our boiler was dangerous and he had to not just switch it off but prevent it from ever being used again.

It is winter. We have no money to replace it - these things cost thousands. dh has been unemployed for a year and we have been struggling to pay the bills/living on overdrafts that were granted in happier times.

No idea what we'll do or how we'll heat the house for ds...can't borrow money as I'm sure our credit rating is shot. My family certainly don't have several thousand pounds spare they could lend us and while dh's Mother probably could, she going into a home in a couple of weeks and is not able to - too confused for it to be fair and £8k deposit required for nursing home!

I knew that single magpie I saw this morning was bad news...

hopefully this thread will get moved to property/DIY soon

SolidGold
Ask friends / neighbours / colleagues : there are plumbers and plumbers.
Some I take to court, others have my spare door key!

but if they are going ANYWHERE near your boiler, they need to be on the GasSafe register (replaced Corgi)

and good ones will NOT be able to come by on the same day as they will be busy

Recommend a builder.com - all gas engineers have their qualifications listed too!

Haven't read whole thread but heres a link..B&Q are also doing boiler replacement scheme
www.diy.com/diy/jsp/content/marketing/boiler_services/free_boiler.jsp?tmcampid=29&tmad=c&ecamp=Sea60015185134&ef_id=UmJ-NAAAAeVryyfs:20131109173652:s&noCookies=false

My neighbours are paying lots more than £8 a month, I cant remember the exact price but it seemed to be 100 something

My local plumber is charging me £50 for a service.

(Just added so people can get a rough idea of how much a service should cost)

BTW, Glow worm wanted to charge me £90 for a service. I don't think so.

Hi,

We've been asked to move this so that people can read it if it's needed again.

MNHQ

Lol the ad at the top of the page is for British gas home care!

Personal recommendation is always better than a website.

The recommendation websites are notorious for being paid by the advertisers businesses, and the recommendations written by them or their buddies.

Always look for a local landline phone no, and a real-life local address which you can if you want drive past. An address which has a hubndred business names recorded against it is a bad sign. A non-geographic phone no. means it is an agency that will sell you as a prospect to any company that will pay the advertiser.

A mobile-only phone no with no address means someone who can disappear from the face of the earth whenever necessary.

Look for tradesmen's vans outside other local houses. Ask for a business card and write the date and homeowner's address on the back. Go back a month or more later and ask the householder what they thought. Householders are often very pleased to give praise or criticism.

Have only just realised I made a typo in the title of this thread - I meant to write 'oh ruddy nora'. Must have been distracted by worry.

Piglet, thanks, reassuring to know the hot water cylinder is relatively modern. Very nice MNer and her gas safe engineer husband are advising me to look at which brackets are rusted - if it's one set, apparently it can be fixed, hurrah! In the meantime, dh has dug out my onsie, bless him. It was a gift that I stuck in the back of a cupboard thinking, I am NEVER going to wear that (it looks like a teddy bear. With a hood, and teddy bear ears...)

Just to add another side to things, I've had the british gas homecare for 16 years & they've never once tried to condemn the boiler & come out really quickly for any problems. Plus one of their guys sorted a radiator out for me despite me only having boiler cover.

I have to say redhelen's experience mirrors mine.

I pay £13.50 per month which includes the annual service. If i paid £60 for that to a local gas man I'd only be saving £100 per year which might not go very far towards repairs.

The main benefit is BG have come out the same day to me on two occasions and had the necessary part on their van. That's really important to me when my boiler heats the house and the water!

That said it wouldn't surprise me if they are quick to condemn. I nearly died when they quoted me for a new boiler. It was nearly double what we paid Worcester Bosch.

I'm sorry about your boiler OP and I really hope it can be fixed.

Our home care has definitely been worth the money. Boilers been fixed umpteen times (always seems to break down around march time). It would have cost us much more to pay someone to come and food it every time. Great to have peace of mind that we won't be faced with huge repair bill. Engineers have been great, any time I've suggested a new boiler they just ask why, that they can just keep fixing it.

Lol, an entire thread stating about how shit they are and then 3 posters in less than an hour stating how good they are. FIX!

There are Governement schemes to replace faulty/old boilers Look under freeboilers etc on the Internet They even have calculators on there to s

Farrow - it may depend on where you are in the country but I only speak as I find!

But to be fair, people DO post complaints more than satisfaction! I've read bad reviews for talk talk & Dreams for bed s & bith have been great for me personally. I am certainly not BG in disguise!!!

Now we need to know what sort of boiler it is to be trouble free dfor 9 years LifeofPo!!

BG gave me seriously bad service when my old boiler was condemned (legitimately I think, it was truly ancient, and cracked). The installation sub-contractors were awful and they didn't finish the job, as well as charging me unnecessarily to flush out the pipes. The system never worked properly and only when I built an extension and replaced it all did I have reliable heating and hot water. Never again.

My old boiler cost me £50 every other year to service.
My current one is £40 a year (tame independent plumber, vaillant)

Actually our British Gas contract was great for our last dodgy boiler that was badly fitted and broke down frequently. That was fitted very badly by an independent who condemed our water heater just before Christmas one year when i had a small baby. BG had stuck the system on cover so I should have thought quicker when this guy came round. Eventually I was on first term names with the BG Engineer who was a lovely guy . All our floorboards had to come up once tracing a leak at one point.

It got to the stage where the boiler just couldn't be fixed so the manager said he wouldn't put us through to sales as there is no way we'd go with them so quoted us what a local guy would. We now have a BG installed Vaillant that does what it is supposed to do. I am considering cancelling my contract now and putting the money in the bank reading this and now we have a more reliable boiler.

We had the Power flush rubbish at our old house which also had a BG contract so I suspect it is where you live. And I have never forgotten letters from BG threatening to send bailiffs for non payment of a gas bill. Hadn't paid it as there wasn't actually a gas supply, a fact BG seemed incapable of comprehending.