No 'building regs certificate' for boiler install?

[Pulse]

My brother is buying a house at the moment, and he's been told by his solicitor that the boiler was installed in the last couple of years, and hasn't got any paperwork for having been checked by the council. They've suggested either waiting for the council to confirm/check, or buying insurance to deal with the issue.

Seems the latter would be faster, and they're reasonably OK with the idea, but what downsides could there be to this?

[Dogwatch]

Would the Council know a safe boiler installation? I'd prefer a Gas Safe certificate any day.

[smokey mow]

Pulse said:

Seems the latter would be faster, and they're reasonably OK with the idea, but what downsides could there be to this?

Imdeminity insurance will not offer any reassurance that the installation is safe, all it will do is pay out the legal costs "should" the LA decide to prosecute you for failure to submit a building regulations installation for the work or lack of notification via a competent person scheme.

Certification in the correct maner however will ensure that the boiler install is safe

[55palfers]

Surely it doesn't matter how long it's been installed.

Is there a current certificate for a service and safety check by competent person?

[g7jtk]

This certification thing is getting out of hand.
As long as an appliance has been fitted by an appropriately qualified and competent person the what does it matter.
There are too many of these Mickey Mouse courses.

[andy43]

Dogwatch said:

Would the Council know a safe boiler installation? I'd prefer a Gas Safe certificate any day.

Exactly. I'd rather spend the proposed indemnity premium on a gas safety check by a qualified engineer tbh.

[Pulse]

Thanks all.

I know there have been regular gas safety checks, because it was rented, and I've seen the paperwork. I can't recall if there was any original Gas Safe certification in there, but possible.

If those are both in check, would the best option be the vendor paying for the insurance? U took a quick poke around the net yesterday and it seems it can't be retrospectively applied?

[Elysium]

Pulse said:

My brother is buying a house at the moment, and he's been told by his solicitor that the boiler was installed in the last couple of years, and hasn't got any paperwork for having been checked by the council. They've suggested either waiting for the council to confirm/check, or buying insurance to deal with the issue.

Seems the latter would be faster, and they're reasonably OK with the idea, but what downsides could there be to this?

I had the same situation. The insurance is no use. It only protects you from enforcement action by the local authority and then only if they are not aware of the issue. The mortgage company will insist on it though as it covers them in the event of a resale.

In my case, the boiler had been installed by British Gas and also maintained by them. I had an amusing conversation with them when they at first refused to talk to me about it due to 'data protection'. I told them that I was simply helping them out by telling them that they had forgotten to provide a gas safe certificate, which is unlawful.

By coincidence, they issued one to the vendor the same day!

[andy43]

As above, an indemnity doesn't protect you from anything other than the council, it protects the solicitor. I'd tell solicitor to just ignore the lack of cert if there's paperwork to show it's been inspected regularly. Good luck with that one!

[sausage76]

Had the same with my current house we are selling.

The buyers solicitor asked a question about the building regs cert for the boiler we had installed 10 years ago. I started to panic.

Quick call to our solicitors and just a copy of the Corgi (as it was then) installation record was all that was needed.

[Andehh]

Went through it as well when I was selling my last place, couldnt get the council to confirm or deny that I needed to inform them, or what I should be informing them of.

All i had was the invoice, and all the details of the Gas Boiler installation, I am sure it was registered with someone - ended up forking out £90 for indemnity insurance in the end.

[Bert68]

If you know who installed the boiler, say is there an invoice or has the boiler benchmark in the installation manual been filled out. If so and they have not registered the boiler you can ask them for a covering letter saying they installed the boiler but did not or forgot to register the boiler and they have notified gas safe of the situation, this should cover in place of the installation certificate.
Could be the installer forgot to register or they might not registered due to a dispute with the owner or they might not have been registered with gas safe. If so then you could get it checked by a registered installer although this should be the sellers problem to sort out

[arguti]

We went through this a few months ago on selling our property.

We contacted the installers who ignored us so emailed Gassafe who basically leaned on the installer and certificate arrived forthwith.

Gasafe have the power and the means to get the original installer to sign off their own work or if you don't know who installed it, get some other heating engineer/plumber to do it

[andy43]

arguti said:

..... or if you don't know who installed it, get some other heating engineer/plumber to do it

No chance!

[Harry Flashman]

g7jtk said:

This certification thing is getting out of hand.
As long as an appliance has been fitted by an appropriately qualified and competent person the what does it matter.
There are too many of these Mickey Mouse courses.

Tell me about it.

My buyer's solicitor is kicking off because we do not have the guarantee for the boiler. Not the Gas Safe bit (we have supplied the certificate), but the actual warranty.

The reason for this is that my original plumber (as detailed in my build thread) turned out to be a lying scumbag who half installed the boiler and then disappeared to South Africa with my money.

Next guy then properly did install etc and got Gas Safe bit done - but he's not Worcester Bosch qualified I think (I am checking), so no extended warranty.

I realise it is important to a degree, but on a £1.25m sale where every other piece of documentation is present and correct, including boiler purchase receipt, installation invoice and Gas Safe Cert? Give it a rest and stop holding everything up.

[Toltec]

andy43 said:

arguti said:

..... or if you don't know who installed it, get some other heating engineer/plumber to do it

No chance!

Why not? I fitted the boiler and new heating system in my first house then had a Corgi guy couple up the gas line and commision the boiler. If I were buying a house with missing documentation the plumber/gas safe engineer I normally use would check it for me with no problem at all.

[fatfunkymonkey]

I've just had a new boiler installed, at no time has the council been mentioned. All that had been provided is a GasSafe certificate so I assume this is all that is needed.

[Swervin_Mervin]

fatfunkymonkey said:

I've just had a new boiler installed, at no time has the council been mentioned. All that had been provided is a GasSafe certificate so I assume this is all that is needed.

We're looking at a new one as well, and this is the first I've heard of building regs needing to sign off an install.

Is this true? Fecking lunacy if so. I'm sure the insurance industry's doing a nice trade out of all of these indemnity policies though.

[Dave_ST220]

fatfunkymonkey said:

I've just had a new boiler installed, at no time has the council been mentioned. All that had been provided is a GasSafe certificate so I assume this is all that is needed.

IIRC if it is an unvented system BC are involved. I maybe wrong but for our final sign off he deffo checked the cylinder.

[ou sont les biscuits]

Swervin_Mervin said:

fatfunkymonkey said:

I've just had a new boiler installed, at no time has the council been mentioned. All that had been provided is a GasSafe certificate so I assume this is all that is needed.

We're looking at a new one as well, and this is the first I've heard of building regs needing to sign off an install.

Is this true? Fecking lunacy if so. I'm sure the insurance industry's doing a nice trade out of all of these indemnity policies though.

When we had our boiler installed back in 2008 the installer notified Building Control. They don't sign off - they just need notifying. You can see the notification on the council website together with other notifications for electrical works and replacement windows.