'a proper Corgi registered guy'

[TVR1]

So, landlord has installed a gas fired boiler a few weeks ago. Today, a strong smell of gas and then the subsequent explosion takes out a few houses. Have I just heard a confession of a landlord paying someone on the cheap/unqualified to fit gas services? Purely on the basis that 'Corgi' registration no longer exists? For a few years now, too.

[Gingerbread Man]

Many still call it Corgi out of habit.

[speedchick]

There have also apparently been some reports of some kind of domestic disturbance last night, but it wasn't reported to police, so not sure what bearing that has on it all.

Pretty sad to hear a small child died

I still slip up and call it Corgi, even though I deal with Gas Safe members at work.

Edited by speedchick on Tuesday 26th June 22:37

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Corgi is a load of unhelpful, toothless balls anyway.

I paid a Corgi guy to do a CP12 Landlords Gas Safety Check / certificate in one of my rental flats about 5 years ago.

Within a couple of days (don't know if it was a co-incidence or whether the bloke had disturbed the fitting) the tenants called me in a state of panic one evening around 10pm, saying they'd come home and the place stunk horrendously of Gas throughout

I told them to open windows, turn off the Gas at the main valve in the service cupboard, and DO NOT touch any switches or anything electrical, and to vacate the property until I got there (luckily only 30 odd miles from where I live)

I turned up, and upon entering, although I could smell a little Gas, because they'd opened every window, it wasn't too bad.

I went to the boiler first as the most likely culprit. Within seconds, I'd found that the main Gas inlet coupling screw ring was loose on the pipe!

I got my stilson wrench out, screwed it tight by hand first, and then did it up with the wrench.

We turned the Gas back on, and all was fine (as it still is 7 years later now)


There's no way that the screw fitting would have come so loose in two days since the recent inspection, so I can only assume it was loose from when the flat was built a year previously.

So not only did the original house builder's Gas inspection bloke (presumably Corgi also) miss a loose coupling, so did the Corgi guy that I paid to do the inspection a year later. If anyone with half a brain had bothered to physically check the integrity of the couplings on the bottom of the boiler, they would have found it, no question.



Aaaanyway, I got Corgi on the case asap. They sent an 'inspector' round, who reported to me that there was 'no fault.' Of course there was 'no bloody fault' because I'd fixed the damn fault myself! Which I told him, along with the full story as related here.

The upshot was a written report from Corgi about the whole incident, that did not go anywhere near apportioning blame to the recent fitter I'd paid to do the inspection, because when the 'Corgi' inspector visited the property, he could find no fault - therefore it was my word against the fitter's - and as their Corgi registered fitters are subject to such a high level of training and testing, that they couldn't possibly have missed such an important fault - and that basically I was either A: a lier, or B: had made the whole thing up

I was livid - but what can you do???!!!

[moles]

Ray we can only test the pipework using a gauge if no leak shows up then it is deemed safe, if there is a half screwed tight joint then although yours was under the boiler and would be easy to find why would a gas fitter have any reason to doubt that it was about to start leaking (you can't obviously check every joint in the property) I have seen water pipes on central heating with nails through them from installation that are water tight for 10 years then all of a sudden start leaking one day for no apparent reason. The responsibility was with the original installer who should have tightened the joint not every man who comes after if nothing was apparent during a soundness test.

[CHIEF]

I live literally 5 minutes away from where this happened and it had moved the local community greatly, its now hit even more now there are 'suspicious' circumstances.

What I will say is how amazed I am at how the community have pulled together and are helping the people who are without homes, clothe, food etc.

Stuff likes this brings the best out in people.

[DSM2]

moles said:

Ray we can only test the pipework using a gauge if no leak shows up then it is deemed safe, if there is a half screwed tight joint then although yours was under the boiler and would be easy to find why would a gas fitter have any reason to doubt that it was about to start leaking (you can't obviously check every joint in the property) I have seen water pipes on central heating with nails through them from installation that are water tight for 10 years then all of a sudden start leaking one day for no apparent reason. The responsibility was with the original installer who should have tightened the joint not every man who comes after if nothing was apparent during a soundness test.

Do you really believe that crap?

You wouldn't look for and check fittings? Jesus, no wonder these things happen if that's the approved standard.

[eccles]

DSM2 said:

moles said:

Ray we can only test the pipework using a gauge if no leak shows up then it is deemed safe, if there is a half screwed tight joint then although yours was under the boiler and would be easy to find why would a gas fitter have any reason to doubt that it was about to start leaking (you can't obviously check every joint in the property) I have seen water pipes on central heating with nails through them from installation that are water tight for 10 years then all of a sudden start leaking one day for no apparent reason. The responsibility was with the original installer who should have tightened the joint not every man who comes after if nothing was apparent during a soundness test.

Do you really believe that crap?

You wouldn't look for and check fittings? Jesus, no wonder these things happen if that's the approved standard.

Where do you draw the line? How much of other people work do you check before you say it's ok to stop?

[Mermaid]

Tragedy, but I expect some there will be some good lessons learnt from this.

[Oakey]

eccles said:

Where do you draw the line? How much of other people work do you check before you say it's ok to stop?

If you don't want to check other peoples work then I don't know... don't charge people to check their equipment?

[JDRoest]

eccles said:

Where do you draw the line? How much of other people work do you check before you say it's ok to stop?

Why bother checking anything then? Just the usual tick box exercise brought in by legislation in rip off Britain - why do we have any expectations for good service - just pony up the cash at the desired intervals. It's crap like this that ensures that any rental property we own has gas ripped out immediately. At least if I'm going to be bent over by the electricity company, i'm only taking it in the arse from one utility.

[eccles]

Oakey said:

eccles said:

Where do you draw the line? How much of other people work do you check before you say it's ok to stop?

If you don't want to check other peoples work then I don't know... don't charge people to check their equipment?

But how far back down the line do you go?
You could charge to do a boiler check but does that include the pipes leading to it?, do you go right back to the meter? where do you draw the line?

[JDRoest]

eccles said:

Oakey said:

eccles said:

Where do you draw the line? How much of other people work do you check before you say it's ok to stop?

If you don't want to check other peoples work then I don't know... don't charge people to check their equipment?

But how far back down the line do you go?
You could charge to do a boiler check but does that include the pipes leading to it?, do you go right back to the meter? where do you draw the line?

The original poster said "Landlords Gas Safety Check" so I'd expect everything from the customer hand off at the meter (and maybe including the meter if it's inside the property) to every device in the property. And if it takes them a couple of hours and getting a bit dirty, well tough st.

But who'd have thought that people try and cut corners on a job....I'm sure that never happens.

[thinfourth2]

eccles said:

Oakey said:

eccles said:

Where do you draw the line? How much of other people work do you check before you say it's ok to stop?

If you don't want to check other peoples work then I don't know... don't charge people to check their equipment?

But how far back down the line do you go?
You could charge to do a boiler check but does that include the pipes leading to it?, do you go right back to the meter? where do you draw the line?

Well applying an engineering mind to it would say the boiler is the most likely source of vibration so the fittings most likely to loosen off are the ones near the boiler.


But i'm not qualified to work on gas boilers in a house however i am qualified to work on gas boilers bigger then a house so i might have a small amount of knowledge here

[eccles]

JDRoest said:

eccles said:

Oakey said:

eccles said:

Where do you draw the line? How much of other people work do you check before you say it's ok to stop?

If you don't want to check other peoples work then I don't know... don't charge people to check their equipment?

But how far back down the line do you go?
You could charge to do a boiler check but does that include the pipes leading to it?, do you go right back to the meter? where do you draw the line?

The original poster said "Landlords Gas Safety Check" so I'd expect everything from the customer hand off at the meter (and maybe including the meter if it's inside the property) to every device in the property. And if it takes them a couple of hours and getting a bit dirty, well tough st.

But who'd have thought that people try and cut corners on a job....I'm sure that never happens.

As far as I'm aware a landlords safety check just covers the boiler and any other appliance like fires for their correct operation. So you're saying you'd quite happily have your floor boards ripped up once a year to check every union on the gas pipe from the meter?

[Oakey]

eccles said:

As far as I'm aware a landlords safety check just covers the boiler and any other appliance like fires for their correct operation. So you're saying you'd quite happily have your floor boards ripped up once a year to check every union on the gas pipe from the meter?

Except it was the main inlet pipe on Rays boiler that wasn't tight enough. I think he'd prefer them to start with the basics before they go ripping up floorboards.

[eccles]

Oakey said:

eccles said:

As far as I'm aware a landlords safety check just covers the boiler and any other appliance like fires for their correct operation. So you're saying you'd quite happily have your floor boards ripped up once a year to check every union on the gas pipe from the meter?

Except it was the main inlet pipe on Rays boiler that wasn't tight enough. I think he'd prefer them to start with the basics before they go ripping up floorboards.

You keep avoiding the point. On an annual check how far do you want the gas fitter to go?
If it was the initial commissioning of the boiler, yes check everything is tight, but you seem to be saying that everything should be checked every year.

[Oakey]

eccles said:

You keep avoiding the point. On an annual check how far do you want the gas fitter to go?
If it was the initial commissioning of the boiler, yes check everything is tight, but you seem to be saying that everything should be checked every year.

What point am I missing? You are the one saying "how far back should they go?". Well, a little more than simply looking at the boiler and saying "yep that's a boiler alright" and ticking off a check box perhaps?

[DSM2]

eccles said:

You keep avoiding the point. On an annual check how far do you want the gas fitter to go?
If it was the initial commissioning of the boiler, yes check everything is tight, but you seem to be saying that everything should be checked every year.

As he says, the basics. Just doing a leak test and walking away is negligent. Talk about rogue traders............

Its not rocket science FFS, basic engineering that any 'competent person' should be able to do easily enough.

[eccles]

DSM2 said:

eccles said:

You keep avoiding the point. On an annual check how far do you want the gas fitter to go?
If it was the initial commissioning of the boiler, yes check everything is tight, but you seem to be saying that everything should be checked every year.

As he says, the basics. Just doing a leak test and walking away is negligent. Talk about rogue traders............

Its not rocket science FFS, basic engineering that any 'competent person' should be able to do easily enough.

Again you miss my point Are you saying that every union should be checked, right back to the meter, every year?