Do you know what to do if your client’s boiler fails a safety check?
As an estate agent, it’s your responsibility to ensure your client (the landlord) follows safety standards to the letter – including an annual gas safety check and CP12 certificate.
However, what if upon inspection, that boiler is found to be immediately dangerous and has to be isolated from the gas supply?
Firstly, don’t panic. I’m going to tell you exactly what must be done in this situation, so you’re left with a happy client, happy tenants, and a safe boiler.
What happens when a boiler fails a safety check?
As soon as a boiler has been essentially condemned and isolated from your client’s gas supply, the engineer in question will send an email, along with a copy of the report to inform you of exactly what is wrong with the boiler/installation.
Most engineers will also include a detailed fixed price quote of the work required, as well as the cost involved. However, you may want to call a few other companies just to check the prices quoted are within the general consensus – especially if you haven’t yet built up much of a relationship with your chosen engineer yet.
As a real-world example, I sent an engineer out to look at a property last week which contained two fires and a boiler less than 7 years old. Fires are common for issues of ventilation and chimney problems, however both fires were perfect and it was the boiler that was overheating and burning from the inside-out through the casing.
Our engineer isolated the gas and issued a warning ‘do not use’ notice for the boiler. It was the first boiler this engineer had personally condemned, and the woman living there had three small children. Thankfully, the boiler was replaced without issue, and it was found to be an error from when the boiler was originally installed.
Who gets the final say?
At the end of the day, the question of actually going ahead and getting the job done will always fall to the landlord or property owner, as they have to be happy with the price they are quoted and the work that is going to be carried out.
However, it is in their best interests to approve the work ASAP, otherwise it will be extremely difficult to sell or let the property with the boiler in its current state of disrepair – and if there are tenants currently living in the property with no heating or hot water, it becomes even more urgent.
From a heating engineer’s perspective
These regulations are in place to keep people safe, so if a Gas Safe registered engineer isolates an appliance leaving tenants without heating or hot water, he or she is doing this out of necessity to make sure they are not in any danger.
It’s guaranteed that the engineer will be in touch with the office staff to let you – and everyone else involved (tenants, landlord etc.) – know exactly what can be done and how fast, as they will be aware this can be an incredibly stressful time.
Conclusion
By now, you should have a better understanding of what happens when a boiler fails a safety check, and in most cases, the heating engineer doing the check will do all they can to help get the boiler up and running again – they won’t just leave you in the lurch!
Despite this, you might want to get another couple of quotes just to be sure that your client won’t be overcharged. If you have any specific questions about this subject, please feel free to leave a comment below – I’m here to help!
