We moved into a property in 2010 which was converted a few years ago at roughly the same time as our neighbour's property by the same large London property developer. We bought it virtually new from the developer (who had tenanted it for a year until he found a buyer). We have a Keston boiler which we have never had serviced - we thought it was new and hence a service would not be necessary.
Last week I called in a heating engineer who was recommended by our plumber to replace a faulty timer. When he was replacing it he noticed that the timer had not been earthed. He went on to inspect the whole central heating and discovered that not one component in the central heating system had been earthed. He was clearly appalled and made the work safe for us. He said he'd never seen such a poor job in his career and that it almost looked like the person who had installed it had been trying to kill someone. He explained that if there had been a leak it could have made the plumbing throughout the house go live and we would have been instantly killed if we touched a tap, radiator or pipe. He is willing to write a report about what he found. As you can imagine as a parent of a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old this was very upsetting to hear.
I checked our conveyancing documents and the boiler engineer installed the boiler a few months after the building had received its NICEIC domestic electrical installation certificate.
The boiler engineer was Corgi registered. I checked with Gas Safe and they confirmed he is registered to fit boilers. They wrote to me to say that they will not pursue him because the problem was to do with his electrics, not his gas-fitting!
I contacted Trading Standards who are a bit busy with the Olympics (we're in Hackney). They said that we can't pursue the company ourselves because we didn't commission the work originally. We have to go back to the developer and suggest that they pursue it, but they have no obligation to! I know that this particular developer have a reputation as take-your-money-and-run types who will have no interest in pursuing it if they're not going to gain financially.
Please note, I am not after any kind of compensation, but I strongly feel that whoever installed this system put our lives in extreme danger and ought to be stopped.
I spoke to my neighbour about the problem because, as I said, their house was converted by the same developer. I suggested that they get it checked out - low-and-behold their central heating was also not earthed throughout (along with a few other problems caused by the installation). This goes to show that the man who installed our boilers clearly hasn't got a clue what he's doing. He may still be installing boilers (4 years later) all over London which are time-bombs waiting to go off. Our neighbours are keen to see this man stopped too.
Does anyone have any idea what I do next? I feel like we've fallen into a black hole now. We are the ones who would have been killed but we can't do anything about it.
Do we approach Building Control who passed Building regulations? Should they have picked up on the fact that the boiler wasn't wired up properly? A friend said that they should have seen a Part P certificate to prove that it was safe.
Is there anything we can threat the property developers with in order to force them to take action?
Should we keep on at Gas Safe, or is this a fruitless task?
I don't really know enough about the regulations and processes and would really value the opinion of someone who does.
Last week I called in a heating engineer who was recommended by our plumber to replace a faulty timer. When he was replacing it he noticed that the timer had not been earthed. He went on to inspect the whole central heating and discovered that not one component in the central heating system had been earthed. He was clearly appalled and made the work safe for us. He said he'd never seen such a poor job in his career and that it almost looked like the person who had installed it had been trying to kill someone. He explained that if there had been a leak it could have made the plumbing throughout the house go live and we would have been instantly killed if we touched a tap, radiator or pipe. He is willing to write a report about what he found. As you can imagine as a parent of a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old this was very upsetting to hear.
I checked our conveyancing documents and the boiler engineer installed the boiler a few months after the building had received its NICEIC domestic electrical installation certificate.
The boiler engineer was Corgi registered. I checked with Gas Safe and they confirmed he is registered to fit boilers. They wrote to me to say that they will not pursue him because the problem was to do with his electrics, not his gas-fitting!
I contacted Trading Standards who are a bit busy with the Olympics (we're in Hackney). They said that we can't pursue the company ourselves because we didn't commission the work originally. We have to go back to the developer and suggest that they pursue it, but they have no obligation to! I know that this particular developer have a reputation as take-your-money-and-run types who will have no interest in pursuing it if they're not going to gain financially.
Please note, I am not after any kind of compensation, but I strongly feel that whoever installed this system put our lives in extreme danger and ought to be stopped.
I spoke to my neighbour about the problem because, as I said, their house was converted by the same developer. I suggested that they get it checked out - low-and-behold their central heating was also not earthed throughout (along with a few other problems caused by the installation). This goes to show that the man who installed our boilers clearly hasn't got a clue what he's doing. He may still be installing boilers (4 years later) all over London which are time-bombs waiting to go off. Our neighbours are keen to see this man stopped too.
Does anyone have any idea what I do next? I feel like we've fallen into a black hole now. We are the ones who would have been killed but we can't do anything about it.
Do we approach Building Control who passed Building regulations? Should they have picked up on the fact that the boiler wasn't wired up properly? A friend said that they should have seen a Part P certificate to prove that it was safe.
Is there anything we can threat the property developers with in order to force them to take action?
Should we keep on at Gas Safe, or is this a fruitless task?
I don't really know enough about the regulations and processes and would really value the opinion of someone who does.