Homes and Property

Get the right gas fitter

By Lucy Tobin
British households are wasting £100 million every year fixing botched gas jobs carried out by unqualified fitters, according to the Gas Safe Register (GSR).

The GSR - the body that replaced the old Corgi rating scheme for gas engineers - warns of the danger of hiring an unlisted fitter for installing a new boiler or fixing an old one. A cheap quote may be tempting, but when gas experts checked the work done in hundreds of homes they found 20 per cent of that carried out by non-registered fitters was “immediately dangerous” and appliances had to be disconnected.

Fixing a cowboy’s poor work also tends to cost people dear. “If you have a boiler fitted by a gas engineer who isn’t registered, then you may end up paying to have it ripped out and start again, which may cost thousands of pounds. It may also put your life in danger,” says Phill Brewster, national investigations manager at the GSR.

So ensure any gas tradesman is registered at GasSafeRegister.co.uk, or call 0800 408 5500. Then, when they turn up at your home, ask to see a GSR identity card.



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