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Discuss Oil safe? Should there be a scheme similar to gas safe for oil techs? in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

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I'm in Chiddingstone Causeway Rob. Just outside of Penshurst.

Surrounded by fields. Couldn't live in a city, as Towns go I love Tunbridge Wells...but property is very expensive.
 
hopefully if your oftec you know what your doing so it shouldnt happen, just makes it easier for them to chew your bum if you are!

Why should I only know what I am doing if I am oftec registered?

I am asking why it should be different whether I am registered or not!!!!!
 
with you there cant stand all the stop start of cities. just looked at your website, nice bathrooms dp
 
Nice! see living in the sticks is a bit of me but the mrs won't have any of it. So I live in gillingham doesn't have the same ring to it though.
 
You have started somthing now. We will now see Oil Safe Register run by CAPITA :82:
 
All I can see from my village is fields and woods. Lived in a town briefly as a student and hated it. We do go to York for days out but wouldn't like to live there.
 
Mad isnt it ! So ÂŁ1500 quid for training, registration and pieces of kit for somthing you dont legally need ! All for that badge on your van
 
I'm liking a lot of these posts. Country folk allegiance!!

If I want to visit the big smoke, I can walk to a station from my house in about 5 minutes, and within an hour I'm up there.....and within an hour I'm ready to leave again!! :)
 
there seems to be 2 totally different threads going on here and I like the countryside one best:)
 
I believe OFTEC is all of the registered members because without us it wouldn't exist, that said we must take some ownership of it by promoting the standards OFTEC stands to enforce by promoting OFTEC.

For example on this web site we can have a badge that says we are Gas safe (in my case RGII) hence promoting Gas Safe, when asked about the badge I did not see much response from the administrators.

If we don't play our part in educating the consumwer we are just making the job in the OFTEC office harder, we can cry and whinge or we can try to make the OFTEC brand as well known as Gas Safe.

Worst case the consumers will start asking "What's this OFTEC I kept seeing"?
 
I believe OFTEC is all of the registered members because without us it wouldn't exist, that said we must take some ownership of it by promoting the standards OFTEC stands to enforce by promoting OFTEC.

For example on this web site we can have a badge that says we are Gas safe (in my case RGII) hence promoting Gas Safe, when asked about the badge I did not see much response from the administrators.

If we don't play our part in educating the consumwer we are just making the job in the OFTEC office harder, we can cry and whinge or we can try to make the OFTEC brand as well known as Gas Safe.

Worst case the consumers will start asking "What's this OFTEC I kept seeing"?

Here here, I second that!
 
Looks good on paper and I agree with what you are saying, but when the prospective customer is looking at an estimate from an oftec installer and somebody who isn't going to bother they'll expect it to work and one will be cheaper.

Now if oftec was going to be more proactive in weeding out the dangerous non registered people then all well and good. But they don't give a monkeys and that's official.

As I understand it the law is in place in the UK so the job falls to Building Control & maybe the Department of Environment to enforce them, consider yourselves very lucky in Ireland we have Building Control Departments in the local County Councils but nobody there to enforce anything except collect fees for building new houses and the laws / standards which are usually copy and paste of UK legislation for Part J etc weren't even updated to include oil.

We (OFTEC Members) can report bad workmanship etc but where will that get us? A bit like driving on the Motorway and calling the Police to report what appears to be a drunk driver speeding at 100 MPH, first question will be are you using a hands free kit? or how do you know it's 100 are you doing 95?

In my case the Council would have to search for a Building Control Officer as they don't know what they should be controlling (not joking) then of course the word would spread don't call him or your the Council may visit and you have to apply for retention for the extension you built (fees for the council).

What OFTEC could / should far as I know are doing is telling the Councils and Government agencies they have a system in place with proven competent trades persons throughout the UK and Ireland who can and will install the systems properly and there is no longer a need for the unregulated installers or turning a blind eye to poor quality oil installations.

Maybe we should be more pro-active in telling OFTEC what we want them to do, they appear to have responded very well to the boiler manufacturers (Founders?) where boiler passports are concerned.

As for competition if a consumer wants to have a boiler fitted and void a significant part of the warranty and have an oil tank badly installed which could void their insurance cover then they were never my type of customer to start with.
 
I have just got a quot for the Training and assessment with oftec with manuals 1,2,3,4,& domestic heating guide Total of ÂŁ872 +vat and after reading this is it a big con, but does anyone know were i can get these manuals on pdf cheers guys
 
That's the going rate. The manuals come in A4 binders, and you can only get the updates in PDF format not the entire books.
 
you will physically need their manuals for your registration and inspections.

no choice for you sir.
i do know someone who got old of them and printed them off, on his initial inspection they took a dim view, wouldn't let him have his oftec till he got them.
 
Who is responsible for all of this? The Government.

They decide what OFTEC can do, at the moment, OFTEC can only police it's own members, it hasn't been given authority in the same way as Gas Safe. As has been stated in previous posts, it will take a serious incident before anything gets done. The only other way is if the trade made a lot of noise, unfortunately we are very good at moaning but not so good at doing anything about it. How many of you have written to the Office of the DPM or to Building Control?

Many things that OFTEC are blamed for are not of their making. All similar organisations come under the control of UKAS, a government quango. They insist on a business audit and the contents of it, they also insist on a workmanship warranty. OFTEC do not sell the warranties or make money from them, you can buy them from OFTEC Insurance (who are the cheapest) but that business is part of Trade Direct and licence the use of the OFTEC brand. This helps to keep the registration costs down.
 
The next tragic incident is going to be a HETAS issue. I'm shocked at the number of people who when removing old bbus ask that I don't damage liner as their stove man is going to re use it. He's HETAS registered??? So many stoves going in some one is going to come a cropper!
 
As with any of these things, enough people have to die through dodgy boiler installations first before any action is taken.

OFTEC really gets my goat - they are going to ask for another ÂŁ800+ in a couple of months and there are 3 non-registered people on my doorstep not paying this who I am supposed to compete with.

From the amount of money OFTEC must be creaming off the honest tradesmen who register compared with what we get from them I would guess its all about jobs for the boys and executive salaries. OFTEC is not value for money.

They are forcing everyone to buy this "workmanship warranty" insurance which is a joke - meaning the reputable tradesmen who bother to register with OFTEC and are the least likely to have workmanship issues have to have cover whereas the cowboys who are the most likely to have problems don't.
 
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re the insurance, if you dont install why pay insurance, no one has answered that one yet, hence why i havent paid it. complete con, cowboys still going about and doing what they like and we just go in after and fix the problems or leave a warning that is ignored! AS before if you install to regs why is there a need to insure in case you dont?
 
re the insurance, if you dont install why pay insurance, no one has answered that one yet, hence why i havent paid it. complete con, cowboys still going about and doing what they like and we just go in after and fix the problems or leave a warning that is ignored! AS before if you install to regs why is there a need to insure in case you dont?

Ask the Office of DPM, it was their idea.
 
Regulation is a joke, everyone dreams up these stupid organisations like gas safe as a means to "self regulate" or enforce ye law more efficiently. What it actually means is government shifts responsibly to a franchise (who pay them) and the franchise can be run as stream line as possible. Government then cuts budget and shows a cost saving..... Then no one has remit or money to investigate. Absolute joke selling it all out
 
It's not gonna just be oil people want more stringent rules and refs, biomas will be like it in the near future, manufacturers want ash bins emptied every 2-6 weeks, so cust is going to do that. Then will probs think don't need a registered guy to do the service I already empty the ash bins how hard can it be.

Just think more needs to be done to crack down on cowboys across the board, and educate custards about service checks and why they need to serviced every year!
 
Turning - Welcome

a bunch of good guys, treading on toes in the right places to get changes and help us the little people,

have helped me with things in the past and pointed me in the right direction,
give thm a look
 
Turning - Welcome

a bunch of good guys, treading on toes in the right places to get changes and help us the little people,

have helped me with things in the past and pointed me in the right direction,
give thm a look

Another organisation wanting to cash in?

Would look more professional if they could spell. 'Memership Catergories'
 
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Reply to Oil safe? Should there be a scheme similar to gas safe for oil techs? in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

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