Ludicrous Building Controls Fee in UK

[Shotstakovich]

Hi all,

So I did a job for a customer recently which involved swapping out an incredibly dangerous and poorly installed unvented hot water cylinder installation. It was my first time installing an UHWC by myself as I've recently started my own business. Before I started the job I realised that I needed to notify the local building control authority. This was very briefly mentioned during my G3 HWSS course by the teacher and he purposely made it sound like he didn't care about it. I've never heard anybody ever talk about it or mention it outside of that situation. I also looked into applying to become part of APHC but quickly realised that I'd need to spend several days of my time on paperwork to submit to APHC and the expected standard of said paperwork had not been clearly laid out so I left it to another time when I had some.

Anyways, after applying for the BC to certify the install they sent me an email demanding that in order to get it installed I had to pay £700! The total job was only billed at £3750 (which in my area is a very good deal). The cylinder was a dual immersion 400L indirect so I don't know if that would've increased the price. Needless to say, I informed my customers who thankfully laughed it off before we agreed that we would ignore it after me explaining that we could all get in serious legal issues if we didn't pay.

Firstly, I think this amount of money is shocking and sickening. Why so much? To send somebody out (which in all likelihood they wouldn't) to check that my work does, in fact, meet standards - because it did. It really did. The job was immaculate. I'm the sort of guy to brasso and label the Damning pipes and I take my job really seriously and study plumbing constantly in my spare time.

Secondly, they've now forced my hand to open myself up to litigation which would bankrupt my business.

Thirdly, it means that I couldn't Benchmark it or register it with the cylinder manufacturer or get any of their warranties filled out in case it ever came back to me.

To get to the point ... would you guys have paid it? How many of you are APHC registered? How many of you actually register your installs with BC and if you don't can you still fill out the Benchmark and warranties - the last thing I want to do is cause issues for my customers because I can't certify the work. Does anybody else think the amount is ridiculous or is this commonplace?

Or, am I overthinking this?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Overthinking also good luck on the warranty’s over 12 months

If it’s installed correctly I wouldn’t waste any sleep on it

 

[Enthalpy]

Install an unvented hot water storage vessel

Installers registered with a competent person’s scheme self-certify for a nominal fee.

The Building Regulations Compliance Certificate is a legal requirement.

The home owner could be asked for it when selling and even be prosecuted for not having it.

In my opinion as a homeowner (not G3 or Gas Safe certified), the job is not finished without the Building Regulations Compliance Certificate. After written warnings that I would attempt to recover all costs from the installer, through the courts if necessary, I would contact Building Control and in the worst case have the unvented cylinder replaced.

I you are Gas Safe Registered you may still be able to register your G3 certification with Gas Safe and persuade Gas Safe to issue the Building Regulations Compliance Certificate.

 

[Gasmk1]

As above register under a CPS. otherwise building control will charge you a lot. https://aphc.co.uk/join-aphc/ or betas if oil or gas safe.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Isn’t it the case with gas safe you have to register a boiler as well can’t just do a cylinder?

 

[Gasmk1]

Isn’t it the case with gas safe you have to register a boiler as well can’t just do a cylinder?

Pretty sure you can just do cylinder

 

[PETE 123]

Or pay another installer to reinstall or go over work and then let him register it.

would be less than 700

 

[Chuck]

Isn’t it the case with gas safe you have to register a boiler as well can’t just do a cylinder?

AFAIK, the GS scheme can be used to register if and only if the new cylinder is connected to a gas boiler. Anything else, e.g. oil boiler as heat source, needs to be done via the another CPS or the LABC direct.

AIUI this rules out using GS to register a cylinder that has an internal immersion heater but is not connected to any external heat source, which strikes me as a bit odd.

Check direct with GS if you are ever in this position, it all seems a bit whimsical to me.

 

[fowlerboi]

AFAIK, the GS scheme can be used to register if and only if the new cylinder is connected to a gas boiler. Anything else, e.g. oil boiler, needs to be done via the another CPS or the LABC direct.

Worth checking direct with GS if you are ever in this position, I don't trust the rules not to change.

This was exactly my interpretation after looking into it a couple of months ago.

 

[SimonG]

If its installed to regs then don't lose sleep. Customer sells then an indemnity policy can be bought for about £40.