Suspected Unsafe Installation Found During a Routine Service
You attend a domestic property to service a 20-year-old gas wall furnace. On arrival you find the appliance has been installed in a bedroom, the flue has a 300 mm horizontal section with a sag, the flue terminal is 400 mm below an openable window, and there is a strong smell of gas at the appliance connection. The occupant says a 'handyman friend' installed it two years ago and that it has worked fine. The occupant is elderly, lives alone, and refuses to turn the heater off because it is winter. The property is rented and the landlord is overseas.
1. What immediate actions do you take, and how do you handle the occupant's refusal?
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Safety comes before consent or convenience.
Immediate actions:
- Isolate the gas supply to the appliance at the isolating valve and, if the smell persists or the valve is faulty, isolate at the meter.
- Do not relight or restore supply while a gas smell and a defective flue are present.
- Ventilate the room by opening windows and doors, and keep ignition sources away.
- Attach a warning tag or notice to the appliance and the meter stating it is unsafe and must not be used.
- Record everything: photographs of the flue, terminal, connection and appliance location, plus the readings and the date and time.
Handling refusal:
- Explain plainly that the appliance is unsafe: gas smell indicates a leak, the flue defects mean combustion products can enter the bedroom, and the bedroom location is itself prohibited.
- You cannot leave gas connected to an appliance you know to be unsafe. Explain that you are required to make it safe and that you will document the isolation.
- Offer practical alternatives: a temporary electric heater, or referral to the landlord and the relevant authority for urgent repair.
- If the occupant remains at risk, escalate to the landlord or agent and, where the risk is immediate, to the emergency services or the gas network emergency line.
2. What defects are present, what regulatory obligations follow, and what must happen before the appliance is returned to service?
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Defects:
- Gas leak at the appliance connection: immediate danger.
- Installation in a bedroom: prohibited location for this appliance type under the manufacturer's instructions and installation requirements.
- Flue with a 300 mm horizontal section and a sag: horizontal runs and sags trap condensate and impair draught, risking spillage of combustion products.
- Terminal 400 mm below an openable window: products of combustion can re-enter the room; clearance is inadequate.
- No evidence of compliance for a two-year-old installation: the work appears to have been done without certification by an unlicensed person.
Obligations:
- Make safe and document, as above.
- Report the unsafe installation and the unlicensed work to the relevant regulator; unlicensed gasfitting is an offence and the installation must be regularised.
- Notify the landlord or agent in writing, since the property is rented and the landlord has duties to maintain a safe premises.
- Do not issue a compliance certificate for the existing installation; it does not comply.
Before return to service:
- Leak repaired and pressure-tested.
- Appliance relocated out of the bedroom, or replaced with a suitable appliance.
- Flue replaced with a compliant vertical route and a terminal at correct clearances from windows and boundaries.
- Ventilation verified, combustion and pressures checked, and a compliance certificate issued for the rectification work by a licensed gasfitter.