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News
Gas Auditing
Date issued: March 16, 2010
I have a client who recently asked me to undertake a number of tenders in readiness for the new financial year. One of those that he wanted me to tender was a service for gas auditing. Now I hadn’t come across gas auditing before and so I asked him what he needed. He explained that in view of the legal responsibilities placed on landlords to have gas systems inspected annually he needed to be assured that the work was being undertaken competently. I was unsure this was necessary since the engineers are Gas Safe registered, but that was what my client wanted tendered and so that’s what I have been doing.
I have had a rude realisation that my client was correct to have concerns. At home we have oil heating (no gas available) and when the boiler stopped working recently (for the umpteenth time and it's only two years old – but that’s another story) we called out an OFTEC registered oil service engineer. A week after his visit we found that he had cleaned the oil filter enclosure and left it with a very small leak. This has led to the Environment Agency being involved and considerable work being undertaken by a specialist oil spills company (thankfully being paid for by our insurers).
As if this wasn’t enough we woke this morning to a cold house (we’re getting used to that…) and when I checked the boiler I found that a large jubilee clip had been left off the flue hose that carries away the noxious fumes. The boiler is in a rear porch area and so the fumes had not entered the house but our dog sleeps out there! Fortunately, he seems none the worse for it. I replaced the clip and within seconds the boiler restarted.
As I reflected on this I came to realise the wisdom of my client’s decision to have gas audits undertaken, even if his contractor is registered.
If you have your gas installations serviced annually and don’t have the work audited you may want to consider where you might stand if one of the engineers has an off day.
Incidently I discussed with my client the percentage sampling to be undertaken in teh audit and we thought between 5% and 10%. Upon checking with one of the specialist suppliers of this service it seems many opt for 10% in the first year and once they are satisfied that work is of a good standard reduce the sampling to 5%. It also depends on the size of stock and geography and how may different contractors you use and how many different staff they employ.