pgrbff
Established Member
I just paid £171 for a gas safety check on a rental property. Am I out of touch or is this a lot?
Gas safety check on rental property. How much?
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John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
I believe it depends on the number of appliances.
It gives you and the tennants peace of mind and the Gas safe guy has taken full responsibility by signing off the property as safe so less than £200 must be worth it, not a lot as a percentage of the rental income.
pgrbff
Established Member
I haven't been in the flat since 1989 but I think it is just a boiler.
Here in Ital a gas safety check on a boiler is 100 euro ish.
Here in Ital a gas safety check on a boiler is 100 euro ish.
HOJ
Established Member
Wait till you get a bill for an EICR!!! and all the "recommendations" that come with it.
pgrbff
Established Member
It's my parents flat but they're in their 90s so I look after it. Maybe I have lost the plot but shouldn't the cost reflect the work done? I have no idea how long it takes to do a gas safety check but here in Italy it includes a rudimentary service and costs only £90. I haven't lived in the UK since the early 90's, many things are still cheaper in the UK.
pgrbff
Established Member
The inspection in the Uk will check condition of flues looking for any signs of condensate leakage, burner gas pressures, flue gas to check for combustion by-products and ensure complete combustion and if done throughly also check the flue discharge because I have seen these hidden by large amounts of undergrowth which can cause issues. The electrical EICR report will often take longer and can be a lot more involved but depends on the person doing it and how thorough they are.
£87 for gas and electric check.
Seems a bit high but it pays to shop around. The biggest issue is customers will often see it as a boiler service but it’s a gas safety check- it’s mainly the visual checks and the location and the installation aspects of the heating boiler and system and associated safety components. The gas supply is also tested and confirmed safe to use and again the correct materials and fittings have been used . If the boiler is deemed as in need of a service or repair this information is recorded on the gas safety certificate and would of course have to be addressed so the second cert proves it’s been repaired. Just like your mot- it fails first then you have the work done and then you get your pass. But the defect is always recorded to advise the owner and to protect the engineer.
MorrisWoodman12
Established Member
I have two flats in Ramsgate/Broadstairs. Both have a gas boiler and a gas hob. Basic safety check and service costs me £110 each so £171 seems a little high to me. Depends if any extra work had to be done.
Martin
Martin
This is too cheap for both checks and suggests it is not being done correctly.
It is simply not possible in todays world to run a vehicle provide tools and training and complete these two checks for the sum of £87.00
Even for cash (no income tax or vat) this would actually cost the engineer completing the work.
£171 may seem like alot of money, however a Landlord is offloading alot of risk to a gas engineer who has undergone years of (expensive) training outlayed thousands on tools with ongoing costs per year to maintain gas analysers and other calibrated equipment.
The engineer also has costly memberships to pay out every year just to be able to work in the gas industry.
It is normal for back street garages to charge £50-£60 per hour plus vat for car repairs, while main dealers charge £120 plus vat per hour. It is normal for a hairdressers to charge £50 - £60 pounds and upwards for a ladies hair cut but for some inexplicable reason fully qualified gas engineers and electricians are seemingly causing offence charging anywhere near these sums.
Yes I would say its at the higher end, and I personally would have found an alternate engineer who represented better value to me.
But at the end of the day if the engineer turned up on time did as asked and provided a good service then thats what your paying for.
It's always worth checking with British Gas for offers on Service items as they have a large number of engineers to keep busy and as such when they are expecting a quiet spell they splurge some offers out to maintain a level of work.
Barkisland
Member
We pay £50 for our annual Gas Safe certification so that does appear steep to me as a Yorkshireman.
gregmcateer
Established Member
We pay £80 for gas safety and service here in the west Midlands. Good, reliable guy we use.
Electric is more, but again, reliable guy and he does have to go round every termination, check and record it.
Electric is more, but again, reliable guy and he does have to go round every termination, check and record it.
I pay £150 (inc vat) for a boiler service so seems fine for a safety check.
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Some mighty big assertions in there. I get this done every year on our rental property. The company that does it has been in business for many years and are fully licensed for gas and electrical work. They are very good, extremely responsive and very reasonably priced. That is down to the proprietor who is a real gent who looks after his customers.
I suggest you pull your neck back in a bit.
It's worth noting that a 'Gas Safety Test Report' comprises a series of visual checks and does NOT include a tighness test of the gas supply (unless the customer specifically asks for one). It's also worth noting that in addition to the mandated a visual 'once-over'and checks to confirm satisfactory operation of the appliance controls and safety devices, the overall condition / performance of the appliance is established by a quick check using a FGA (Flue Gas Analyser).
Unfortunately, many people equate a 'service' of a gas appliance to a 'service' of a car (where actual things are done - eg: plugs, oli, filters etc are changed). A bolier 'service' is somewhat of a misnomer because it is invariably achieved by nothing more than those items covered by a Gas Safety Test Report. Gone are the days when the gas operative would remove boiler casing, hoover out the burner (removing scale depsits that fall from the heat exchanger etc). Even emptying / cleaning a condesate trap seems to much bother for some guys.
When a customer asks me to 'service' an appliance, the first thing I ask is: "what's wrong with it ?" If there is a known problem, that 'service' now becomes a repair (which is invoiced at a different rate) ....
You make a good point. We also have an annual ‘service’ of the heating which is separate to the gas safety test where the engineer runs up the system, checks the pressure, the radiator valves, bleeds the system if needed and checks the hot water. It’s surprising how many tenants even know that those things need to be done.
The safety test certificate is required for letting the property. Maintaining the system and it actually working are a completely separate thing to the safety test.
Dibs-h
Established Member
Let me start by saying I don't doubt the expensive training, the unpaid time off and the cost of kit etc. And stuff has to paid for - van, phone, training, subs etc.
But no gas engineer has kit (roll cab, tools, timing tools that only work on one brand\model) running into 10's of thousands if not more. And that's before the eye-watering costs of diagnostic kit and the subscriptions to the manufacturer as the kit has to talk to the "mothership" before allowing many procedures on most modern cars.
Any gas engineer or electrician wanting to charge close to £120 plus VAT - is taking the proverbial.
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Everyone has their price wether they are providing a service or benefiting from one . There is no guarantee that the £120 per hour gas engineer will be anymore or less diligent than the £70 per hour engineer. The average person knows nothing about the gas industry and the relevant rules and how they can be enforced. As others have said if the guy has turned up , done what is required and left the appropriate paperwork etc then the average customer will be happy with the work. There are rouges in every industry and trade so just avoiding these types is difficult enough. Sometimes it’s worth paying a little over the odds for peace of mind.
