Disclaimer Mods please take note

[Slugbabydotcom]

Take a look at THIS first
Looking at both sides of the sub-issue
The guy wants his boiler to work.
Tony wants to see safe procedures followed as do all of us who are here to help.

To save us repeating ourselves would it be possible to have a more prominent disclaimer regarding the safety issues. Perhaps as a T&C's window when a new topic is posted or maybe in a noticeable position on every topic.

I know there is a disclaimer somewhere which should protect us from being sued but by giving it a greater presence; in the form of a short sharp reminder I believe we could stop DIYers from exceeding their limitations, prevent accidents and be more helpful to those who seek advice and information here.


Please register your support [or otherwise] here with or without a suggestion of how this disclaimer if adopted should be worded or presented.

Here's my first idea of how the message should go.

"We do our best but following our advice could be dangerous
Read our T&C's [link]
Stay safe"


Is that the right message?
Could it be more briefly worded?
Can we make it happen?

_____________________________
Lynda, moderator

If enough people agree, I suggest you contact admin, as moderators we can not do as you ask

 

[2face]

i
agree

 

[Agile]

Firstly, you cannot contract out of common law.

Whatever disclaimer may be provided it cannot be guaranteed in law to have any or much effect.

The only way to prevent any risk of liability is to give the correct advice which in many cases is to recommend them to get a qualified expert. I always try to do this if I think the person concerned does not have the necessary skills. Some people like aircraft engineers obviously have considerable skills in allied technologies and I am happy to give them relevant advice.

If anyone died then the first legal attack would be on the site owner for running a site giving advice which could kill someone. Its not the advice itself but encouraging someone to do something they are clearly not fully competent to do. The safety requirements are easy to a professional like isolating electricity and gas. However a DIYer cannot be expected to know how to check that the electricity is really off. A good professional will check the polarity and that the supply really is off before touching anything.

Tony

 

[ollski]

Of course you cannot encourage but all this information is freely available in the public domain. I'm fully aware that freedom of speech no longer exists but surely we don't need to start nannying and censoring information on the correct operation of a boiler.

 

[ChrisR]

The only way to prevent any risk of liability is to give the correct advice

But in the absence of full information we cannot guarantee to do that.

There isn't much point constantly advising, "Don't touch anything". People will, we can only warn where it looks like someone may be going too far - in our opinion.

Yes I do think there should be a prominent statement that working on a gas appliance is illegal and dangerous if you are not competent.

I always try to say something like
"It sounds like the problem may be a faulty xxxx", rather than
"Get a xxxx and change it and see what happens".

But any advice on any subject could get someone into trouble. Let's face it if we're reasonably sensible we aren't going to get sued.

 

[Agile]

the correct advice which in many cases is to recommend them to get a qualified expert.
Tony

Just correcting a partial quote out of context!

Part of giving correct advice is to include that a gas valve should normally be replaced by a CORGI engineer.

Unfortunately there are some people here who write as if they are telling a CORGI what to do. "Undo the two pipes to change the gas valve"!

The plain fact is that they are asking here because they do not know how to fix their boiler. And advice should therefore include "if you are competent to so it".

Tony

 

[ChrisR]

correct

Just correcting a perfectly correct quote!

What constitutes "correct" advice is subjective, unless it's to say don't touch and call a pro in all cases.

in many cases

implies that you/we are deciding on matters on which we don't have full information, and what "competence" we are assuming the questioner has.

I think a general notice, as suggested by others above, combined with caution on our part, would be no less effective than trying to guess every situation.

I agree entirely that we should be careful about giving too much detail, which can be inappropriate even to a pro because it's an open forum.

 

[the plumbing miracle]

why are you giving out gas technical advice as you are well aware a diy cannot do it. Why do you spend all your time going on courses and registering with corgi for diyers to get the info and do it themselves talk about shooting yourself in the foot

 

[the plumbing miracle]

dont give out gas advice on a diy not forum dont be a know all

 

[ollski]

why are you giving out gas technical advice as you are well aware a diy cannot do it. Why do you spend all your time going on courses and registering with corgi for diyers to get the info and do it themselves talk about shooting yourself in the foot

Because it is not a secret, I have a gardener but he still revealed to me how to grow tomatoes properly. We are not bound by the official secrets of heating act and if someone needs adivise I will try to help out....I believe in karma. It would be very easy to buy a tolleys or viper book and find what you need to know but someone has taken the trouble to come here and ask so normally deserves a little help. When they have the information on what is required to do the job they can decide if they have the competance to do it. Much better to help where you can rather than let people fumble blindly with potentially harmful appliances

 

[scatmanjohn]

ollski wrote:

I have a gardener

Do you have a butler as well.

 

[Agile]

Yes, but 30 people are killed by faulty gas appliances every year.

I doubt that many people are killed by growing tomatoes!

 

[ollski]

Yes, but 30 people are killed by faulty gas appliances every year.

I doubt that many people are killed by growing tomatoes!

How many of those 30 were killed by diy, how many by a corgi and how many by a lack of maintenance at all?

scatman I have a wife.

 

[Agile]

About 22 were as a result of the user's actions.

Presumably this was using something unsafe, lack of maintenance, blocking ventilation etc.

The remaining 8 were presumably as a result of faulty maintenance or installation. We have heard of three recently ( plus a dog ).

Tony

 

[ollski]

Where have you got the current info from Tony?, last I have seen from hse was 18 deaths in 2004 / 05. You need to be careful with incidents caused by the householder as this includes suicides and people dying from lighting bbq's indoors plus of course, as you say, a lack of servicing and maintenance.