Gas boiler checked but still smells of gas

[johnbuckley]

My daughter lives in a rented flat which has an old gas boiler (not combi) fitted.
2 weeks ago she smelled gas in the kitchen where the boiler is fitted so did the right thing switching of the mains and waited for Transco to arrive.

Transco engineer said boiler was leaking and advised to leave gas main off and have sytem checked by gas engineer.

Next day the property management company sent their own gas engineer round and he said that it wasn't leaking gas but due to its age and condition it was not evacuating the byproduct properly to the outside, he also showed evidence of this on the back of the boiler cover being black from fumes.
He then disconnected the gas supply pipe to the boiler so that the gas mains could remain on for the central heating. We then had a visit from another gas engineer on behalf of the landlord. He said that there was nothing wrong with the boiler and it probably smelled because it hadn't been used for a while!
It is now a week later and the boiler has been used non stop, there is still a sickeningly strong smell of gas in the kitchen and it is constant not just when the boiler fires up.

Please can anyone give me some advice? In my book a smell of gas is a bad thing and a potential danger, but who am I to contradict the gas engineer? If we call Transco out again it will probably start the circle over again.

 

[ajstoneservices]

Do not use any appliance you must call NG again(formally Transco) if they disconnect it again give Corgi a ring and pass on the details of your landlord and his engineer telling them whats happened.

Get your own Corgi engineer out to check it and charge the landlord.

 

[gas4you]

If you inform the NG engineer of what has happened, he may well report the engineer for you.

Sadly though turn it off NOW. Call NG NOW. Better to be cold than dead

The property company's engineer seemed to have been correct and the landlord has probably (allegedly) chosen/paid someone to say it is ok to save him having to replace the boiler

Anything with soot marks or stains is Immediatley Dangerous. Although CO is odourless, it is probably other chemicals in the products of combustion that you can smell.

 

[johnbuckley]

Thanks guys.

I'll get them out immediately.

 

[johnbuckley]

NG just been out and said boiler is leaking fumes and is unsafe, thanks for your replies which gave me the confidence to call them out again.

Now the real battle will start tomorrow when we contact the management company to arrange to get the problem sorted.

I am so p*ssed off that the last engineer came out and said that there was nothing wrong with the boiler and declared it safe even though two previous engineers stated otherwise.

Is there any point in complaining? The engineer will probably just say that it was ok when he was there.

 

[Paul Barker]

HSE could easily prove it wasn't ok when he was there. If someone had died the investigation would have been on a massive scale with all the forensic evidence tools available as if it had been a murder.

The insident is surely now RIDDOR reportable the emergency service provider should have reported it.

I don't however follow any conspiratorial ideas that the landlord paid anyone to say it was safe when it wasn't. I imagine that the person who said it was safe was inadequately competent and requires retraining at the very least.

We often have to follow the toffo man ( emergency service provider turns it off and you have to get someone like us to rectify or confirm no faults)

We have to be very sure of our knowledge when we reinstate an appliance under these circumstances. I once reinstated an appliance tofoed by a corgi inspector. I tell you what i checked that one ever so finely. but he was wrong about it.

 

[ajsdoc]

Lots of point in complaining. I'm no gas engineer (and I'm not sure the Landlord's guy is either) but it would seem the Landlord's engineer is acting in the Landlord's interests only.

I wouldn't be surprised if this negligence wasn't a ciminal matter (reconnecting an appliance deemed unsafe by so many experts with the explanation "it's just not been used much"). If it's not criminal it should be.

 

[fitz1]

did the engineer who deemed it safe do any checks on the appliance.

 

[johnbuckley]

did the engineer who deemed it safe do any checks on the appliance.

It's actually my daughters flat so I wasn't there when he came, although I wish I had been. I believe that he left a report but I haven't seen it yet, that should have the details on so I'll get it tomorrow and take a look.

Given the responses so far, I will definitely report it. If I don't then nothing will be done for sure.

Thanks again for replies.

 

[DP]

If you talk to CORGI or health and safety, the person who said your boiler is safe, and it is not, he can end up in the clink.

 

[ollski]

It is always possible that the last guy cleaned and serviced it or made adjustments believing he had rectified the fault, following which it passed all its safety checks....not probable but possible.

 

[johnbuckley]

It is always possible that the last guy cleaned and serviced it or made adjustments believing he had rectified the fault, following which it passed all its safety checks....not probable but possible.

Quite possible I suppose but the smell of gas was still there when he fired it up. That was when he told my daughter that it was because the boiler hadn't been used for a while.

 

[Agile]

I, and none of us, have seen this boiler so we cannot make any comments on the safety or otherwise.

Where this idea of reporting the landlord's engineer falls down is that its most unlikely that anyone knows who he is apart from the landlord who will not be telling.

Thats why if the engineer does not introduce himself and show his CORGI card or give you a business card ( as I do ) then you have no idea who he is or even if he is qualified.

Many people think they can smell gas when its not actually gas they are smelling.

Carbon monoxide is very poisonous but it cannot be smelt. Gas is not poisonous but it can cause an explosion if sufficient concentrations.

Tony

 

[johnbuckley]

I, and none of us, have seen this boiler so we cannot make any comments on the safety or otherwise.

Where this idea of reporting the landlord's engineer falls down is that its most unlikely that anyone knows who he is apart from the landlord who will not be telling.

Thats why if the engineer does not introduce himself and show his CORGI card or give you a business card ( as I do ) then you have no idea who he is or even if he is qualified.

Many people think they can smell gas when its not actually gas they are smelling.

Carbon monoxide is very poisonous but it cannot be smelt. Gas is not poisonous but it can cause an explosion if sufficient concentrations.

Tony

Thanks for your reply.
I was not asking for anyone to comment on the safety of the boiler merely the situation as I presented it. The NG engineer examined it for safety.

The engineer that deemed the boiler safe was from a company so I guess he will be qualified and registered, his details will be on the report sheet that he left with my daughter; I haven't seen this yet.

I appreciate that actual gas in its raw form can't be smelled, I believe that's why chemicals are added so we can detect it. Now this may be the same smell as the byproduct from the combustion, I don't know; but I do know the smell of gas and that's good enough for me. Whether it is poisonous or not, it simply should not be smelled constantly in a room, should it?
Incidentally the room with the boiler has a carbon monoxide detector which was fitted in September.

 

[Agile]

Thats a lot more encouraging!

However, I have not been there or seen anything myself!

If the CO detector is an electronic type with an audible alarm and its not sounding but showing the display and sounds when the test button is pressed then that would imply that the boiler is probably safe as it has not operated.

If its a spot then they are hardly ever looked at and most prople dont even know how to read them.

The NG engineer is only trained in very basic safety aspects and NOT in boilers. If he spots any suspicious aspects he shuts it off and tells you to get a boiler engineer to check it.

If the engineer who put the boiler back on left his details on a report sheet then it sounds as if he was confident to put his name to the safety of the boiler.

He would have primarily have been considering the boiler operation from a CO point of view and not specifically investigating a gas leakage.

As I tried to explain above, many people say they can smell gas when its not actually gas they are smelling. One we dealt with turned out to be an overheating fridge motor for example!

Tony