Gas Safety Check - Degradation of quality

Landlord Discussion Repairs & Maintenance
1

Has anyone experienced a degradation in quality of this service offered by OpenRent? I have been a regular customer for the past few years always going for the no-frills gas safety check and it was fine. Strangely this year, I noticed that first appointment was re-scheduled and then cancelled. And then, another supplier was assigned who contacted me outside OpenRent to upsell boiler service. Not only that he continued to hassle me and tenant over the weekend to arrange what seemed like an urgent appointment. I fell for it and paid the extra amount. However, I now have a broken boiler and leak which didn’t exist before and is now the result of what I believe is a poor quality of service.

Any other similar stories or is it just be being unlucky this time :frowning: ?

2

Boiler service is a waste of time most of the time. On older boilers especially they can create problems.
Experienced gas engineers know better than to mess with seals on old boilers, so a service often amounts to simply sucking out dust.

Some warranties require them unfortunately.

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3

Have you contacted the gas engineer direct to advise of the problem he created?

4

Thanks Mark10 for your suggestion. The gas engineer has advised that a further repair is needed to stop the leak for which he’s going to provide me with an additional quote. I would prefer to resolve this matter with OpenRent as I requested the service through them. I will let you and others know here how it goes and possibly share the details of the gas engineer so others can beware.

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5

So he’s quoting to fix a leak that he created.

Personally I only use GE I source myself, so I get to know them and are able to see how competent they are. They become familiar with my properties.

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6

I used OR for a gas certificate a few years back. It was okay. Chap did the absolute minimum (I was there). Tried the same guy the following year and what a total a**e. Went back to sourcing my own using the Gas Safe register.

7

You’re not the first I have read unhappy with Open rents Gas safe service.
I use my own and give him repeat business each year. Mine was £80 last year.

8

I use a local gas safe plumber and he charges £65. As I have 5 properties it is easy money for him, so he has done other odd jobs for very reasonable charges and is quickly available for any leaks etc.
No need to use OpenRent if you can find reliable local tradesmen.

9

Firstly you are not having a service, its an inspection. The plumber would not be touching anything to cause a leak. If they noticed one you would or should be advised.

Typical prices are £50-80 but London prices may vary.

Boiler servicing is recommended every 5-7 years depending on your boiler. Parts are stripped out cleaned, returned or replaced.

10

Op mentioned he paid an uplift fee for a service, on top of gas safe inspection.

11

Yes, that’s right. Service done when not needed and while doing so, introduced a leak.

Now, openrent customer support are not accepting responsibility and forwarding me to gas safe register.

I now regret going via openrent as folks have suggested above.

Other landlords out there beware. I would not recommend openrent for booking any services. It’s not worth the hassle when something goes wrong.

12

The last guy I had from OR wanted to do a service but I said no thankyou, he also said that he had to do 10 inspections a day to make it pay !.
It seems all trades now want to make more money and is fixated on that more than doing a good job

13

for my properties the gas safety inspection is done by a qualified experienced plumber and includes a visual pipe inspection. Every 5 years a deep service is done. This work is conducted in the summer when plumbers are quiet and a breakdown is less critical. Moreover the paperwork needs to be accurate for example include the tenant’s name if the tenant is present. Otherwise if there is a problem with the tenant it is the type of thing that can act against me. Not that that is the main reason for doing this properly; a gas keak beyond a certain level will need attending to for obvious reasons. Some gas safe engineers have very little training and experience and I steer clear. It is a false economy to skimp on this as problems start when the cold weather comes and the boiler is used more intensively.

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