DIY Gas Worrk is Legal. The proof.

Hi WS,and happy easter to you,now this is somewhat interesting,if DIY gas work is legal,Can the DIYer if he desires ask a non corgi installer to do gaswork? given that the installer may be more competant than himself.Should this be the case then nobody is doing anything illegal,have I got it right? I will wait to hear from you and no doubt others,Cheers mucker.

 

I thought this was cleared up ages ago. DIY gas work is legal provided that you are competent. Competence can only be judged by following ACS/CORGI regulations, albeit that you do not need to be tested/registered.

If you are incompetent then the work is illegal, and you could end up being charged with manslaughter if your DIY kills someone.

The same people that do gas DIY are probably the same as those who are teaching themselves to fly a plane also. All hail Darwin again!

 

Anyone can do gas work as long as it is not for profit. As soon as you charge for it, it then becomes a business and required to be CORGI. I've yet to meet an installer that's so incompetent they can't even charge money

 

Read my post again, especially the end bit.




you must be joking,life's too short.

 

Competency hasn't been defined but if push came to shove and a DIYer was prosecuted for carrying out gas work incompetntly then I'm sure the gas regs would be the defining factor.

In reality it's academic because it is extremely unlikely that it will ever happen.

Incompetence is much harder to prove than competence and it would be the legal burden of the prosecutor to do the proving. How on earth do you prove incompetence as opposed to having a bad day?

 

Read this.

2 Legal Requirements & Safety

a) Is it legal to do DIY work on gas?

In short, yes it is, but only if you are competent to do so.

So how is competence judged? You are to be your own judge of whether you are competent or not, but should some catastrophe result from your work, then it would seem clear that you were not competent and should not have tackled the work. That could leave you vulnerable to legal action (assuming you were still alive).

This question arises almost weekly on the news group uk.d-i-y and can generate heated and inconclusive discussions, sometimes propagating wrong information.


Like some other aspects of DIY there are laws governing gas fitting. These are the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 published by the Heath & Safety Executive (HSE), ISBN 0-7176-1635-5, and are online at: http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1998/19982451.htm


Regulation 3 (1) effectively says that anyone who works on gas must be competent. Regulation 3 (3) effectively says that anyone who is rewarded for gas work (in money or otherwise) must be registered with CORGI. The guidance notes published along with the laws state that level of competence must match the work being done.

I don’t think there has been a legal ruling yet on precisely what competence means in regard to DIY gas fitting, but for professionals it means they have the knowledge, experience and exam passes in the relevant aspects of gas fitting. There are dozens of exam categories covering domestic, commercial, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and more exotic gas fitting skills.

Opinions vary amongst DIYers as to the range of gas work they may undertake. The HSE and CORGI are unsurprisingly keen to stress that gas work should be done by competent people. It is my belief that the law is really aimed at eradicating the unregistered professionals whose motivation is their pocket and for whom public safety and customer satisfaction are at best secondary. Incompetent DIY gas fitting is inevitably unstoppable (for instance, I once saw a photo of a home made boiler). The HSE state that the majority of fatal gas incidents occur to the old, the poor, students, and those in rented housing. The regulations specifically try to address this situation.

Whilst gas fitting is potentially the most dangerous of all DIY activities, the public perception of the dangers of gas are often over-estimated, perhaps because when occasionally a gas explosion occurs it is reported as a national news item. To put it bluntly, you are at least 50 times more likely to be killed on the road than by a faulty gas installation.

Most DIYers would agree that at least some work on a gas appliance is permitted, and hardly any would say you should not even change a thermocouple. At the other extreme, replacing a multi-function gas control in a boiler would be beyond most DIYers. There are shops and mail order companies that sell spare parts for gas appliances, in fact obtaining the correct spare part for a gas appliance seems easier than for most other type of appliance. However some shops may refuse to sell ‘gas carrying parts’ to someone who is not CORGI registered, but will sell thermocouples, pressure switches, fans, etc.

You may have seen notices in some of the big DIY chains saying they “don’t give advice about gas fitting, and are thus complying with the law”. I don’t think there is anything in the regulations that forbids them, but perhaps their legal department fear that giving advice might be thought of as aiding and abetting incompetent, and therefore illegal gas fitting.

 

I don't see that competency is that hard to prove. Basically if it is unsafe or installed contrary to GSI&UR or mfrs instructions then you are not - by definition - competent.

 

DIY gas work is legal. Full stop end of story.

Whether DIY gas work is a good idea is what is open to question.

The answer is down to competence as in most things. Competence is not defined in law but when it is considered (in civil suites) the level of competence required not to be negligent is always set very low.

If competence were to be considered in gas work for DIY then it would probably be by outcome. That is, if the result were barely satisfactory no matter how messy and how many safety procedures missed, the matter of competence would be rested.

More important is what could happen: injury and death. Any court case is likely to arise because of this and not simply because the work has been done incompetently. In that case the business of competence is likely to be the least of the DIYer's worries.

Businesses selling gas bits are able to decide their own policy about whom they will sell stuff to (as in all things) or what advice (or whether) to give.

 

I don't see that competency is that hard to prove.
Basically if it is unsafe or installed contrary to
GSI&UR or mfrs instructions then you are not - by
definition - competent.


I don't think it's that simple as far as the law is concerned. Most car accidents are caused as a result of mistakes made by normally competent drivers.

I think it would take a test case to really ratify the law but I doubt that it will ever happen.

My own view is that it is unlikely that DIY gas work will ever be banned in the UK, although many people would disagree I thnk that the ability to do your own work is a fundemntal human right and the government would be reluctant to ban it without good cause.

It would also be very difficult to police and until the government find a way to police it's existing laws it would be silly to introduce any new ones!

 

I don't see that competency is that hard to prove.
Basically if it is unsafe or installed contrary to
GSI&UR or mfrs instructions then you are not - by
definition - competent.

This is not a legal definition and has no validity.

Do not mix up the requirements of CORGI with general law.

If you are an RGI you have to adhere to the regs. If you do not you can be struck off or prosecuted even if nothing has gone wrong. (in theory anyway, it's not just gas regs but also HaSaW)

If you are a DIYer then no one is going to prosecute you unless something has gone catastrophically wrong. HaSaW doesn't apply.

 

WS,Please answer me a simple question. Are you Corgi registered,i,ll expect a quick reply because your at the computer Thanks

 

DIY gas work is legal. Full stop end of story.

Whether DIY gas work is a good idea is what is
open
to question.

The answer is down to competence as in most
things.
Competence is not defined in law but when it is
considered (in civil suites) the level of
competence required not to be negligent is always
set
very low.

If competence were to be considered in gas work
for
DIY then it would probably be by outcome. That
is,
if the result were barely satisfactory no matter
how
messy and how many safety procedures missed, the
matter of competence would be rested.

The HSE do not consider DIY gas work an area of
concern. See the 1st post

More important is what could happen: injury and
death.

Both DIY & pro have to be competent, which equally
applies.

What actual points are you trying to make with regard to my post?

Neither of your comments actually relate to anything I have said.

None of my comments actually contradicted anything you said.

 

Of course he is NOT CORGI registered, that is why he is always trying to prove DIY gas work is not illegal, in fact he does not have any qualifications in our industry

 

Much as I'm not a fan of Walter Smitty I have to say that technically he is right. DIY gas work is not illegal....and this is becoming SOOoooo boooooring ZZZzzz,,,,....

 

Of course he is NOT CORGI registered, that is why he
is always trying to prove DIY gas work is not
illegal, in fact he does not have any qualifications
in our industry



So thats why he hasnt replied? shame on you WS.I wonder if you had been Corgi registered,Would you have slagged our trade off.Remember old boy, people are trying to make living. So if you have no qualifications in GAS I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself