Gas Safety Checks vs Full Services: A Change That Could Benefit Your Business
Recently, both the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council (HHIC) and the Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA) have called for gas safety checks to be made more meaningful by upgrading them to include full boiler services.
Their argument? Rather than a gas safety check simply determining safe operation, servicing offers efficiency improvements and benefits for both landlords and tenants.
This proposed change has come about amidst ambitious plans to improve the energy rating of privately rented homes to EPC band C by 2030 – but would this be a good or bad change for your heating and plumbing business?
What could this mean for your business?
As you’ll already know, a service ensures the appliance is in good working order — not just safe to operate like gas safety checks do. If all of your gas safety checks were to include a boiler service, there would be a few immediate changes:
Firstly, these jobs would take slightly longer, meaning you can charge more per job and probably earn a nice bit of extra profit. There will also be significantly less running around from address to address between short safety check jobs, meaning less wasted fuel and time spent on the road.
On top of this, servicing a boiler can often reveal preventative maintenance work. In these cases, a small job can turn into a larger job with a quote, second visit, and happy customer. Even if they don’t want to go ahead with your suggestions, you’ve at least given them advance warning which they are bound to appreciate.
Lastly, this change could also mean an even greater demand for service engineers, as a more thorough check will leave less time to work with.
As a bonus, for the engineers who find routine gas safety checks a bit mundane, this offers the perfect opportunity to get a bit more variety with your work.
How would it benefit your customers?
We’ll start with the obvious point: more efficient boilers run cheaper, meaning tenants would save money in the long run. Concerns have already been raised that there isn’t much of an incentive for landlords, even if the HHIC and EUA suggest that the foresight provided by a complete service (say, if an engineer identifies that the boiler only has a year or so left in it) is enough. Some people have pointed out, however, that the additional cost could simply be passed on to the tenant.
In addition, manufacturer warranties often stipulate yearly servicing to claim the full duration. Landlords opting for gas safety checks over slightly more costly services are sometimes unknowingly voiding this warranty, causing headaches and situations for installers where they (unfairly) get the blame.
Under this suggested change, you wouldn’t have to worry about these situations or have to explain to customers the terms of their warranty.
Will the paperwork change? CP12s vs Service Records
In short, no! If you were doing a boiler service during a gas safety check, all you would have to do is tick the “Appliance Serviced” box on the gas safety record. This can be done quickly and easily via Gas Engineer Software, and will appear directly on the certificate for each appliance.
Create all your gas certificates with Gas Engineer Software
No matter what changes, all your records and certificates — CP12s, warning notices, service sheets, installation/commissioning checklists — can be done through our app. It’s quick, easy, and saves you the headache of manual paperwork.
