Ask what it touches
Gas, unvented, water fittings, or more than one.
High Wycombe · Heating and plumbing
One trade.
One trade.
Three separateregimes.
Gas work is reserved and needs registration. An unvented cylinder is a different competence and notifiable work. Water fittings are a third regime with their own notifications. Being covered for one proves nothing about the other two.
- 2018formed in
- 3regimes
- G3separate
- Verifythe number
What we do
Four jobs, three regimes
Which regime a job touches gets established before a price, because it decides who may lawfully do it.
Gas work
Work on gas appliances and fittings, which only a registered business may do.
See the programUnvented hot water
Unvented cylinders, which need a separate competence and are notifiable work.
See the programWater fittings
Plumbing work subject to water fittings rules and advance notification.
See the programQuotes and findings
A price before the work, and anything unsafe reported in writing.
See the program
How it works
How we work
Establish which of the three regimes a job touches before pricing it, publish the registration number and invite you to check it on the public register, identify a notification before the work rather than after, and refer anything outside what we are covered for.
Show what covers it
And tell you to verify it yourself.
Price it before starting
With nothing added without agreement.
Hand over the paperwork
Certificates and notification records.
Working together
What it costs
Quoted per job in pounds sterling before work starts. Nothing beyond a quote is charged without your agreement first.
A repair or service
Priced after a look, agreed before starting.
- Regime identified first
- Registration checkable
- Price agreed in advance
- Safety findings in writing
- No charge beyond the quote
An installation
Including where notification or certification applies.
- Notifiable work identified early
- Separate competences checked
- Certificates handed to you
- Backflow protection addressed
- Dates moved rather than rushed
What we will not do
Said up front, because this is safety work.
- No gas work without registration
- No unvented without the competence
- No unnotified notifiable work
- No leaving something dangerous
- No promise on remaining life
Every engagement is quoted after a free consultation. No subscription.
How we work
One registration covers one thing
ROB A HEATING AND PLUMBING ENGINEER LTD was incorporated in England and Wales on 1 May 2018 under company number 11339717, with its registered office in High Wycombe. The work is heating and plumbing. The classification recorded at the companies registry relates to conveying gas through mains, which is a utility activity requiring a licence this company does not hold and does not claim; it does not describe what the business does.
Customers generally assume that a heating engineer holds one credential covering everything they might be asked to do, and that assumption is where the risk sits. There are three separate regimes in this trade. Gas work is reserved: only a business registered with the gas safety register may work on gas fittings and appliances, and doing it without registration is a criminal offence. An unvented hot water cylinder above the prescribed size needs a competence entirely separate from that registration and counts as notifiable building work, and the separation is not administrative tidiness: an unvented system stores energy and can fail violently if its safety devices are absent, wrong or neglected. Water fittings form a third regime, where certain installations must be notified to the water undertaker in advance, fittings must comply, and backflow prevention protects the public mains rather than only the property. Contravening those requirements is an offence too. Holding one of the three establishes nothing whatever about the other two. So the useful question before any job is which regimes it touches, what covers each, and the number you can check yourself on a public register rather than a card held up at a door.
Frequently asked
The questions we get most
Does being gas registered cover everything you might do here?
No, and that is the single most useful thing on this page. Gas registration covers gas work. An unvented hot water cylinder needs a separate competence and is notifiable building work in its own right. Water fittings are a third regime with their own compliance and notification requirements. The three are genuinely independent, and someone properly covered for one may have nothing at all for the others.
How do I check a gas registration?
On the public register, using the number rather than the card. Our number is on the legal page precisely so it can be checked. A card shown at the door tells you less than people think, because it is the register that is current and a card is only as current as the day it was printed. Nobody working properly minds being checked, and a tradesperson who takes offence has answered a different question.
Why is an unvented cylinder treated separately?
Because of what it is. An unvented system is pressurised and stores energy, and if its safety devices are missing, incorrectly specified or neglected it can fail violently rather than simply leak. That physical risk is why the competence sits apart from gas registration and why installation is notifiable building work. Anyone implying that a gas ticket covers unvented work is either mistaken or relying on you not knowing.
Plumbing is unregulated though, isn't it?
Not as unregulated as people assume. Water fittings have to comply with their own regulations, certain installations must be notified to the water undertaker in advance of the work, and backflow prevention requirements exist to stop contamination reaching the public supply, not just your property. Contravention is an offence. It is a quieter regime than gas, which is exactly why it gets ignored.
What happens if you find something dangerous?
You get it in writing rather than a verbal mention on the way out. Where something is immediately dangerous we may decline to leave an appliance or installation in service, and if you instruct otherwise, that instruction gets recorded. It is an uncomfortable conversation occasionally, and it is considerably better than the alternative version where nobody wrote anything down.
Will you take on a job you are not covered for?
No. Where a job touches a regime we are not registered or qualified for, it is referred rather than attempted. That costs us work sometimes, and it is the only defensible answer in a trade where the failure modes include carbon monoxide, a pressurised cylinder and contamination of the public water supply. Ask any tradesperson the same question and listen carefully to the answer.
Got a job that needs looking at?
Ask what it touches. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.