How To Avoid Cowboy Plumbers

Due to recent legalisation changes, contractors working in the plumbing and heating industry must be part of a competent persons scheme to certify their own work.

Sadly, there are many tragic news stories about cowboy plumbers working on gas and plumbing systems with insufficient qualifications. Often, the work undertaken by these people cause result in injury and death.

A gas fitter was found guilty of causing the death of two elderly friends who died of carbon monoxide poisoning. He had failed to fix the central heating boiler at one of their homes.”

Working with gas is nothing something to be taken lightly, lives are in the hands of gas engineers. This proves just how important it is to make sure that as a customer, you are making sure your plumber/gas engineer is fully qualified.

There are a number of steps that you can take to make sure you have the right person for the job;

1. Reviews are key to finding a trustworthy and competent tradesperson. Ask friend and family if they would recommend their gas engineer.
2. Request their gas safe registration number and check its validity. This can be done via the Gas Safe Register.
3. Ask if the person/company you are considering hiring can provide two references. Legitimate businesses and tradespeople should have no problems providing two testimonials from previously satisfied customers.
4. Pay attention to contact numbers. Reputable companies and tradespeople will usually offer more than one form of contact. Mobile number, email, website, etc. It’s unlikely cowboy plumbers would offer a landline number with a local area code so watch out for that.
5. Professionalism is important. Did you receive a company letter headed document or a quote scribbled on a notepad?
6. Listen to your instinct. If you’re wary of them from the start, it’s worth looking around for another tradesperson.

When you hire a plumber, you need to make sure they’re a professional. That’s why here at Options Skills, we offer a professional plumbing course. We want to help ensure that plumbers across the UK and beyond are competent and confident.