A boiler is notified to building control by the installer or by the competent person scheme the installer belongs to, and the proof is a Building Regulations compliance certificate carrying a notification number. To check, look for that number on the certificate and in the notification field of the Benchmark checklist. If the number is missing, ask the scheme operator the firm is registered with, then ask your local authority building control for its record. The legal position here is England, under the Building Regulations 2010 and the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended.
Compliance certificate or gas safety record: which one shows the boiler was notified?
Two documents get mixed up after a boiler is fitted in England: the Building Regulations compliance certificate and the gas safety record. Only the compliance certificate comes out of the notification to building control.
| Criterion | Building Regulations compliance certificate | Gas safety record (CP12) |
|---|---|---|
| What it shows | That the installation was notified and is recorded as meeting the Building Regulations | That the appliances and flues passed a gas safety check on the date shown |
| Who issues it | The competent person scheme the installer belongs to, or the local authority on its own application route | The Gas Safe registered engineer who carried out the check |
| Reference to look for | A notification number, which also belongs in the notification field of the Benchmark checklist | The engineer registration details, plus the result recorded for each appliance |
| When it is due | Within 30 days of completion under regulation 20, Building Regulations 2010, in England | After each check; landlords in England repeat the check every 12 months |
| Where it is asked for | Conveyancing searches and lender questions when the property is sold | Tenants, letting agents and the council when a let property is inspected |
Ideal Heating draws the same line: Building Regulations compliance and a gas safety certificate are two separate things, and the gas safety certificate is not a legal requirement for an owner-occupier. A landlord's annual record is a different duty again. If you are unsure which piece of paper you are holding, our guide on which boiler certificate you have works through each document in turn, as does our guide on a gas safety certificate that looks different.
Boiler or heating problem at home? Call 07447 364648 or WhatsApp us. We are also reachable at night for emergencies.
How to check whether your boiler was notified: five paper checks you can make
Checking whether a boiler was notified to building control is paperwork, not work on the appliance. Nothing here involves opening the boiler casing, touching the flue or testing gas, which is work for a Gas Safe registered engineer. Each step below can be done from the file you keep for the property.
- Find the notification number. It sits on the Building Regulations compliance certificate issued after the installation.
- Check the Benchmark checklist. Baxi asks the customer to enter the notification number on the checklist once it arrives, so a blank field is the clearest warning sign.
- Go back to the firm that did the work. GOV.UK says to contact the competent person scheme operator the installer is registered with if no certificate has arrived within 30 days of completion.
- Identify the right scheme. GOV.UK publishes the currently authorised competent person schemes, what each one covers and their contact numbers.
- Ask your local authority building control. Where work was neither notified to a building control body nor carried out by a scheme-registered firm, the council holds no record that it meets the Building Regulations.
The notification number is the thing to look for. An invoice, a gas safety record and a registered manufacturer guarantee can all exist for a boiler that was never notified to building control.
Whose job is it to notify building control, and how do you check the installer could self-certify?
Notifying building control about a boiler is the installer's job, not the householder's, when the work is done by a firm registered with a competent person scheme. GOV.UK states that you do not need to apply for building regulations approval yourself in that case. The firm, or its scheme, sends the notification and the compliance certificate follows.
Self-certification is only open to certain people. Schedule 3 of the Building Regulations 2010 allows the installation of a gas-fired heat producing appliance to be self-certified where the person doing the work is a member of a class of persons approved under regulation 3 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended. In practice that means Gas Safe registration, and HSE explains how to check a registration and an engineer's ID card. Where a firm was not registered and no application went to a building control body, nothing was notified and there is no certificate to find.
When should the boiler's compliance certificate arrive: 30 days or 8 weeks?
Regulation 20 of the Building Regulations 2010 sets 30 days from completion in England. Within that period the person carrying out the work must give the local authority either a notice or the certificate, and must give the occupier a copy of the certificate.
GOV.UK words it differently for consumers and says the certificate should reach you within 8 weeks of completion. Read the 30 days as the deadline written into the regulation and the 8 weeks as the window GOV.UK quotes to householders. Either way, GOV.UK's advice if nothing has arrived 30 days after completion is to contact the competent person scheme operator the installer is registered with. Viessmann gives the same consumer steer: chase the firm that did the work, because the certificate is wanted when the property is sold.
Keep the certificate with the appliance paperwork rather than loose. Our guide to the boiler installation certificate sets out what should be in the pack after a new or replacement boiler.
Why a registered manufacturer guarantee does not prove the boiler was notified
A registered manufacturer guarantee tells you nothing about building control. Guarantee registration runs through the manufacturer; notification runs to the local authority or through a competent person scheme. Two separate channels, two separate records.
Worcester Bosch, for example, requires the guarantee to be registered within 30 days of installation, requires the product to have been installed and commissioned correctly by a competent and officially certified business, and makes annual servicing a condition of the guarantee. A confirmation email from the manufacturer therefore proves the guarantee is live. It does not show that a notification number exists for the boiler, which is why the Benchmark checklist has its own field for that number.
What you can do when building control has no record of the boiler
Regularisation is the route when a boiler was installed without being notified, one of the cases behind replace a gas boiler or face a fine warnings. Regulation 18 of the Building Regulations 2010 covers unauthorised building work, such as an extension built over a boiler flue, carried out on or after 11 November 1985, meaning work done without a building notice, without an application for building control approval with full plans, without a notice of intention to start work and without an effective initial notice.
The owner may apply in writing to the relevant authority for a regularisation certificate, with a description of the work and, so far as is reasonably practicable, a plan. The authority may require work to be opened up for inspection, and may require tests and samples. Regulation 18 says the authority may give a certificate, so there is no entitlement to one. A regularisation certificate also counts as evidence, but not conclusive evidence, that the requirements were met.
Our guide on a boiler not notified to building control follows the regularisation route in England step by step.
Why a missing boiler notification surfaces when you sell or let the property
A missing notification usually comes to light during conveyancing. GOV.UK says these records matter when a home is sold, because evidence of compliance can be requested, and its guidance for sellers lists the paperwork buyers expect. Where no building control body was told and no scheme-registered firm did the work, the council has no record that the boiler complies, so there is nothing for a solicitor to produce.
Letting a property adds a separate duty that is not satisfied by the compliance certificate, and it sits alongside the EPC C by 2030 heating improvements standard for lets, as does a council improvement notice for excess cold. Landlords in England must arrange an annual gas safety check of the appliances and flues under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended, and give tenants a record of it, as HSE sets out. Our guide to landlord gas safety in England covers that duty in full, and first-time landlord gas certificates covers a first tenancy. If the annual check is the next thing due at the address, you can arrange a landlord gas safety certificate (CP12) alongside sorting out the building control paperwork.
Sources
- The Building Regulations 2010, regulation 20 — legislation.gov.uk
- The Building Regulations 2010, regulation 18 (regularisation) — legislation.gov.uk
- The Building Regulations 2010, Schedule 3 (self-certifiable work) — legislation.gov.uk
- Building regulations approval: use a competent person scheme — GOV.UK
- Building work, replacements and repairs to your home — GOV.UK
- Competent person scheme: current schemes and how schemes are authorised — GOV.UK
- How to sell a home — GOV.UK
- Check an engineer: are they Gas Safe registered? — HSE
- Gas safety: landlords and letting agents — HSE
- Benchmark for installers — Baxi
- Key changes in notification have recently come into effect — Ideal Heating
- Does my new boiler need a Gas Safe Register certificate? — Ideal Heating
- Does a new boiler need a gas safety certificate? — Viessmann
- Product guarantees — Worcester Bosch