The document people mean by a new boiler installation certificate is the Building Regulations Compliance Certificate. In England it is issued by the competent person scheme your installer is registered with, and gov.uk states you receive it within eight weeks of the work being completed. Two other papers get the same name: the Benchmark commissioning checklist inside your boiler manual, and your manufacturer warranty registration. A gas safety record is a fourth, separate document with its own rules. This page sets out which is which, and what to do when one is missing.
What is the certificate you get after a new boiler installation in England?
A new boiler installation certificate normally means the Building Regulations Compliance Certificate. It comes from the competent person scheme your installer is registered with, not from the installer's own letterhead. A competent person scheme is an authorised body whose members may self-certify that their work meets the Building Regulations. The scheme also notifies the local authority on the installer's behalf where notification is required.
Gov.uk states that you receive a certificate within eight weeks of the work being completed. That certificate is your evidence of compliance for the boiler. It matters again years later, because solicitors' searches ask for it when a home changes hands.
Three separate papers get called a boiler certificate. The Building Regulations Compliance Certificate covers building control in England. The Benchmark checklist records commissioning of the appliance. A gas safety record is a safety check, required of landlords under separate regulations across Great Britain.
Which documents should you have after a new boiler installation?
Four documents matter after a new boiler installation in England, and a fifth applies where a flue is involved. Ask for all of them before the engineer leaves the house or shortly after.
- The user manual and the boiler's own paperwork, kept with the appliance.
- The Benchmark commissioning checklist, filled in and signed by the engineer at the back of the boiler manual.
- The Building Regulations Compliance Certificate from the installer's competent person scheme.
- Your manufacturer warranty registration, which several makers require within 30 days of installation.
- A permanent notice plate. Approved Document J for England requires one, with performance details, fixed in a suitable place where a flue or chimney is provided or extended.
Keep the set together in one folder. A kitchen drawer is fine. The same papers are asked for when you sell, when you claim under warranty and when an engineer attends a later fault.
Is the Benchmark checklist the same as a boiler installation certificate?
No. The Benchmark checklist is a commissioning record, not a building control certificate. Baxi describes the completed checklist as documented evidence that the boiler was installed correctly by a Gas Safe registered engineer, to the manufacturer's instructions, and that it complies with the relevant Building Regulations. Ideal Heating describes Benchmark as a code of practice committing manufacturers and installers to good practice, in line with the Building Regulations in England and Wales.
Worcester Bosch calls the checklist a legal requirement as a means of complying with the Building Regulations that apply in England and Wales. The same manufacturer offers an app version that acts as a boiler passport for the appliance. Ideal Heating also expects the installer doing notifiable work to be a competent person scheme member, or to confirm that the customer informed local authority building control before work started.
Check that the checklist in your manual is dated and signed. A blank Benchmark page is a common reason a later warranty claim stalls.
Does your boiler warranty depend on registering it within 30 days?
Several manufacturers set a 30-day registration window after installation. Worcester Bosch requires the product to be registered within 30 days, and its guarantee length depends on the boiler being serviced annually since installation. That annual service is not part of the guarantee itself, so you arrange and pay for it separately.
Vaillant states that without registration within 30 days the guarantee drops back to 12 months from the installation date. For a claim, Vaillant asks for the Benchmark logbook fully completed and signed by the engineer, with services entered and available to show. Viessmann gives its extended warranty only where the product is registered within 30 days, with annual servicing by a competent, Gas Safe registered person recorded in a Benchmark or Viessmann service logbook.
FM Power registers the manufacturer warranty for the customer after a new boiler installation. Keep the confirmation with the rest of your boiler paperwork.
A new boiler installation certificate is not a gas safety certificate
A gas safety record is a different document from the installation certificate, and it answers a different question. The installation certificate says the work met the Building Regulations. A gas safety record says appliances and flues were checked on a given date, and it exists because of landlord duties under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended, which apply across Great Britain.
Regulation 36 of those regulations sets the deadlines for landlords. Existing tenants get a copy of the record within 28 days of the check. New tenants get it before they occupy the property, and the landlord keeps records for two years. Our guide to landlord gas safety in England sets out what the check itself must cover.
Owner-occupiers have no duty to hold a certificate. HSE advises that all gas appliances, flues and pipework are installed and maintained at least annually by a Gas Safe registered installer.
What if your new boiler certificate never arrived, or you have lost it?
Start with the installer and the competent person scheme they belong to, because the scheme issues the certificate. Their records show whether the installation was ever notified. Our guide on the building regulations compliance certificate after a new boiler explains what to ask for.
Where work was done without approval and was never notified, there is no compliance certificate to reissue. Gov.uk describes regularisation for that situation: a retrospective application to local authority building control for work already carried out. Changes to the installation may be needed before a regularisation certificate can be granted.
Missing paperwork tends to surface during a sale, since gov.uk notes that without approval you lack the compliance documents a buyer's solicitor looks for. If you are selling, see what else is expected in boiler records and gas safety certificates when selling a house.
How do you check the engineer fitting your boiler is registered?
Ask to see the Gas Safe ID card before any work starts. HSE explains that a registered engineer carries a card showing a photograph, a registration number and an expiry date, with the categories of work listed on the back, including boilers. Check that the boiler work you want appears on that list.
Regulation 3 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 as amended, which applies across Great Britain, says nobody may work on a gas fitting unless competent to do so. HSE investigates and prosecutes unregistered gas work, and has reported a run of such prosecutions. A certificate for work done by an unregistered fitter is worth nothing.
FM Power is Gas Safe registered and gives a free home survey and a written fixed price before a new boiler installation starts. Work on gas pipework, the flue or anything behind the boiler casing is for a Gas Safe registered engineer. You can safely check the pressure gauge, the thermostat and programmer settings, press the reset button and bleed a radiator. Once your new boiler is in and its first year is up, you can book its annual boiler service or a repair with us.
Sources
- Building regulations approval: Use a competent person scheme – GOV.UK
- The Building Regulations 2010, regulation 20 – legislation.gov.uk
- The Building Regulations 2010, Schedule 3 – legislation.gov.uk
- Building regulations approval: How to apply (regularisation) – GOV.UK
- Combustion appliances and fuel storage systems: Approved Document J – GOV.UK
- What is the Benchmark scheme – Baxi FAQs
- Benchmarking code of practice – Ideal Heating
- Benchmark App, installer information – Worcester Bosch
- Guarantee terms and conditions – Worcester Bosch
- Domestic boiler guarantee terms and conditions – Vaillant
- Boiler warranty registration – Viessmann UK
- Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 3 – legislation.gov.uk
- Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 36 – legislation.gov.uk
- Check an engineer: are they Gas Safe registered? – HSE
- Gas safety for home owners – HSE