The legal position is that the fitting of combustion appliances is work covered by building regulations and should be done under the supervision of the local authority building control department (or LABC). Typically a fee is charged for the pleasure.
In regions where competent persons schemes such as OFTEC are active, because registered technicians have already been assessed and deemed to be competent, they can sign off their own work and there is no need to contact LABC.
Aside from the other benefits of registration, my advice to technicians that want to abide by the law in England and Wales, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, is that they should consider the price of OFTEC registration against the cost of LABC involvement on each installation.
Regarding the old days of the commissioning technician signing off the installation work, this was never acceptable practice and left the commissioning guy completely exposed. Nowadays, the commissioning of appliances is considered part of the installation work, which comprises of the specification, installation, commissioning, and handover, and is the responsibility of the main contractor, typically the installer.
For a technician’s protection if disputes arise, OFTEC would not condone registered commissioning technicians signing the paperwork for the installation. Once your name and signature is on an installation completion report, it would be very difficult to argue that you are not responsible for the installation.
Hope this clarifies the situaion.
Malcolm Farrow – OFTEC marketing and communications manager