What Does a Boiler Installation Certificate Look Like?

When people ask what a boiler installation certificate looks like, they almost always mean the Building Regulations Compliance Certificate issued by Gas Safe Register. It usually arrives as a single A4 sheet, or as a PDF by email, and it is the document a solicitor will ask for when you come to sell the house. There are two other pieces of paperwork that get confused with it, so it is worth being clear about which is which.

What the certificate actually is

Replacing a boiler is notifiable work under the Building Regulations. Rather than making you apply to your local authority, the system lets a Gas Safe registered business notify the installation on your behalf. Gas Safe Register then tells your local authority building control department, and issues you the compliance certificate as the record that it was done.

The engineer notifies the work within 30 days of completing it. The certificate follows from Gas Safe Register itself, not from the installer, which is why it does not turn up on the day.

What is on it

The layout varies slightly, but a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate will show:

• Your name and the address where the work was carried out
• The date the work was completed
• A description of the work and the appliance installed
• The name of the registered business and its Gas Safe registration number
• The registration number of the individual engineer
• A statement that the work has been notified and meets the relevant Building Regulations

It is worth checking the address and the appliance details when it arrives, because correcting a mistake is far easier straight away than years later during a sale.

The Benchmark checklist is a different document

Inside the boiler's installation manual there is a Benchmark commissioning checklist. The installer fills this in and signs it when the boiler is commissioned, and it records things like the gas rate, the combustion readings and the system details.

That checklist stays with you, usually in the boiler handbook. It matters because most manufacturers want to see a completed Benchmark record, and evidence of annual servicing since, before honouring their own warranty. Losing the handbook is a genuine problem for a warranty claim, so it is worth putting somewhere sensible rather than in the boiler cupboard.

The compliance certificate satisfies the Building Regulations. The Benchmark checklist protects your warranty. You want both.

It is not the same as a CP12

A CP12, or Gas Safety Record, is the annual check a landlord must have carried out on the gas appliances in a rented property. It is issued every year, it covers the appliances and pipework at the property, and it has nothing to do with whether a boiler installation was notified.

People often use the phrases interchangeably, but they are separate documents doing separate jobs. If you are a landlord, you need the CP12 annually regardless of how old the boiler is. We cover that on our gas safety certificate page.

If you never received one

This happens more often than it should, usually when a boiler was fitted years ago or by a business that has since closed. Contact Gas Safe Register directly. They hold the notification records and can confirm whether the installation was notified, and reissue the certificate.

If it turns out the work was never notified at all, that is worth knowing before a buyer's solicitor finds it. Your local authority building control can advise on a regularisation application, which is the route for signing off work that should have been notified at the time.

Why it matters when you sell

Conveyancing solicitors ask for it as standard. Not having it does not usually stop a sale, but it does invite questions, and the fallback options are slower and more expensive than simply keeping the paperwork safe. Keep the compliance certificate, the Benchmark checklist and your service records together.

Getting a boiler fitted properly

R.K Plumbing & Heating are Gas Safe registered for domestic gas work under registration 568345, and an accredited Vaillant installer. Every boiler we install is notified in the usual way, and we complete the Benchmark checklist at commissioning so your warranty stands up.

We are based in Woodingdean and cover Brighton, Hove, Worthing, Lewes, Shoreham-by-Sea, Haywards Heath, Seaford, Burgess Hill and surrounding Sussex towns. If you are thinking about a new boiler, or you need the annual service that keeps the warranty valid, call us on 01273 911551.