Boiler servicingin Milton Keynes

The engineer starts outside the appliance: that the boiler and its pipework are installed and sited correctly, that the flue terminal is clear and undamaged, and that the ventilation around it is right. Then they run the boiler to see how it behaves before anything is taken apart.

With the casing off, the checks move inside. Gas pressure and gas rate. Combustion, read with a flue gas analyser, which is the measurement that tells them the appliance is burning cleanly. The condition of the electrical connections, the seals, the electrodes and the fan. The safety devices. The condensate trap and its pipe, checked for blockage. The state of the water and gas pipework, and the level of inhibitor protecting the system.

Anything worn gets cleaned or flagged. You should be left with a written service report covering what was checked and anything that needs doing. A straightforward service on a boiler with no problems does not take long, so do not judge it by the clock. Judge it by whether the casing came off and whether you were handed a report.

Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, a landlord must have every gas appliance and flue they provide checked for safety at least every twelve months, and the check must be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer. That produces the Gas Safety Record, the document most people still call a CP12.

The record has to name and locate each appliance or flue checked, carry the engineer's name, registration number and signature, show the date of the check and the property address, give the landlord or agent's name and address, and set out any safety defect found and what was done about it.

You then have to get it to your tenants. Existing tenants must receive a copy within 28 days of the check. Anyone moving in must be given a copy before they move in. Keep records for at least two years. If you are using the rules that allow a check to be done early, keep each record until two further checks have been carried out.

Say you are a landlord when you send your request so the engineer brings the right paperwork and allows time for every appliance in the property, not only the boiler.

We are a referral service and we do not attend or carry out any work. Choose Service on the form, tell us the make of boiler, roughly how old it is, whether there is a hot water cylinder, and whether the property is let. Your details go to an installer in our network who covers your part of MK, and they contact you to arrange a date and confirm what it will cost.

Servicing is smaller work than installation, so availability varies between installers and moves with the season. Booking in the quieter months gets you a choice of dates. If your boiler is actually faulting rather than due a routine visit, useboiler repair instead, and if it is old enough that a service is only postponing the inevitable, start atboiler replacement.