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Urgent advice needed regarding contractor/demdander liability
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Posted By Brenda H
Hi there
Would appreciate some advice, this is the situation.
A subsidiary we have just taken on uses a corgi gas company to do the yearly checks on our tenants boilers. As well as this check we have also specified in the contract they carry out additional things as part of the service (suggested by Corgi & the manufacturer of the boiler).
We have asked the question whether they are fulfilling the services as per our contract, which they say they are.
We know, as we have our own gas engineers, that they are not and only doing the bare minimum P12 yearly inspection and not the additional aspects which we have specified.
We know because of how long they are taking to do the service and other things etc etc.
We are required to give them a notice period, and also from a commercial perspective, if we dump them without this, we are left with absolutely no inspections, not even the legal requirement.
Given that we are taking reasonable steps to change things, and that we have asked them whether they are doing their service, to which they have said yes, is it reasonable to carry on for the notice period (they are doing the legal bare minimum) until we can make other arrangements to get a contract in place?
Any thoughts/previous experiences valued!
Thanks
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By Rob Campbell
Wouldn't the subcontractor failing to do what they were contracted to do breach the contract? Thus negate notice periods? i guess that'd be in the details of the contract.
It would seem to me that you'd need to get the required checks done ASAP buy a certified engineer. Then claim the expenses back from the subcontractor as this was part of their original remit (again a contractual issue)
Further more i'd certainly consider putting in place subcontractor audits in your QA/H&S system to make sure nothing like this can happen again! So you can actually have documented proof they are doing what they say they are doing whilst on site.
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By Martyn Hendrie
First and foremost. If you are responsible for ensuring that statutory inspections are carried out you must ensure you meet your duties.
That said, if you have specified in the contract that additional items are to be inspected then they are in breach of contract of they don't supply the services they have agreed to provide.
In my opinion
Your company should write to the contractor pointing out that they are not fulfilling their obligations and require them within a specified time to take remedial action. (You indicated they are currently doing the minimum needed to stay legal)
If they fail to take remedial action or disagree that they are in breach of their contractual duties then this is a matter for the commercial people in the organisation to pursue. e.g. withholding payments or making deductions equivalent to that paid for the work not carried out (+ admin charges)
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By CFT
If in doubt terminate the contract. Either pay them their monthly retainer or just give the appropriate notice. Dependant on how many properties they are responsible for may mean no further payments are made. I have no idea what level of commitment or size of contract this is, but shop around and you will be surprised how quickly a CR gas company will respond to your requirements.
CFT
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By Brenda H
Yep, know contractor is failing to carry out what is in contract, that's not the issue.
The contract is quite a big one and the yearly statutory inspections would fall by the wayside if we were to cancel without notice.
Anyway, received advice which confirmed what I thought so hopefully sorted.
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By David B Wright
You haven't indicated whether or not you have contracted your CORGI company to carry out a statutory inspection with the issue of a CP12 or an annual service.
A statutory inspection is exactly what it says, an inspection, whereby, if they are contracted to service, this will involve a strip down of the appliance. The latter operation should take anything between 1 and 2 hours on site depending on the type and location of the boiler/gas appliance.
In any case a tightness test will have had to have been carried out along with burner pressures and flue tests etc.
Hope this helps!
David Wright (Competent Person Gas)
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Urgent advice needed regarding contractor/demdander liability
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