Knowledge/Gas safety and CO/What to do when a customer won't fix an unsafe heater
What to do when a customer won't fix an unsafe heater
Hand over the regulator's advice letter, tell the customer what ventilation is needed, say you'll notify, then notify the Building and Plumbing Commission (formerly the Victorian Building Authority, or VBA). It has said in writing it won't take enforcement action against a registered or licensed gasfitter who notifies properly. If it's actively spilling carbon monoxide, ring Energy Safe Victoria.
- Notify
- gasheaters@vba.vic.gov.auor 1300 815 127
- Active spillage
- 1800 652 563Energy Safe Victoria, option 5
- Your protection
- No enforcementonce properly notified
- Service interval
- 2 yearsby a Type A servicing licence holder
What order do you do it in?
- Hand over the advice letterThe regulator publishes one for exactly this. Giving the customer something on letterhead turns your opinion against theirs into a documented warning they've received.
- Tell them what's neededBe specific about the ventilation or the repair. Vague safety talk is easy to wave off. A number and a location aren't.
- Tell them you'll be notifyingSay it out loud before you do it. Some refusals turn into agreements at this point, and the ones that don't can't later claim they were blindsided.
- Notify the Building and Plumbing CommissionEmail gasheaters@vba.vic.gov.au or ring 1300 815 127. The email address still carries the old VBA name. This is the step that protects your licence, so don't skip it because the first three felt like enough.
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Notifying protects you. Staying quiet doesn't.
A lot of contractors treat notifying the regulator as something that invites trouble. It's the opposite, and the regulator has put it in writing. "The VBA will not take enforcement action against a registered or licensed gasfitter if they have been appropriately notified of the situation regarding your client's gas heater."
In plain terms, notify it properly and it won't come after your licence for this. The risk sits with walking away quietly, not with making the call. If you found it, documented it, told the customer and told the regulator, you've done the job the licence asks of you.
What if it's actually spilling now?
Different situation, different number. If the appliance is spilling carbon monoxide (CO) and the customer won't let you isolate it, ring Energy Safe Victoria on 1800 652 563, option 5. Have your licence number, the customer's details, the appliance type and the CO level in parts per million (ppm) ready.
That's a live danger call, not a compliance notification. Treat it that way.
Who's allowed to do the servicing anyway?
Both regulators say the same thing on the interval. Have the heater serviced at least once every two years by a qualified gasfitter. The detail people miss is the class. The gasfitter doing the servicing must be registered or licensed in the specialised class of Type A appliance servicing.
A general gasfitting registration isn't the same thing. If you're subcontracting servicing out, confirm it rather than assume it.
And when do you need a compliance certificate?
There are three triggers, and any one of them is enough. There's a $750 threshold on the value of the work. Taking the appliance out of its fixed location triggers it. So does modifying the gas piping.
That's the Building and Plumbing Commission's guidance. If a job's value lands right on $750, check with them which side of the line it sits.
Found something on site you're not sure about?
Gas safety is the one area where the right answer and the comfortable answer aren't always the same, and you're the one holding the licence.
If you've got a job you're weighing up, Kevin's happy to talk it through.
Who this is for: small and medium HVAC contractors in Victoria. If you're a homeowner after a rebate or a repair, you need a licensed contractor, not us, and yours can point you the right way.
Related
- Every open-flued space heater under a Victorian alertSix heater families under a safety alert, with brands and phone numbers, the one you isolate instead of servicing, and what the 2022 sales ban caught.
- Sealing a house that still has an open-flued heaterRentals need draught proofing from 1 July 2027, and evap cooler vents are on the regulator's sealing list. Add an open-flued heater and that's a CO risk.
- How a negative pressure and carbon monoxide spillage test runsEnergy Safe Victoria's four-stage test from GIS 38, where the probe goes, why the pass mark isn't a ppm figure, and how to size the ventilation fix.
- The ventilation rule changed on 31 March 2014The building's approval date decides it. Before 31 March 2014 it's 1 m³ of room per 3 MJ/h. From then, an open-flued appliance needs 1 m³ per 0.4 MJ/h.
Review date: 1 March 2027. Figures in this area change without much notice and this page carries some that will go stale. Every number above is dated and sourced so you can check it yourself. If you find something out of date here, tell us and we will fix it.