Developer's u-turn over boiler repairs

11:39am Thursday 22nd May 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A HOUSING developer has been forced into making a u-turn after a woman discovered the boiler they installed had the potential to leak fatal carbon monoxide fumes into her home.

Persimmon Homes initially told Lisa Peplow, of Shackleton Close in Bowerhill, near Melksham, that even though the boiler was not fitted correctly when she moved there in 2003 they were not obliged to fix it because the problem should have been picked up sooner.

Mother-of-two Mrs Peplow, 32, discovered the fault when the boiler stopped working at the end of April.

She called out an emergency plumber who told her it could have been lethal and did not even have a commissioning certificate - a legal requirement.

He compiled a RIDDOR Report and sent it to Persimmon and the Health and Safety Executive to indicate the seriousness of the fault. But Persimmon told Mrs Peplow her previous plumber should have picked up the fault.

She said: "I spoke to Renelek in Devizes, the company that installed it for Persimmon, and they said they couldn't do anything until I had sorted it out with Persimmon.

"Corgi told me they were powerless because it was more than four years since it was installed and the Health and Safety Executive said they can't do anything until Corgi contact them. I just reached a dead end."

She then called West Wiltshire District Council who found a letter from Persimmon from 2006 detailing outstanding matters on some of the houses in Bowerhill, including the commissioning certificate for her boiler, which needed to be addressed before they could sign off the buildings.

The council never heard back from Persimmon to say the matters had been addressed and none of those homes have building completion certificates.

When she presented the letter to Persimmon Homes they admitted the letter should have been sent to her too and that the boiler had not been installed correctly and agreed to repair it.

Mrs Peplow said: "This seems to be a problem with many other people in Bowerhill. A lot of people have no completion certificate for their boiler or have only just received one and this is four or five years down the line."

She plans to ask Persimmon to replace the boiler with a more environmentally-friendly one and have it checked by an independent inspector too.

Persimmon Homes declined to comment any further on the matter.