Gas safety certificates in Christchurch

What a gas safety certificate is

A Gas Safety Certificate is the document confirming that completed gasfitting work, connected to a gas supply, has been checked and is safe to use — and that it meets the Gas (Safety and Measurement) Regulations 2010. It's issued by the gasfitter who did the connection work, or their supervisor.

Under the regulations a certificate is required for gasfitting work once it's completed and connected to gas, and it has to be provided to the customer or the building's occupier within 20 working days. The gasfitter also has to keep a copy for at least seven years.

In plain terms: if gas work has been done at your property, you should end up holding a certificate for it. If you don't have one, something has gone wrong.

When you'll need one

• Any new gas appliance installed or connected — hob, cooktop, range, fire, califont, continuous flow hot water unit.
• New gas installations or alterations, including new bottle installations and running a gas point to a new location.
• Appliance conversions between LPG and natural gas.
• Selling a property. Buyers and their lawyers increasingly ask for evidence that gas work was certified. Not having it can hold up a settlement.
• Rental properties. If you're a landlord, being able to show gas appliances were installed and certified by a registered gasfitter is part of demonstrating you've met your obligations to tenants.
• Your LPG supplier asks for it. Suppliers do ask for the installation to be checked, particularly after a bottle changeover issue or a reported smell. One of our Google reviews came exactly this way.
• Insurance. After a gas-related claim, an insurer will want to see the work was done and certified properly.

What we check

1. Pressure test of the installation to confirm it's holding and there are no leaks.
2. Appliance operation and flame quality — a clean blue flame burning the way the manufacturer specified.
3. Ventilation and clearances, so the appliance has the air it needs and isn't too close to anything it shouldn't be.
4. Flueing, where fitted — that combustion products are going outside and staying there.
5. Bottle location, regulators and changeover valves on LPG installations.
6. Isolation valves and general condition of the pipework and fittings.

If something doesn't pass, we tell you what it is and what it'll take to put right. We won't certify work that isn't safe, and you wouldn't want us to.

What it costs

Our own work: $40 + GST. We only issue gas certificates for gasfitting work we have carried out ourselves — a new appliance, a new gas point, a conversion or a new installation. The certificate is issued at the completion of the job.

Existing gas work that has not been certified

Where existing gasfitting was completed by another certifying gasfitter and has not been certified, we cannot certify it as it stands. A certificate is our signature on the work, so we only put it on work we are responsible for. Instead:

1. We inspect and test the installation and tell you what we find.
2. Where required, we replace it from scratch to make it compliant.
3. We then issue our own certificate for the work we have carried out.

The inspection and any replacement work are quoted or charged at our hourly rates, depending on the job, and we'll agree that with you before we start.

If we find a fault that needs fixing before an installation can be certified, we'll quote that separately before touching anything.

Certificates are issued by Jorden Clark, a certifying gasfitter registered with the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board — which means we sign off our own work rather than sub-contracting the certification to someone else.