by Catherine Lear

Created on: September 22, 2009

Finding a plumber that you can trust can be one of the hardest events that a homeowner will ever after do. So many people call themselves plumbers when in fact all they are odd job men. In great Britain where I live it is one of the greatest problems facing households, not for nothing are there TV programs that highlight this problem, watching many of these programs is both gruesome and also in some cases very funny. However, for the householder that has paid out quite a lot of there hard earned money it is anything but funny.

In Great Britain our plumbing structure is quite different from many other countries, this is very clear from reading the many articles on Helium on Plumbing.

What is the same though is the way that the so-called plumber will rip of the customer. Let me first run through some of the tricks that they employ. One of the best tricks that the so called plumber will use is the use of telling the householder that they will need certain parts to fix the job, they then go out to buy the part and then come back and fix the problem. So far so good, the problem though is that they have not gone out to buy the part, what they are doing is going out on another call, when they come back three hours later they will make a lot of noise and fix the problem without buying the part that they have told the customer that they need. They then proceed to bill the customer for the call out, the part that they have not used and the three hours that they have been away, it is not unusual for the British Customer to be billed far in the excess of 600 for a job that should have been 50.

This is highlighted in the many programs that the TV companies are showing, they put secret camera's in all the rooms in a show house the call in the dodgy plumber, he then is caught on camera doing is dodgy dealings.

I am lucky that I have Dad who works as a heating engineer; this is very similar in many respects to a plumber in Great Britain, so I have grown up knowing what is expected of a plumber, I also have a business that has to at times employ plumbers, and as an employer so I also have to know the law that comes with the plumbing industry in Great Britain.

In Great Britain, a plumber may work on many items including Natural Gas. However, what does this mean, does it mean that they can come into your home and work on your gas fire and then work on your gas boiler and then if need be work on your gas cooker. No, it certainly does not. The British plumber must have certificates that allow him to work on the said appliances. In addition, he must have passed a stringent exam on every appliance, in other words, he might have the relevant certificate for the gas fire, but if he does not have the certificate for the gas boiler or the cooker, he cannot by British law touch those appliances.

Therefore, the first thing that the customer must ask the plumber for is for his certificates. If the plumber cannot show you the certificates then show him the door quickly.

A good way to find a good Plumber is to go around the many building sites. There will be contractors working in these buildings, and among them, there will be Plumbers. In Great Britain to work on these building sites they have to produce what are called skill cards, these will list what that individual can do, they also show a photograph as well so that there is no way that any fraud can be committed. Building sites all over the world are good way to find a good plumber, only the law in your country will be any different regarding what a plumber can do.

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