A shade Greener boiler problems

[Jo7272]

My sister had a complete boiler/central heating system installed less than 3 years ago by ASG and it’s been a nightmare.

 

The engineer was a complete cowboy and left the installation in a mess.

Exposed pipes down the side of windows

all the rubbish was left

and numerous other things.

 

We complained and they sent someone out.

The service was carried out in February 2020

 

a couple of weeks after this she had no hot water.

She phoned them numerous times and eventually they told her how to fix the error code over the phone.

It’s happened again 

 

no hot water due to what they now say is ‘debris in system’ even though they’ve sent nobody out to check.  

she needs to pay for someone to come out as this is not covered by the maintenance agreement.

 

The pipework is less than 3 years old is this possible?

Does anyone have any advice of what she needs to do.

 

Many thanks

[dx100uk]

we know these people VERY WELL.

 

https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=partner-pub-8889411648654839:3134625398&q=A shade Greener&oq=A shade Greener&gs_l=partner-generic.12...25208.25208.0.25828.1.1.0.0.0.0.81.81.1.1.0.csems%2Cnrl%3D13...0.0...2.34.partner-generic..1.0.0.fpmU5wR-8nM

[BankFodder]

Welcome to the forum. As has been pointed out by my colleague, this company – ASG – A Shade Greener – are becoming well known on this forum and elsewhere. I don't know if they do have satisfied customers but certainly when things go wrong – they go very badly wrong and looking at Facebook, we are finding a huge number of people who are being left without heating or hot water for long periods of time and it often have to reach into their own pockets to get the system sorted out because ASG simply aren't getting the job done.

I have to say that I've come to the conclusion that ASG's interest is not at all in providing heating or hot water installations. It is really more about time people into a financial product and I suspect that that is where they make most of their money. If this is correct then immediately it makes one wary about doing business with this company because it means that their priority is taking profits from the finance product – and far less interest in the quality of the equipment and installations they provide.
One recurring theme appears to have been blockages in the systems and it would appear that a common complaint is that when systems are first installed, they are not properly flushed through leading to blockages very early on in the life of the system which then may not themselves be completely cleared when an engineer eventually does come out – if at all. It's a very frustrating business and frankly I'm surprised that it has gone on so long – particularly because I understand that there have been a number of successful complaints against ASG before the financial ombudsman.

In your case we don't seem to have a finance problem here. We simply seem to have a problem relating to the quality of the equipment used or the quality of the installation. I understand that the installation occurred less than three years ago, the job wasn't carried out properly and it has been causing problems ever since to the extent that at the moment there is no hot water which has been attributed to "debris in the system". I understand that ASG are not sending anyone out to deal with it because this is not an element which is dealt with in the maintenance contract.

Frankly a maintenance contract is a bit like an extended warranty – often extremely unnecessary. In this case, it seems to me that you have a right of action for breach of contract. It is clear to me that under the consumer rights act you are entitled to have an installation which is carried out with reasonable skill and care and also which will remain in a satisfactory condition and operate satisfactorily for a reasonable period of time. That doesn't seem to be happening here.

Given the track record of ASG with so many people, I don't see any point in getting involved in any further discussions with them. I think you need an independent inspection of the system and a quotation for carrying out the repair. Once that is done, then the details can be forwarded to ASG with a very short time limit for stepping up to the responsibility and if they failed to do so – then a legal action in the County Court.

I understand that ASG are quite slippery and they may cause problems in terms of suing in the correct name et cetera. I understand also that there are instances of people seeing ASG – with repeated adjournments et cetera. We will have to deal with these as they arise. One of the problems as far as I can see is that they have been very few occasions where ASG have been confronted by a determined and assertive adversary. Maybe we can help change that.

One thing that concerns me here is that you are doing this on behalf of your sister. That's very decent of you – but at the end of the day it will be for your sister to bring legal action and also if it's pushed to a hearing to appear in court. I have already said that you need to be an assertive and really quite aggressive adversary in order to deal with this company. If your sister is unwilling even to come to this forum to start dealing with the matter herself, I think it already creates disadvantage. We are very happy to help – and we can inform your sister every step along the way – but she will have to meet us halfway in terms of enthusiasm and persistence. We can't make the motivation for her.
Maybe you like to comment on this please.

[Jo7272]

Hi l, the problem I have is the house is owned by my dad (he’s 82) and the agreement is in his name but my sister lives there and pays the DD each month.  They both are not very good with technology hence why i started the questions. I don’t know whether I could get dad to raise county court claims (i could do it for him but as you say if it gets to court he would have to go). I need my sister to write everything down relating to problems etc from the beginning and see where I can take it

[BankFodder]

Thanks for this update. Yes that certainly introduces an additional level of complication – but not terribly because the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act gives the beneficiary of a contract – even though they are a third party and not actually a contracting party, the rights to bring a legal action as if they were the principal contracting party.

There are qualifications to this – there must not be something in the contract which specifically excludes the operation of the Act. And also, it must be clear that the third party who is suing on the contract was intended to be a beneficiary either expressly – or because of circumstances which would have been known to ASG at the time or forseeable by them.

So in other words, although your father has his name on the agreement, because it is his house, who was it who actually commissioned the work and organised the installation? If it was your sister and it was clear that she was the person who managed it and that she would be the one who would benefit from the installation then that is probably enough to ground her rights under the Third Parties Act.