How to report an installer who is not HETAS registered

HETAS registration is voluntary. HETAS describes itself as a voluntary Competent Persons Scheme for installers to sign up to should they wish to do so². That matters before any report is made: an installer who is not on the register has not necessarily broken the law, but the route to compliance changes, and the paperwork a household should expect changes with it.

HETAS operates a whistleblowing procedure for reporting of non-compliance issues on an anonymous basis³. Where HETAS investigates a complaint, it aims to establish whether the installation meets regulations and is compliant, and if non-compliance is identified, it tasks the registrant with addressing it³. Reports about installers who are not HETAS registrants sit outside that process and belong with building control or trading standards.

Why HETAS registration matters when a stove is installed

Registration is not a badge. It is the mechanism by which a solid fuel installation is certified without a separate building control visit. A registered installer will be approved to carry out the work to comply with building regulations without involving local authority building control, and a certificate is issued on completion⁴. The household ends up with a document trail that a mortgage lender, an insurer or a future buyer can read.

The practical work behind that certificate is specific. A HETAS Registered Installer will make sure the stove is fitted safely and give the documents for peace of mind, checking that the hearth is correctly fitted and all clearance distances are met⁵. On a thatched property, a HETAS Registered Installer should be consulted for advice on the best location for the appliance, to ensure compliance with the Building Regulations and negate the risk of ignition of combustible roof materials⁶. Those are the points where an unregistered fitter most often falls short, because the checks depend on knowing the rules rather than on the physical skill of joining a flue.

There is also a servicing and maintenance layer. HETAS has launched a registration scheme for engineers to demonstrate competency in the servicing and maintenance of domestic and commercial biomass appliances⁷. A registered installer is able to offer further seasonal tips when completing an installation, annual service or regular sweep⁹. None of this is a legal requirement for the installer, but it is what the registration buys.

For a household's energy independence, the stove itself is a genuine asset: fuel can be bought, stored and burned on site, and the appliance does not depend on a supplier or the gas network. The dependence that remains is regulatory and documentary. Without a compliant certificate, the installation is a liability rather than an asset, and it can be difficult to sell or insure around.

Who can report an installer, and on what basis

Nothing in the scheme rules limits who may raise a concern. HETAS operates a whistleblowing procedure for reporting of non-compliance issues on an anonymous basis³, and FENSA's separate route accepts information about misuse of its logo submitted online anonymously¹⁰. A householder, a competing installer or a non-registered installer can all use those routes.

The legal position differs by fuel, and this is where most confusion sits. Installers of appliances burning fuels other than gas are not required to be registered by law¹¹. Gas is the exception: by law anyone carrying out work on gas appliances or fittings as part of their business must be competent and registered with the Gas Safe Register¹², and only a Gas Safe-registered engineer can install a new boiler¹³. For solid fuel, oil and wood, registration is a route to self-certification rather than a licence to trade.

In Northern Ireland the position is set out separately. Although qualifications are not mandatory, any person fitting a solid fuel stove must be competent to do so and should be familiar with the correct procedures and associated regulatory requirements¹⁴. That is a competence duty, not a registration duty, and it applies to the person doing the work whoever they are.

The practical consequence is that a report should describe what is wrong with the installation, not simply that the installer is absent from a register. A missing registration is only actionable where it has left the work uncertified or non-compliant.

How the HETAS whistleblowing process works

The process is a complaints and investigation route rather than a prosecution. Where HETAS investigates a complaint, it aims to establish whether the installation meets regulations and is compliant, and if non-compliance is identified, it tasks the registrant with addressing it³. The remedy is corrective work, not a penalty.

The sequence starts with the installer. Where concerns are raised, HETAS encourages consumers to first discuss the issues directly with the installer³, and the first step in its process is to make sure the installer is aware and allow a reasonable timescale for concerns to be resolved³. Only after that does the scheme's own investigation begin.

Two limits are worth stating plainly. First, the process covers HETAS registrants. An installer who has never registered is outside it, and the report has to go elsewhere. Second, HETAS runs the scheme and investigates its own registrants, so the process is not independent of the scheme in the way a regulator or an ombudsman would be. Building control and trading standards sit outside that structure and can act on the same facts.

Where a stove is producing excessive smoke, HETAS advises contacting a local HETAS professional to investigate and fix any faults¹⁵. That is a servicing route rather than an enforcement one, but it produces a written assessment that can support a later complaint.

What to include in a report

A report is only as strong as the paperwork behind it. The documents a compliant installation should have produced are the evidence that it did not. A HETAS Registered Installer should provide a notice plate, a carbon monoxide alarm and the manufacturer's instructions before the appliance is used². A commissioning certificate such as a Benchmark certificate should also be produced, with the local authority building control department notified either directly or, if the installer is a member of a Competent Person Scheme, via the scheme operator⁴.

Where a stove has been disabled pending maintenance or further inspection, it is described as uncommissioned, and it will carry a warning label in clear view indicating the appliance must not be used until the HETAS Registered Installer has recommissioned it¹⁶. A photograph of that label, or of its absence where one should be, is useful evidence.

A report should set out, in order:

1. The installer's name, trading name and any registration number quoted.
2. The date work started and finished, and the address.
3. Which documents were promised and which were received.
4. Photographs of the appliance, hearth, flue, notice plate and any warning label.
5. Copies of quotes, invoices and any correspondence about certification.

Carbon monoxide is the reason this matters. A carbon monoxide alarm is one of the items a registered installer should provide before the appliance is used², and the general guidance on carbon monoxide in properties treats it as a serious incident category¹⁷. Gas appliances are covered by a separate register: Gas Safe Register is the example qualified register for gas appliances¹⁸, and gas work must be carried out by someone on it¹². Northern Ireland guidance on gas safety and carbon monoxide follows the same principle¹⁹.

Reporting to other bodies: building control and trading standards

Where the installer is not on a Competent Persons Scheme, the notification route changes. The installer cannot self-certify, and the firm or householder must give notice to the local authority of the intention to carry out the boiler work in advance and pay a notification fee²⁰. The same structure applies to solid fuel: an installer should be registered with one of the relevant Competent Person Schemes for solid fuel fired boiler work²⁰, and in Wales, solid fuel fired boiler work requires an installer registered with the Competent Person Schemes²¹.

The general rule is that a building control body does not need to be notified for certain services or fittings if the owner employs an installer registered with a relevant competent person scheme designated in the regulations, including fuel-burning appliances²². Remove the registration and the exemption falls away, leaving a notifiable project.

Building regulations approval from the council or a registered building control approver is the alternative where the installer is not on a Competent Persons Scheme²³. For electrical work associated with the installation, installers who are not a registered competent person may use a registered third-party certifier to certify work as an alternative to using a building control body²⁴. In Northern Ireland, a commissioning certificate or safety notice for a solid fuel stove and flue is to be completed by the installer or other competent person accepting responsibility for certifying the safety of the installation, and that notice must not be removed or covered²⁵.

Trading standards is the other route, and it is the one that reaches installers who never registered anywhere. It deals with the trader's conduct rather than the technical compliance of the work, so the two reports can run in parallel on the same facts.

Checking registration before work starts

The check is straightforward and should happen before a quote is accepted. HETAS registration is voluntary, so absence from the register is not itself an offence, but it determines who carries the notification duty and what paperwork the household should expect at the end².

For other fuels the equivalent registers differ. Oil fired boiler work requires an installer registered with one of the relevant Competent Person Schemes²⁰, and the same applies to solid fuel fired boilers²¹. Gas work requires Gas Safe registration by law¹². A household comparing installers across fuels is therefore comparing different registration regimes, not a single one.

The wider consumer protection picture is under review. Citizens Advice has responded to a government consultation on reforming consumer protection for home upgrade schemes, and its response describes an installer register managed by the consumer service provider²⁶. That is a proposal, not a current requirement, and it does not change what applies to a stove installation today.

For a household, the independence question is simple. A registered installer produces the certificate that makes the installation a documented asset. An unregistered installer leaves the household holding the notification duty, the building control fee and the risk that the work has to be opened up and corrected. The stove still burns wood bought and stored at home, but the paperwork that makes it saleable and insurable is missing until the work is regularised.