Re: OFTEC certification

[Bill Taylor]

Not DIY, sorry.

> >We need a new heating oil tank, and I'd like to get one installed by an OFTEC >certificated company. Do they provide some kind of certificate (a la FENSA) >to show an installation meets OFTEC standards? Or is it just that the >companies themselves are OFTEC certificated? > >(Yes, yes, I know FENSA is stupid and pointless, and I wouldn't be surprised >if OFTEC is the same, but I want the bit of paper to keep potential >purchasers quiet, since I expect we'll be moving in the next few years.)

They should issue a certificate. Ours was replaced in March last year by an Oftec registered supplier, and a "Building Regulations Compliance Certoficate" issued by Oftec eventually appeared.

Oftec's not quite as pointless as Fensa as there are potential safety issues with oil burning.

[Piers Finlayson]

Out of interest, what was the cost, for what size tank?

[Derek Geldard]

It's worse than that, you might get the City Hall involved. 8-(

A contact from our office (Admittedly from .NL ) once had an oil tank in his garden which was removed years ago. Now it seems the law has changed and a certificate is required to the effect that the land is not contaminated, no-one will buy the house without a certificate. To do the testing would involve removing the soil, taking it away and then they can determine whether the soil they took away is/is not contaminated. Whatever the outcome the difference in cost is not that great.

Now if the land is admitted to be contaminated by the LA the owner of the land can force the local authority to clean up the site at their expense at a cost comparable to the price of the house.

Obviously, therefore the LA have no interest in doing this, but neither will they relinquish any power to act in the future should they get the power, therefore the sale of the house is blighted in perpetuity.

Derek

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Derek Geldard saying something like:

Jesus, what a load of bureaucratic c*ck.

I can see the sense in it for old commercial premises, but for a domestic heating oil tank that's been gone for years, it's absurd.