No HETAS certificate for the wood burner — does it matter?

The seller has no HETAS certificate for the wood burner

Not necessarily, and this is one of the few missing-certificate situations with a genuine second route to the same answer. A wood burning stove installed by a HETAS-registered fitter is notified to the local authority, and that notification shows up on the local search. Where it does, the search entry is itself evidence that the installation complied with building regulations — the certificate is the paperwork, not the compliance.

From the e-ROT archive

This scenario is drawn from Report on Title material dealing with this specific circumstance.

Lexsure master Report on Title paragraph: Woodburning Stove · See the wording

Why the local search can answer it

A solid fuel appliance is building work. Installed through a competent person scheme — HETAS is the usual one for stoves — the installer self-certifies and notifies the local authority, and the authority records it.

That record is what the local authority search picks up. Where the search shows the installation, the compliance question has been answered by the council's own records, and a missing certificate is an administrative gap rather than a substantive one.

Where the search shows nothing, the position is different and the ordinary missing-approval questions apply.

The question that is not about paperwork

Whether the flue has been swept. It is a separate issue from compliance and it is the one with immediate consequences, because an unswept flue on a stove that has been standing unused is a fire and carbon monoxide risk whatever the certificate says.

The Lexsure wording below deals with both in the same breath, and the order it puts them in is the right one: the compliance point is reassuring, and the sweeping point is the thing to actually do.

What to ask for before completion

Ask whether the stove appears on the local authority search, and if so on what date and under whose registration. Ask when the flue and chimney were last swept and whether there is a sweep certificate. Ask whether the stove has been used recently at all.

If the installation does not appear on the search and no certificate exists, treat it as unapproved building work and read the indemnity-policy page in this series.

Woodburning Stove

Master precedent Lexsure e-ROTScope No HETAS certificateWord count 87Status Current master paragraph

The seller has not been able to provide a copy of the HETAS certificate confirming compliance with building regulations for the woodburning stove at the Property, although the inclusion of this on the local search is sufficient evidence that it did comply with building regulations. As you will see from replies to my enquiries, the chimney/flue has not been swept and so I recommend that you arrange for this to be done prior to using the woodburner to ensure that it is clear and safe for use.

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