Oil heating technicians working on commercial boilers will soon be able to register with OFTEC in a brand new category.

A specialist training course and assessment for commercial appliance service and commissioning will be available at selected training centres within the next month.

The competence criteria include techniques on commercial condensing pressure jet appliances (incorporating multi-stage burners) and pressure-jet warm air heaters larger than 70kw.

Also included will be the safe electrical isolation of single- and three-phase supplies to boilers, dead-weight/fusible link fire valve systems and combustion analysis to manufacturer’s specifications.

New government legislation will soon be introduced for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, meaning that all new OFTEC registrants must provide a workmanship warranty for their customers. Existing OFTEC registrants will have a phase-in period.

As such, OFTEC Insurance Services has launched a new workmanship warranty and deposit protection scheme.

The policy means OFTEC-registered technicians can offer their customers extra peace of mind that any notified work will be covered by the warranty.

The scheme covers the cost of rectifying any defective work directly attributable to installation work which falls within building regulations.

The householder would be able to claim up to £10,000 for rectification work if the original OFTEC installer is no longer trading.

The warranty lasts for six years from the date OFTEC receives the job notification, and is fully transferable if the property is sold during that time.

The workmanship warranty gives householders the reassurance that their work is covered if the installer stops trading by reason of administration, receivership, bankruptcy or retirement.

The warranty is automatically sent to the customer as part of the building regulations compliance certificate.

The scheme costs from £52 per year for an OFTEC-registered business, and also includes deposit protection insurance.

This protects the deposit paid up to 25% of the contract value, with a maximum of £10,000, until work commences to a maximum of 90 days.