Don't have to be often at all. There's more than one competent persons scheme. NAPIT, niceic, APHC etc.
plus, you could legally install it all then get building control to sign it off as compliment and it would all be 100% legal.
in fact, I'm pretty sure it is the same for gas. The only limitations are that if you are doing it as a business, you must be gassafe registered. To my knowledge, you could install your own boiler in your own house and get it signed off by building control who would issue a certificate of building regulations compliance and it would be legit.
the words competence is very much in the grey area, and it seems you can only really prove incompetence by mucking it up, which is then easily proven in a court of law. How do you prove competence? Certainly not by qualifications as we all know, there are plenty of idiots out there with all the right bits of paper!
plus, you could legally install it all then get building control to sign it off as compliment and it would all be 100% legal.
in fact, I'm pretty sure it is the same for gas. The only limitations are that if you are doing it as a business, you must be gassafe registered. To my knowledge, you could install your own boiler in your own house and get it signed off by building control who would issue a certificate of building regulations compliance and it would be legit.
the words competence is very much in the grey area, and it seems you can only really prove incompetence by mucking it up, which is then easily proven in a court of law. How do you prove competence? Certainly not by qualifications as we all know, there are plenty of idiots out there with all the right bits of paper!