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If the kit isn't compliant

What your rights are, who to tell, and how to get your money back.

What has to happen before it is sold

A manufacturer must ensure the device has been type tested in accordance with G98, must register it on the ENA Type Test Register, and must obtain confirmation that it has been assessed and identified as compliant, before placing it on the market. That is the order the specification sets out, and it puts the register ahead of the sale rather than after it.

So compliance is not a claim a seller makes. It is a record that either exists or does not, on a register anyone can search for free.

What it means if the register does not back it up

If the device you were sold has no entry on the register, or an entry marked Non-compliant, then on the face of it the requirement was not met before it reached you. That is a matter between you and the trader who sold it, and it is a stronger starting position than simply changing your mind.

The curved golden stone facade of the Royal Crescent in Bath
The Royal Crescent in Bath.

What we would do

Search the register and save what it shows

By manufacturer and by model. Capture the result, whether that is no entry at all or one marked Non-compliant, and note the date.

Do not fit it

Connecting an unassessed generating device to your installation is not a position to put yourself in, and it weakens any case for a refund rather than a repair.

Go to the trader, not the manufacturer

Your contract is with whoever sold it to you. Put it in writing, attach the register search, and say plainly what you want.

Escalate if they will not engage

Trading Standards, reached through the Citizens Advice consumer service, is the route for a product that should not have been placed on the market.

Questions about rights

Is this legal advice?

No. We are not lawyers. What we can tell you is what the specification says about registration and where the register is, so that whatever you decide to do, you are doing it from the facts rather than from a seller's description.

What if the seller says the register is out of date?

Ask them to point you at a more current source. We read the register directly, and a device without a record there has not been confirmed compliant, whatever else is said about it.

Can you check it for me?

Yes. Send us the manufacturer and model, or a link to the listing, and we will search the register ourselves and tell you what we find.

Also worth reading before you buy

On this page

  1. What has to happen before it is sold
  2. What it means if the register does not back it up
  3. What we would do
  4. Questions about rights

Looking at a kit right now?

Send us the make and model, or a link. We'll check it against the register.

Check a kit for me

Looking at a kit right now?

Send the name or the link. We'll check the register and reply.

Tell us the kit you're looking at

Name, email, and the kit's name or a link to the listing. We check it against the register and the specification and reply with what we found.

We reply by email. Sellers don't see your message and we don't sell your details.