The chimney sweep came. Now what happens to the paperwork?
The inspection is half the job. The certificate is what counts after a fire or a carbon monoxide incident — if you can still find it.
Conversations about chimney inspections always get stuck in the same place: is it compulsory, who pays, when do they come. Fair questions, but the expensive mistake is somewhere else. It shows up two years later, when someone asks for the last inspection certificate after an incident and nobody knows where it went.
The rules depend on the building and the fuel, and they change — check the current official guidance, not a blog, including this one. What does not change: the result of the inspection is a document, and that document has to outlive your fridge door.
What a "defect" on the certificate really means
The certificate records more than the fact that someone visited. It records the condition of the flue, and if there is a fault, how serious it is. When a flue is declared dangerous, the appliance has to be taken out of use — nobody misplaces that piece of paper.
The risky case is the other one: a small, repairable fault. It gets written down, you nod, and then it is forgotten. Six months later nobody remembers whether the cracked liner was mentioned. After a fire, that sentence is the first thing anyone reads.
What the insurer will ask for
- The most recent inspection certificate, with the date and the company name.
- If a fault was noted: when it was fixed, and by whom. An invoice, a work sheet, anything with a date on it.
- For solid fuel, often the sweeping history as well — when the flue was last cleaned.
With those, the claim is boring paperwork. Without them, the claim becomes an investigation, and the burden of proof is yours.
The five minutes that settle it
When the sweep walks out of the door, photograph the certificate. That is the whole trick. Paper gets lost, photos do not. Write down what they said out loud as well — the verbal remark is often more useful than the box they had to tick.
If you rent the place out, one more thing: your tenant will not keep this for you. Ask for the photo on the day of the visit, or you will find out at the next tenant change that it does not exist.
And the next time
The usual excuse is that "they will let me know". In many places they do. But if you rent the flat out, or you do not live in the building, that notice is exactly the one that misses you. A calendar entry for the next due date is cheaper than a rejected claim.
In Housefolio, adding the flue schedules the reminder for you, and the photo of the certificate lives on the log entry — so in two years it is in a search box, not in your memory.
Not legal advice. Obligations differ by building type and fuel, and they change — check the current official guidance for your country.