Bradford builder ignored warnings to relocate boiler flue and built extension over the top

A Yorkshire building company and its director have been fined more than £10,000 after botched building work on a home extension compromised gas safety and put the lives of a homeowner and her two children at risk.

Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard that Adam’s Building Construction Ltd in Bradford had been hired by the homeowner to build an extension at the rear of her property in the city. Construction began in January 2024 but the extension was built over the top of the existing gas service pipework and without repositioning the flue serving the property’s gas boiler. 

HSE, investigating, found that on 22 May 2024 a Building Control inspector from the City of Bradford Metropolitan Council attended the property and discovered the boiler flue terminating inside the extension. He contacted Northern Gas Networks, which said the gas installation was Immediately Dangerous. The gas supply was cut off, leaving the residents without gas for several weeks and costing them around £4,000 to put right.

The investigation also found that Adam’s Building Construction Ltd had been warned several times by local authority Building Control inspectors during the works that the gas pipework and flue needed to be properly relocated. The company’s sole director, Mohammed Adam Azhar, was unable to show HSE inspectors that his company had prepared construction phase plans for any of its building work.

HSE had served an Improvement Notice requiring the company to put in place a system for producing written construction phase plans for projects where it was the principal contractor. The company subsequently failed to comply with that notice, an offence under Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. 

Mr Azhar also personally failed to provide relevant information to the investigation when required to do so by the HSE lead inspector, in breach of Section 33(1)(e) of the Act. The court heard that neither the company nor Mr Azhar continue to work in the construction trade.

Adam’s Building Construction Ltd, of Leeds Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) and Section 33(1)(g) of the Act. The company was fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,263. Mohammed Adam Azhar, of Intake Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 37(1) and Section 33(1)(e) of the Act. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £400.

HSE inspector David Beaton said: “This was a tragic accident waiting to happen. The failure on the part of the company and its director to properly plan this building work, and to make suitable arrangements for relocating the gas pipework and appliances, could have easily had fatal consequences for the family living in the property.

“Those failures were compounded by the further failures to comply with an HSE Improvement Notice, and to provide relevant information to assist our investigation.

“Everyone in control of domestic building work must ensure that a suitable and sufficient construction phase plan is in place before building work commences, so that no one faces the kind of risks this family were exposed to.”