This is a very long story but I'll try to keep it brief. I couldn't possibly include all the necessary information right off the bat so feel free to ask any questions about the situation. I will be intentionally vague on some details and specifics until any potential legal action is resolved.
TLDR: I got ripped off by a gas company and let down by the government authority responsible for the gas industry and it meant my family was put at risk of harm and I lost money and time. Now I'm considering what my options are for compensation and considering legal action.
My partner and I built a campervan together and it was beautiful (valued at over $100k). But I knew I legally couldn't do gas, not to mention that the standards book costs over $100 alone, so instead I did my research on people in my area who could do the work and found a guy that really knew his stuff. He came out, looked over the van, we made plans and I walked away confident in his ability.
A week or so before the scheduled day I called the company to ask to speak to the technician because I had some questions. They informed me that that technician no longer worked with the company and someone else I'd never spoke to would do the work. I immediately had red flags and asked if he knew everything we'd gone over but they assured me it would be fine.
Fast forward and they do the work and it was shocking. They haven't done half the things we agreed on, they've put several holes through the van that they then haven't even used because they were in the wrong spot and they've not sealed anything or included protection on the piping and none of the gas appliances had been connected to power so can't have been tested. At the time, I didn't know just how bad it was as I hadn't looked through the standards booklet but I could tell something was off.
I decided to contact the government regulator for gas in my area and they ended up sending an inspector out. He agreed it was pretty bad, took some photos and advised us to return to the company and speak with the owner to get a few things corrected. So we did. The company shoved some silicone in the holes, wrapped some protection around exposed piping and sent us on our way with our compliance certificate.
So we hit the road for a shakedown of our newly completed campervan. At our first stop, we smell gas. We call the company and they assured us they pressure tested and there was no chance of a leak but offer to check it over themselves. Partly because we were already four hours away, and partly because we didn't trust the company, we went to a new gas guy where we were and asked him to check the system. Not only did he find a significant gas leak but several major compliance faults and is disgusted at the way they have done the work commenting that they couldn't possibly have tested the system correctly as they hadn't even installed a test nipple at the correct location. He charges us over $100, gives us a defect notice and our first trip away is over. No gas means no cooking equipment or hot water, so we return home.
We contact the regulatory body and speak to the inspector. He seems to not really care and we're starting to not trust him so we ask to speak with someone more senior. We hear from a superior but his advice is still the same: return to the company and get the work corrected. We say that's not good enough and ask for reassurance that the work the company does this third time round is up to code. He agrees to send the inspector out again to check it after they've done the work this time. He also tells me to go in and get the company to explain what they're doing and show me the code.
So we do that. I go in. They justify what they're doing (not well and I'm still not impressed but I guess technically they're right). They show me the standard book and I finally realise just how bad the initial work was but I don't notice anything wrong with what they're doing now. They compensate us for the money we spent getting the leak diagnosed and replace a gas bottle for us. We leave somewhat satisfied though still annoyed any of this ever happened. The inspector comes out goes yup looks good and we leave once and for all.
Now you might assume that's the end of that…. It wasn't.
A year later after our trip - everything has gone great, no issues - we go to sell the van. To do so we need a gas safety cert. We book it in the week before the sale. It gets delayed till the day before. Bit stressful but we're not worried; after everything the gas system went through there's no chance it would fail… The standards haven't changed and our system hasn't changed…
It fails.
The sale can't go ahead. It totally screws my fiance and I who have organised a hire car and motels while the sale happens to get us moved out of the van and back home but all of this hinges on us having the money from the sale. The sale was contractual but without a valid gas cert on the agreed date it is now null and void. We scramble to borrow money off family and get the situation resolved. Thankfully, the buyer is still keen but the gas guy can't fix the work for weeks as he's booked out. I tell him I'll do everything except for the final fit off and beg him and he agrees to squeeze us in the next week but I have a tonne of stuff I have to do to correct the defects. There are multiple. Originally I assumed they would be unclear or unnecessarily technical stipulations in a compliance standards book that is open to interpretation but the gas guy shows me the standards and the failures are blatant.
My fiance takes the hire care and all of our stuff that we had already packed into it home to stay with her mum. I spend the next three days homeless, staying with a relative in a city a few hours away from where we were meant to sell the van, running around like a headless chook buying parts and tools, and fixing the defects. It's grueling work, the weather is crap for the weekend I'm doing it, pouring rain then boiling hot. I'm under the van, lying in mud, drilling holes (I have nowhere to do the work so I'm on my relatives property and their only paved areas are undercover and the van is too tall to fit) through the floor to run new pipework that should have been there from the beginning. By some miracle I get it done and they approve my work, finish things off and re-certify us. I deliver the van to the lady in the nearby town that same day and then crash at a backpackers that night. I need to catch a long haul bus to get back to the city to then catch a plane home. It was an incredibly stressful few days. But it worked out in the end and thankfully her payment for the van goes through quickly so we can pay back family and get our life back on track.
After the dust settles I call the government department furious that this happened. They get someone to ring me back and it's the original inspector. He acts like nothing has happened. I ask him if he appreciates how frustrating and disappointing this experience has been and he ignores the question and just tells me to send through the defect notice so he can go back to the original company that did the work. I ask to speak to his superior again and he says he'll get his boss to call me. It's been a week and no call so I send an email through to him with the defect notice he requested and I've outlined and attached all the tangible material costs incurred. In the email I detail the events as I have above and reference their own policy and standards to demonstrate how blatant and unacceptable it all is. I cc in the department and the big boss who's email I get from my gas guy who has been amazing and supports me in how terrible this work has been (he even suggests I go to a current affair haha). The man who was meant to call me sends a generic email in response to mine that clearly shows he didn't even read it. I reply telling him to try again.
This brings us to now. I'm at a loss what to do. I will be seeking remuneration from the company that did the initial work. I really want to avoid having to go to a lawyer. I don't want to waste the time, money and energy. But I'm also wondering what if anything I should do about the negligence of the government inspector that led to my family and I being put in danger for a year for no good reason other than laziness and greed. And simply getting the material costs covered seems dreadfully insufficient after all the stress and difficulty I've been put in not to mention my labor and the risk of harm brought on my family as a direct result of this. I wanted to go to the ombudsman but apparently, they don't deal with matters in the gas industry. I tried the Fair Trading Commision, but they don't investigate government departments. I'm seriously considering going to a current affair actually because I don't know where else to go. I could go to the ACCC I guess but I don't know that they actually do much nor that they would look into a government department.
Looking for any advice or tips on how to try and get a fair outcome here. Any advice from people who've ever been in a similar situation?
TIA
The best advice would be just to move on, the systems in place take years to come to a conclusion and cause lots of stress along the way.
Legal action also takes a long time, I am in the process for over 2 years, our court date is coming up in May 2025. We will win but it has cost over $100K in legal fees to get to this stage. The best for you mental health and for your family is to let it go, it will still cause you some sleepless nights for a year or so. Their are rouge operators in all businesses and you need to be vigilant to not get ripped off.