Do I have a HETAS certificate? How to check and obtain one

Whether you have a HETAS certificate for your stove or wood burner can usually be settled with a few checks: the property paperwork, the HETAS records and the installer's own details. A record can be searched online, a copy ordered or a missing one chased, and work that was never certified can still be put right. Missing paperwork also has consequences for a sale and your insurance.

How can I check for a HETAS certificate?

A check needs three sources: the documents held with the property, the online installation records and the installer who did the work. Each source answers a different question, so it pays to work through them in that order. If the first one turns up a certificate, you can stop there.

Start with the installation paperwork

Compliance starts with the documents already held for the property. Since April 2005, every solid fuel installation in England and Wales has had to be notified to Building Control. That notification can go through a competent person scheme or straight to the council. A competent person scheme is an authorised scheme whose registered installers can self-certify their own work. As a result, using HETAS is one accepted route rather than a legal requirement.

• Conveyancing file: the documents gathered when the house was bought often include the stove's compliance evidence.
• Existing compliance certificate: a HETAS Certificate of Compliance or a certificate from another scheme.
• Installer documentation: invoices and handover papers that name the business and give the date the work was finished.
• Building Control records: a completion certificate issued after the work went directly through the council.

Make sure you know what the document proves. A HETAS certificate records a solid fuel installation certified through the HETAS scheme, and its details are used to notify Local Authority Building Control. It does not approve the wood burning stove as a product. It is not a recurring check of the stove's condition either.

Search for the property's installation online

The HETAS website lets you check online whether you have a HETAS certificate. Its Certificate of Compliance search takes a property postcode or a certificate reference number. The search looks for an installation record, so a match means work at that address was notified, not just that a registered firm exists.

Each notification record shows the property address, the appliance and the installation date. Those three details tell you which record covers the log burner in front of you. Beyond that, local-authority online searches vary: some councils display HETAS notifications while others leave out competent-person work entirely. A blank council search therefore proves nothing either way.

Check what the installer registered

If you know who fitted the stove, ask them for the installation or notification details, which will help you find the property's record. HETAS also runs a separate installer search that takes a business name or a four-digit HETAS Company ID. It shows the categories of work the business is registered for. The two records are separate: a HETAS registered installer has a business record, the property has an installation record, and the first does not show that the second exists.

How do I obtain a certificate or chase one?

Your next step depends on what the search found. Where a record exists, ordering a copy is quick. Where nothing arrived after the work, the deadlines that apply to the installer and to HETAS tell you when to follow it up.

Order a copy of an existing record

A HETAS certificate can be ordered online when the record already exists. Once the certificate search returns the correct property record, select its reference number. This opens the record and the option to order a copy.

HETAS charges £36 for a copy of an existing Certificate of Compliance ordered through its certificate search.

After payment, the confirmation email, certificate and invoice should arrive within 30 minutes, according to HETAS. If nothing appears in your inbox, check your junk folder.

Chase a certificate that never arrived

The clock starts when the work is finished. Under HETAS's August 2025 conditions for England and Wales, the registered business must submit its notification through the HETAS Technical Hub within 14 calendar days of completion. HETAS then has to notify the local authority within 30 days and posts the certificate to the householder. A GOV.UK homeowner guide also says to expect a certificate within 30 days, although neither period guarantees that it will arrive by post on that date.

Timing affects the cost. HETAS advises raising a missing certificate within two months of completion. After that, a duplicate-certificate charge applies, so it is worth following up early if you want to obtain a HETAS certificate without paying for a duplicate.

Resolve delays or incorrect details

Different timeframes can cause confusion. GOV.UK's general guidance on competent person schemes refers to a certificate being supplied within eight weeks. That period is separate from the 14-day deadline HETAS gives installers to notify the work.

Errors are handled according to the age of the installation. For work less than six months old, HETAS advises asking the original installer for a corrected certificate, provided they are still registered, and then asking for the incorrect record to be removed so that it is not duplicated. For older work, or where the installer has left HETAS, the HETAS support team helps correct the record.

What if no HETAS certificate was issued?

A failed search is only the start of the next stage. The missing record may simply be held elsewhere. If the work really was never approved, the building control route is where it can be put right.

Check whether another approval exists

Not having a HETAS record does not mean the wood burner is illegal or unsafe. Before concluding that the work was never approved, rule out the following:

• Lost paperwork: the certificate was issued but never passed on with the property.
• Another competent person scheme: the installer was registered with a different authorised scheme.
• Direct Building Control approval: the work went through the council rather than a scheme.
• Council records: the building control department may hold an approval that its public search does not show.

It is not possible to get a retrospective HETAS certificate from an installer who had nothing to do with the original work. Under HETAS's conditions for England and Wales, a registered business may certify only installations commissioned by its own registered installers.

Missing paperwork does not lead to an automatic fine either. Under the Building Act 1984, contravening the building regulations can be an offence carrying a level-5 maximum fine. Continuing default after conviction can add up to £50 per day.

Understand the England and Wales regularisation routes

In England, GOV.UK describes local-authority Building Control regularisation as the retrospective route for qualifying unauthorised work carried out after 11 November 1985. Regularisation is a retrospective approval from the council, not a HETAS certificate. Assessment may involve plans, an inspection, opening-up, tests or remedial work. In Wales, regulation 18 of the Building Regulations 2010 provides the same mechanism, and the authority may ask for information and physical investigation.

There is no fixed national charge for regularising an ordinary domestic stove. Each local authority sets its own fee under the Building (Local Authority Charges) Regulations 2010. Regularisation charges are generally outside the scope of VAT.

Check the route elsewhere in the UK

In Scotland, a HETAS Certificate of Compliance does not replace the building-warrant process. Whether a solid fuel installation needed a warrant depends on the work and the circumstances. From 1 April 2026, a late warrant application costs 200% of the ordinary fee. A completion certificate for work where a required warrant was never obtained costs 300%. The ordinary fee depends on the work's valuation band.

In Northern Ireland, the district council controls stove, flue and chimney work and issues a Building Regulations Completion Certificate once the requirements are met. The Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 also provide a regularisation certificate for work that should have been notified but was not.

Does a missing certificate affect a sale or insurance?

The paperwork matters most when a property changes hands or an insurer asks questions. A missing certificate does not on its own prevent a sale. The questions it raises still need answers.

Establish what a buyer needs

Selling a house with no HETAS certificate for the wood burner is possible. Even so, missing evidence of compliance often prompts questions from buyers, solicitors or lenders. The Law Society's 2025 TA6 sixth-edition explanatory notes set out the standard for appliances installed on or after 1 April 2005. Ask the conveyancer which document the transaction needs before deciding what to do:

• Building Control Completion Certificate: issued by the council for work it approved directly.
• Installer's Building Regulations Compliance Certificate: issued through a competent person scheme such as HETAS.
• Regularisation certificate: the retrospective route described above, where neither original document exists.

The conveyancer's answer decides the next step. You may need to retrieve the original documents, apply for regularisation or discuss an insurance arrangement.

Separate financial cover from installation safety

An indemnity policy can cover a specified financial or enforcement risk in a sale. It does not inspect or certify the appliance, the flue or the chimney. Whether indemnity is suitable depends on the transaction and the lender's instructions, so it is not an automatic substitute for compliance evidence.

Home insurance follows a similar logic. What happens depends on the policy's terms and its disclosure requirements. A missing certificate does not automatically void every policy, although an insurer may ask for evidence that the installation is compliant.

Keep the certificate distinct from other records

A certificate records compliance at the time the work was carried out. The appliance manual, the servicing records and the chimney sweep's records answer different questions. None of them, the certificate included, establishes whether the system is safe today.

The notice plate is a separate item again. It permanently displays technical information about the hearth, fireplace, flue or chimney. It can be fixed in an obvious position near the equipment or beside the consumer unit, and it does not prove that the installation was notified.

Data Plate Hub supplies data notice plates for log burners, stoves, flues and chimneys. Its bespoke plates can carry an installer's branding and HETAS registration details. Data Plate Hub does not issue HETAS Certificates of Compliance.

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