As it turns out Companies House has given Mike’s Plumbing and heating services limited a compulsory strike off. Not good for Cowboys.
Update 21/03/2018
It would turn out Mr Michael Anthony McNamara – born Mar 1976 aka Mikey appears to have left me a little gift. Following a recent annual service the front control panel metal hinges have been torn away, along with remnants of sand and cement in the main system!
Why? I can only speculate, it would have taken quite a bit of force to break the metal brackets which makes me believe it was malicious – colour me shocked. The sand and cemet found in the system was clear laziness from the knee-jerk Gas-Safe response. I’ll leave it to the reader to determine who was the cause.
A quick check at Companies House shows our boy Michael was out of luck in 2016! A long time before I even spoke to him. I’ll go on a wild guess and assume he is still operational wearing his very best snake skin boots
Original post
As a British man I do love a little bit 
of self deprecating irony, so you can imagine
what I thought when I read Mikey’s Plumbing and Heating website (which as the time of writing is still online)
Mikey’s Plumbing (aka Michael Anthony Mcnamara) clearly appreciates irony . His company is now dissolved, and their gas safe (233352) numbers revoked
This particular chap demonstrates you shouldn’t always believe everything you read. He was recommended by LoveMoney, a moderately large consumer news and review website.
Before I go any further. I seriously dissuade anyone to use CheckATrade or RatedPeople. All the issues I’ve had have consistently been related to these two intermediaries.
When I first moved into my property the GCH system was rather ancient. In the 1990’s Baxi units were the voguel. If you are not familiar with that era, most boilers consisted of a gas fired conventional boiler and an electric cylinder. The Baxi did an excellent job over those years, however by today’s standards it was quite inefficient and desperately needed a change.
Following months of searches and quotes. Michael Anthony Mcnamara of Mikey’s Plumbing and Heating Services Limited reassured me he could update my boiler with a quality Worcester.
I asked them to remove all redundant piping once the old equipment had been removed. Sadly Michael Anthony Mcnamara, like most of the Cowboys I’ve delt with were very reassuring (this is becoming a protip… avoid any emotion). So ahead I went.
Mike and his band of merry men worked surprisingly quickly. They’d pretty much replaced the entire system in about 3-4 hours. Oh except they’d forgotten to install the Thermostatic valves I’d paid for (we’ll come back to this). Funnily enough friends of mine have now told me this was clearly rushed.
Before Mike’s departure he was good enough to give me a run in on the system. Initially it was all looking good. Unfortunately for him, I decided to hedge my bets by booking a (free) Gas Safe engineer to arrive around the time he’d finished….
The Gas Safe engineer immediately condemned the boiler! It violated both Gas Safe and planning.
I called Mike and he was literally furious I’d arranged for a Gas Safe engineer to review his work. He came up with all kinds of reasons why his cowboy work was entirely acceptable. Unfortunately for him he had to fix his incompetence or lose his license.
This is pretty bad right? Nope. It can get worse.
I was in the final stages of planning a stag do which was leaving the following day. Guess what I woke up to?
Oh yes. The pipe I’d asked him to cut out, he’d left in some weird loop. What did I get? Water pouring through my ceiling an hour before I leave for the airport.
Those pipes I asked Mike to remove. Yeah, they breached with the new pressure. Just a few hours before I left.
So how did this nightmare end? Once again my friend came out and cut out the leaking pipework, and sealed everything appropriately. This left me with a rather large decorating bill.
However, just like the other cowboys. It would appear his antics caught up with him. Allegedly he, and the rest of his crew lost Gas Safe and his company is now dissolved.
I suppose I wont get my two boiler services now? Probably for the best, I doubt they sell pipe-cleaners these days.
What’s even more amusing (if you aren’t me). They failed so badly at the job, rushed it so much they couldn’t even be bothered to bleed the radiators and install the thermostatic vales the right way around. I discovered this a few months after in the winter. Thankful I’m not an idiot and it was a simple fix.
tl;dr Record everything tradesmen do. Get everything in writing. Check and report them to their associated alliances and accreditations
Here’s a few key pieces of public information you should be ware of:
Michael McNamara, 38 Louise White House Hazellville Road London N19 3LU United Kingdom
Bexley Watchdog 
Sadly, I had a similar experience. But I chose Mikey Plumbing because I was buying a Worcester Bosch boiler and his company was on their ‘accredited installer’ list. He’s now been removed from their list, so they must know he’s lost his certificate. But they certainly haven’t been in touch with any of his customers. His name is on the Worcester Bosch guarantee and certificate of registration. I’m surprised and concerned that someone they recommended to install their boilers has lost his certificate and they take no action. When I phoned Worcester Bosch customer services, they said ‘nothing to do with us’. How many people had boilers installed by Mikey in the last year and don’t know he’s been struck off for bad practice? I thought I took every step to get a competent, gas safe registered tradesman, but it still went wrong! Lynne
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Yes it’s a real shame. I’ve learned you simply cannot trust recommendations these days. RatedPeople, MyBuilder (etc) are totally useless.
As you’ve experienced even supposedly registered builders cannot be trusted.
The best approach literally seems to find someone local who’s had the same work carried out, and use them as a direct reference. “StreetLife” is quite handy for this – facebook for locals.
Regardless – you should still be guaranteed with Worcester as they were correctly registered at the time.
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Hi Mikey, I checked with Gas Safe and they say that Mikey certificate was not withdrawn for bad practice. Mikey chose not to renew it. For anyone who is worried, they do, as you say, offer a free service to check work that has been done by a registered gas safe engineer .https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/help-and-advice/complaints-report-an-illegal/gas-work-complaint/
But they definitely say Mikey Plumbing certificate was not lost but was just ‘not renewed’.
Thanks for a great blog!
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Interesting they said that. When the gas safe chap visited he was visibly furious with the work.
Thanks for the advice, hopefully others can make use of it.
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All, I’ve received quite a few comments suggesting Michael is “dead”, I’ve seen no obituaries or anything in the legal records, I think it’s GasSafe to say he’s operating as a sole trader or similar.
If you know this guys, please drop me a comment.
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I used Mikey a couple of times and went through all of the relevant checks on the Worcester Bosch website/Gas Safe etc. I thought at the time he was a bit of wideboy in his nature, but he was efficient and did the job as promised.
Just discovered though that he didn’t register the boiler he fitted with the relevant authorities (he registered it with Worcester, but not for a Building Regulations Compliance Certificate). More fool us. We were unaware this needed to happen.
So now I have to get in a Gas Safe plumber to ‘recommission’ for £100. I would say though that in the 8 years since it was fitted, there have been absolutely no problems, though it turned out a year after the boiler being fitted, the seal on the front of the boiler wasn’t fitted properly – which could have been quite dangerous. This was picked up after our service on the first year. I then got Worcester out to check it out and do their own service (for free) and recommended he was removed from their list. They didn’t.
I’ve since spoken to a Carpenter who knows him (and knew him since they were kids) and it does indeed turn out that he died of a massive heart attack whilst asleep 2 or so years ago.
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I highly doubt he died 2 or so years ago, as I saw him this time last year.
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So either it’s a lie or he died more recently. Either way, I can’t get him to validate his original install because he’s not registered (or alive). Either way, I’m out of pocket for something he should have done as part of the course. In the end, we did not part on good terms.
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I’m going to call bullshit on Michael’s supposed death. The legal registry (Birth, marriage and death – aka BMD) has no record of him – he, and his counterparts are likely still operating.
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Could always try contact using an innocuous email via the website or calling the telephone?
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I’ll do some digging. Mike and his team are aware of this post so I’m guessing they’ll be wise to any unusual calls.
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Had my boiler fitted by Mikey in 2014 , so far no problems ( touch wood), but like others it appears the boiler was not notified ( Gas Safe ) but the guarantee was registered with Worcester Bosch, so at least their guarantee covers the boiler was 6 years , but sadly not the 10 years Mikey promised. I’m trying to get the boiler notified now , but engineers are reluctant to put their name / reputation to his work . Will keep trying . Have others had any luck with this?
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