Guide · Trust
Why use a HETAS-registered stove installer?
Because a HETAS-registered installer can self-certify the installation as compliant with Building Regulations, hand you the certificate that insurers and conveyancers ask for, and is audited to keep that privilege. An unregistered fit needs separate building control approval, and without either, you own an installation you cannot prove is safe.
Updated 11 July 2026
What HETAS actually is
HETAS is the specialist body for solid fuel heating in the UK. A registered installer has been trained and assessed on the regulations that govern stoves, flues, hearths and ventilation, and is subject to ongoing inspection to stay on the register. It is not a badge you buy; it is a competence scheme you are audited against.
Carl Finnell is HETAS registered, and the listing is public: the HETAS badge in our footer links to the register entry, so you can verify it in one click rather than take our word.
The certificate is the point
Every installation we complete is notified to building control and certificated. That piece of paper is what your home insurer may ask for after a chimney-related claim, what a conveyancing solicitor requests when you sell, and what proves the installation met Building Regulations on the day it was fitted.
Without registration, the route to compliance is a building control application for each job, with inspections and fees. The DIY-and-hope route produces an installation that exists outside the system, which surfaces at the worst moments: a claim, a sale, or a problem with the fire itself.
What a registered installer does differently on the job
The regulations are not paperwork; they are the physics of a safe fire. Hearth sizes and temperatures, distances to combustibles, flue sizing and height, ventilation requirements, carbon monoxide alarms: a registered installer designs to all of it, tests the finished system, and commissions the stove properly with a first burn and a handover.
It is also insurance against enthusiasm. Plenty of the remedial work we do follows a fit by someone handy but unregistered: the beam scorched because clearances were guessed, the stove that never drew because the flue was undersized. Done right first time is cheaper.
How to check any installer, including us
Ask for the HETAS registration and look it up on the public register. Ask whether the quote includes commissioning, a CO alarm and the certificate. Ask who notifies building control. Straight answers to those four questions sort the field quickly, whoever you end up choosing.
Common questions
Is it illegal to fit a wood burning stove yourself?
Not illegal, but the installation must still comply with Building Regulations, which means a building control application, inspection and fees if the installer is not registered to self-certify. Without that, the installation is unauthorised, which matters to insurers and buyers.
What does a HETAS certificate prove?
That the installation was completed by a registered installer and complied with Building Regulations at the time of fitting, with building control notified. Keep it with your house documents; it is routinely requested during sales and can be requested after chimney-related insurance claims.
Does HETAS registration cover servicing and sweeping too?
Our servicing and sweeping is carried out to the same standards, and every visit ends with a written record for your files. The registration itself covers installation work; the discipline covers everything we do.
How do I verify your HETAS registration?
Click the HETAS badge on any page of our site, which links directly to the public register entry for Carl Finnell, or search the register at hetas.co.uk. Any legitimate installer will be happy to be checked.
Do you certify installations you did not originally fit?
No installer can retrospectively certify another person’s work. What we can do is inspect an existing installation, tell you honestly where it stands, and bring it up to standard so it can be properly signed off from that point.
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