Trusted air conditioning & ventilation in London

Who may legally do this work

GOV.UK's own guidance is unambiguous: 'You must have your own qualifications to work on equipment containing F gas, even if you work for someone else,' and 'It is against the law to work with F gas if you do not have the correct qualifications. You could receive a civil penalty for breaking the law.' Certification is tiered by activity: Category 1 permits 'all activities'; Category 2 covers installation, maintenance, servicing and refrigerant recovery on systems containing less than 3kg of F-gas (or less than 6kg if hermetically sealed); Category 3 covers refrigerant recovery only from smaller systems; Category 4 covers leak detection without breaking into the refrigerant circuit. Qualifications must come from an accredited body — GOV.UK names City and Guilds, the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA), and LCL Awards (or equivalent EU-recognised credentials).

Source — checked 21 July 2026

Certificates & records

• Personal F-Gas qualification / certificate (by category)

  Who must hold it:

  The individual engineer carrying out the work, and separately the business (company registration certificate) — every business entity, whether sole trader or limited company, must hold a company registration certificate in addition to the individual's personal qualification

  Frequency:

  Not a recurring per-job certificate — a standing personal and company qualification/registration that must be held before undertaking the relevant category of work; the most widely held qualification cited in secondary sources is City & Guilds 2079, covering Categories I-IV

  Every person working in the sector must hold a personal F-Gas qualification and every business entity must hold a company registration certificate, issued by certification bodies such as REFCOM, Quidos or Bureau Veritas.

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

Commonly misunderstood

• Myth vs fact

  Myth: Air conditioning is sometimes treated by consumers as a lightly regulated 'electrical' job similar to installing a fan, given it is often marketed alongside general electrical or heating services.

  Fact: It is in fact one of the more tightly, and specifically, regulated trades covered in this research — governed by a directly named retained-EU regulation (2015/2067) with tiered personal certification categories, mandatory company registration, and named accredited qualifying bodies, enforced with civil penalties by the Environment Agency. This is a materially stronger statutory basis than exists for general building, roofing, or plumbing work.

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

Penalties for non-compliance

• GOV.UK states: 'It is against the law to work with F gas if you do not have the correct qualifications. You could receive a civil penalty for breaking the law,' directing enforcement queries to the Environment Agency. No specific fine figure was published on the page checked today — it points to a separate Environment Agency enforcement sanctions policy for the detail.

  Source — checked 21 July 2026

How to check who’s legally allowed to do this

REFCOM (Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors' Association's certification scheme) describes itself as 'the UK's largest and original F-Gas Register' and provides certification/verification for both individual engineers and companies. The GOV.UK Regulated Professions Register also lists the qualifying and certification bodies (LCL Awards, City and Guilds, BESA) that issue the underlying qualifications, providing an official cross-check of which bodies are recognised.

refcom.org.uk

Source — checked 21 July 2026