I'm trying to buy my first house and got the survey back on Friday.

Surveyor has highlighted that the combi boiler is mounted in a cupboard in the bathroom and ventialtion appears inadequate. He also notes that the vent is via the external wall imediately outside – which means the boiler is venting about 2 feet from the adjacent bedroom window.

My questions:

1. The boiler is maybe 10ish years old and if I remember correctly is connected to a water tank. I didn't think combi boilers connected to water tanks and I didn't think they were around 10 years ago either – does it sound like the surveyor has cocked up and it is actually an open or closed vented system instead of a combi?

2. Is it going to kill me in my sleep if I have the window open while the boiler is firing and venting right next to the window?

3. Is getting the venting fixed to better standards something that will cost me an arm and a leg?

4. If you were called up by someone trying to buy a house who needed this all looking at – how much would you charge them to go and have a shufty? – Should I be expecting to fork out a load of money for someone to go round?

Ta

Matt

Sleep next to the widow.

1. Speak to the surveyor and check.
2. Would you want to sleep next to a venting boiler?
3. Speak to the surveyor / get a quotation
4. Speak to the surveyor / get a quotation

If in doubt get a grand knocked off the asking price so you have some money to fix it if needed.

There are regulations for all that stuff – should be able to find it from gas safe website or google for building regs. You should be able to check if it has been installed to correct standards anyway – there should be completed building warrants for it. Council will have them and probably on line for you to inspect.

combi boilers don't connect to water tanks but have been around a lot longer than ten years.

If the boiler is balanced flue then no air ventilation needed just the flue.

Sounds like you need a gas safe engineer to inspect it. I doubt extending the flue would be very expensive – a couple of hundred maybe at a guess

Regs/ man recommendations are min 300mm from adjacent (horizontally) opening, so you should be fine on that score. You've already paid someone to go round and have a shufty, it cost an arm and a leg and he hasn't got a clue what he's doing so ask him for the money back. A room sealed boiler (most are) doesn't need special venting to the cabinet other than to prevent overheating in the cabinet itself. Extra tank not usual for a combi.

A good way to give yourself peace of mind rather than paying for another overpriced survey would be to have a gasman go and do a landlord's gas safety check on the house, should cost considerably less than £100 (my last one was £60). I'm not a gas engineer, but it pays to be clued up when you're a landlord of a few houses.

As midlife says, get a LL cert done. Get some money back from the surveyor, because unless he is qualified then he should state that the boiler / heating system were not checked and should be inspected by a suitably qualified person.

He has gone for the REP (rear end protection) method, which although keeps him in the clear doesn't really help you and gives you more worries, when possibly there aren't any.

If you are SE based would be prepared to help fellow MTB'er out.

Cheers everyone – and thanks for the offer Bear – I'm Cambridgeshire – so a bit far from SE…

However had a good chat with a gas safe guy last night who pointed out (much like some helpful peoiple here) that provided I check a few distances between flue and window and in the cupboard and some other stuff there shouldnt' be a problem – he confirmed what I suspected which was that the surveyor is a muppet who was making a fuiss over nowt – but given the hassle I was getting from MrsHelios to have a survey done in the first place he served his purpose…

Will be taking a look myself tomorrow, then if still worried will have someone look at it, and finally intend for it to be properly serviced when we move anyway…