Not me, the MiL. She’s just moved into a new house (new to her, i think it’s a 50’s house), and the central heating doesn’t work. She’s had the gas man out who’s basically said it’s knackered, CO values are way out, etc. and is consequently facing a major repair bill if not replacement.

Under the new house buying scheme aren’t owners supposed to declare stuff like this – it can’t have gone that badly wrong in 2 weeks can it? Or have the solicitors not asked the right questions? Any come back on the vendors?

There is already some history; first time it rained a bay window leaked and the MiL asked the question on that to which they said it had never done that before. But her neighbour has confirmed it’s been leaking for ages. She’s repaired that, just needed some flashing redone but a boiler is a different league.

Even a survey won’t do a proper check on any gas appliance. I think they just put a disclaimer in saying that it should be checked by a qualified person.

I’d get a second opinion on the repair as well to be honest. Depending on the age/make/model of boiler some engineers would rather just quote for replacement than trying to fix it, either because they aren’t 100% on fixing it or because they think it’ll just be easier for them to stick a new one in.

Did she have a proper survey done?
The surveyor might have noticed the boiler looked a bit ropey and recommended a boiler man take a look.
No…?

My solicitor asked me to have the boiler checked by a gas fitter. I didn’t but it was made clear that not checking it was my problem

We agreed a fairly forced sale due to relocation in May a few years ago and then our buyers got nasty and didnt exchange, complete and actually move in until October

The place was empty from May onwards as we had to start new jobs

The day they moved in I got a call from the agent saying the heating was FUBAR’d which I had honestly no idea about as it had been fine up until May when we moved out leaving the place unoccupied

We heard nothing further but I did celebrate with a pint as they had taken us to hell and back with the transaction

I suspect your MiL hasnt a leg to stand on

Under the new house buying scheme aren’t owners supposed to declare stuff like this – it can’t have gone that badly wrong in 2 weeks can it? Or have the solicitors not asked the right questions? Any come back on the vendors?

Boilers tend to work, right up until the time they stop working.

Just bad luck possibly.

Regardless of blame / accountability, I’d be getting a second opinion from a different firm.

Caveat emptor.

The last house we bought we had a 48hr clause for boiler etc to find fault, after that, tough.

I bought a draughty un insulated 1913 semi with an air source gear pump Bodged in

😆

Definitely get another plumber out before you give up, even if its a traditional cylinder expansion tank system (dealt with rental properties both at work and family). Some of them are ****ts trying to get as much money out of the job as possible, using scare tactics to push you into it when it can be repaired.

Obviously sometimes the boiler is not economically repairable, parts are not available and/or it is dangerous and they are telling the truth! Unfortunately I’ve found this to be less common with your average one time call-out, to a layman customer.

Don’t get the big boys out either they usually overprice a new boiler install by as much as two grand IME.

Not much help but just had the boiler serviced and given a full clean bill of health, as expected, ready for the buyers of my place. They are first time buyers and stretching themselves so want to make sure the boiler is all working and stays under warranty as it is due around now.

Oh and in contrast our landlord let our boiler service/landlord check go 8 month overdue and we’ve just found out it been using 4x the normal amount of gas so we’ve gone though £1000 of gas this year.

Our solicitor insisted that the people we were buying our place from had the boiler serviced prior to exchanging and we got the receipt for the service.
Whether it was a genuine receipt for work done, or a receipt from a bloke down the pub I don’t know but (touch wood) the boiler is still working 5 yrs on…

I reckon without a specific stipulation about having the boiler serviced, there’ll be no come back. And to be honest, even with that they could just say it was fine when serviced, something must have happened since…

“Not much help but just had the boiler serviced and given a full clean bill of health, as expected, ready for the buyers of my place. They are first time buyers and stretching themselves so want to make sure the boiler is all working and stays under warranty as it is due around now.”

Exactly what I did, got all the gas appliances checked and serviced. Just because other people leave things in a state doesn’t mean I should do the same – even if in my next house I may get dealt a rough deal!

I’m going to budget for a new boiler for my next house no matter what.

robdob – Member

I’m going to budget for a new boiler for my next house no matter what.

This x infinity – I moved house in July & the boiler’s never been quite right, now looks as though it’s shit its diverter assembly & maybe an internal leak from something else into the bargain that’s causing 1bar per day of pressure to vanish, grrr! No way of proving that it was wonky before & tbh I have no reason to doubt the previous occupants as they had boiler insurance cover and liked to get their money’s worth out of it, so probably bad luck… I was contemplating joining the stw woodburner massive this year too, maybe next year 😥

j

thsi thread is not helping my house-buying stress levels at the moment

thsi thread is not helping my house-buying stress levels at the moment

I just had a new roof put on mine, turns out that when the previous owner had an extension they didn’t bother using lead on the roof gullies, they just used roofing felt and painted over it with bitumen.

Not seen in the survey as they’d hidden it under (above) boards in the loft, no wonder it was bloody leaking. Add to that a badly capped chimeny that was allowing damp in (that was inside a fitted wardrobe, so not very visible) and no ring main upstairs, just a bunch of spurs, and a utility room floor that appears to have breached the damp course when it was relayed, again spoofed to sell the place…(so far, in 5 years of ownership), oh and using woodstain on the weatherboards rather than painting them, so they had to be replaced and painted properly as they’d gone totally rotten.

It’s going to be a lovely house once I’ve finished it!

@ sobriety – you’re not helping 😥

I’ve got a long list of questions I’m currently asking through my solicitors.

spawnofyorkshire

I’ve got a long list of questions I’m currently asking through my solicitors.

Ask them to check for giant spiders up the loft too – I found this up there the other week (yes those are standard issue 6″ floorboards…)

😮

I’d tend to just really go with the age of the boiler tbh, rather than a service and check. We moved in here 5 years ago, I knew the boiler was 10 years old, so instead of trying to get it covered by a contract, I stuck some cash away every month, knowing it may not last long.

5 years later, it’s still going, the only reason I’m changing it is that it doesn’t really cope too well now with us changing from a leccy to a mixer shower.

New boiler comes with a 10 year full parts and labour warranty, as long as I get it serviced annualy. Quite happy with that.

otherjonv – not sure if your MIL is in his area, but I can recommend

http://www.miketheboilerman.com/

I particularly enjoy fixing those really well-made boilers from the 1980s and 1990s which other technicians are prone to declaring “can’t be fixed mate (or Luv), can’t get the parts”. This is rarely true and sadly results in many perfectly servicable older boilers being scrapped.

Did this ^^^ for us.

Cheers Jeff, but no – she sold up and moved to the west country

I’m going to budget for a new boiler for my next house no matter what.

We did this. Delighted it did 5 more years. Then the cast Iron “lump” fell into 2 pieces

Good to here people on here giving positive consideration the their buyers