Problem with surveying repossessed property

Wanderer_Yorkshire

Hi everyone,

I hope you can help. I am at the moment in the process of buying a repossessed property. In my home buyer's report I was advised to get the gas central heating checked. When I tried to organize such a check with a CORGI certified installer I was told by the estate agent that the gas cannot be turned on by the installer in order to do the inspection, rendering such a check impossible. Is this the norm for repossessed properties?? Or is the seller trying to stop us from finding out something here??

I would appreciate any help anyone can give me on this matter. I do not have the money to do a lot of repairs once the property is paid for which is why I feel I cannot take a lot of risks.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

poppysarah

Get it checked when you buy it. Assume it'll need replacing and then any money left over after gas check/repair is yours.

Airwolf1

I would query why the gas can't be turned on by the CORGI chap. Can't the estate agents arrange to be on site at the same time, if they need to be there?

I would err on the side of caution.

worried_jim

I would have thought that if you explain to the EA that you really want to buy this property and that it all hinges on a gas inspection -"do you want to sell this house this week?" should do the trick nicely. good luck- I hope you get yourself a bargain!

poppysarah

Don't check it and reduce your offer by 4k for the new gas system you need.

Richard_Webster

It is sensible to get it checked. Problem is that the insurance cover that mortgage lenders carry for repossessed properties usually requires the services to be turned off and the water drained down.

Perhaps OP could point out to the estate agents that in a normal purchase he would be able to have this check carried out and because he can't there's a greater risk factor which should be reflected in price reduction. Whilst I would have known that this issue could come up it is not reasonable to expect the average buyer to know that and therefore OP could use that as an argument.

Wanderer_Yorkshire

Hi everyone... thank you for the advice! We rang the estate agent and conveyed to him that this does indeed make us very nervous and we offered them to pick the gas installer themselves. If his does not work we might ask for a price reduction as a higher risk is involved and we were not aware of this. Thank you again for all your help.

LisaLou1982

Its normal for all services to be turned off once a property is repossessed - unfortunately it is also normal for a surveyor to recommend all services are checked out!!

Speak to the EA and see if the client will allow the services to be turned on. In my experience, most of them will not. The house is sold as seen. However, the odd excecption can sometimes be made - they may well get their own service company out to check everything for you and send a report in.

Hope this helps

Debt_Free_Chick

I think the problem will be that the supply has been disconnected and it needs the supplier to reconnect. Not sure that "any old CORGI engineer" can reconnect the supply.

Doozergirl

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

I think the problem will be that the supply has been disconnected and it needs the supplier to reconnect. Not sure that "any old CORGI engineer" can reconnect the supply.

I agree - the repossessions we have bought you have to contact the utility provider to have it reconnected and new account set up.

poppysarah

LisaLou1982 wrote: »

The house is sold as seen.

This is the important bit.

If the boiler looks old then reduce price for putting a new one in. If the water pipe under the sink is lead reduce the price for replacing pipes, if the plumbling is old... etc etc

If you can't cope with knowing you might have to replace stuff then don't buy a house. Even an occupied property's boiler can break at any point.