Boiler problems in sold house

G_M

If your house had burnt down on day of exchange would u have been liable for that too. I think not.

Actually that depends on the terms of the Contract. In some contracts, the vendor guarantees to hand over the property on Completion in the same condition it was in at Exchange (fair wear and tear excepted).

Doozergirl

At worst, your buyers will make a call to their solicitor and their solicitor will tell them that it is not worth pursuing.

Aside from the fact that it is their responsibility to satisfy themselves before buying the property (caveat emptor), their solicitor will tell them that the possible cost of pursuing you will be higher than the cost of repair.

We have a rising bill standing currently standing at £3500 for a vendor not giving us vacant possession and our solicitor is still warning us of his potential costs! Claims under £5000 will be dealt with via the small claims court - that means that legal fees are not recoverable regardless of who wins.

In your case, your buyers spend say £600 on solicitors fees (making this up!) for you to then lose (which you wouldn't anyway) in which case you pay them for a new boiler and they end up using the money to pay their solicitor. Pointless excercise.

I doubt you will hear anything more as solicitors seem to active discourage any action anyway, regardless of whetehr they think the vendor is in the wrong. My inclination would be to ignore the buyers. If you converse with them then you might start digging yourself a hole. I don't really think that paying them £50 to get it serviced is an admission of responsibility but you might want to back it up with a little email checked over by your solicitor - along the lines of it being their house, their responsibilty; but that the boiler was fine when you left and that the gesture was for reassurance rather than an expectation of further costs or an admission of your responsibility. Don't enter into anything further than that.

frank.hopper

We had an issue with a small leak from under our boiler on the day of our house move. It was minus 5' and I'd assumed the condenser vent pipe had frozen.

You assumed wrongly, if you had bought the property you would probably be on here with another thread 'crying your eyes out' you are responsible for the repair of that boiler, your not responsible for the renewal or for betterment, but you are morally responsible, in Scotland you would be held legally responsible, there's normally a 3/5 day clause to hand over a property without this sort of defect.


Some good money saving replies to your post!..... <shakes head>

BitterAndTwisted

I disagree with you Frank, I don't think he's legally or morally responsible and I think you'll find the OP's and the vendor's solicitors will agree with me.

jonty43

I've gone through some effort to put the situation right, to the point where the plumber they called out has told them that they may need a new boiler from what started as a leaky gasket. Unfortunately the tone in which we recieved the phonecall has removed any goodwill (we were considering making a further payment to go towards rectification).
Since moving into our new house we have had to rip out the integrated dishwasher, switch off a leaky integrated fridge along with having a boiler that sounds like it needs some attention asap (nursing it through the cold snap). All were assumed to be in working order.
I havent complained about this as I accept it is part and parcel of moving into a new property.

sprocker1

I thought houses were bought and sold with the small print "electricle appliences not tested"

Our boiler was sold (with the house!) with a full service contract in place, up to the day we moved, and then transfered to the new house. I supplied the latest heating report from british gas, and that was that.

I had a phone call recently from my buyer stating the boiler was not working!! and that british gas had said it wasn't fitted correctly, this is after it had been serviced for the previous 3 years by them!!

I was not aware of any possible problem, therefore i do not feel responsable atall.

The dishwasher, cooker, fridge were also in good working order on the day of completion, therefore whatever happens to these appliences after this date is beyond my controll.....

poppysarah

British gas have previously serviced it fine - they have a copy of this already - so tough!

Unless british gas confirm to you what they've said to the new owners, how do you know what they've said.

Sold as seen. Unless in scotland where I think things are slightly different and they have a short timeframe to claim in.

JQ.

Just out of interest, have they now been without heating for the last 8 weeks, or have they got it replaced themselves at their own cost?

I think you've been completely reasonable in your approach and I'd just ignore them.

not_loaded

sprocker1 wrote: »

I was not aware of any possible problem, therefore i do not feel responsable at all.

And you are not.

You’ve already gone way beyond what most vendors would have done. (second word is usually ‘off’) At completion the property and all the F&F are ‘conveyed’ with their inherent problems or otherwise. It’d be nice to get every item lasting ten years, but unlikely.

Stop talking to them and get on with your life and ‘your’ conveyed problems.

sprocker1

not_loaded wrote: »

And you are not.

Stop talking to them and get on with your life and ‘your’ conveyed problems.

Difficult when they have our Mobile numbers....... Never give a potential buyer your mobile or any personall phone number........ we live and learn! :mad: