checking utilities before exchanging contracts

brightonman123

and what about a survey?

david29dpo

Nope, no survey. The PIQ should tell you what services are connected, thats all.

Richard_Webster

Surveyors routinely warn people to have the gas and electrics checked because they don't want to be liable for not giving the warning.

The rality is that not many people do have these checks carried out, but they still have to be warned that if they don't then there is always the possibility of a problem.

The HIP tells you nothing about the heating systems. The EPC does not involve checking whether e.g. a central heating boiler works. The Domestic Energy Inspector looks at the boiler and ascertains what type it is and the various types of boiler are categorised on a list of "poor", "average", "good", etc.

So the first EPC I had anything to do with was of a 1970s bungalow (my father in law's place) that had a second hand (in 1970s) oil central heating boiler that had never worked very well at the best of times, but had become so inefficient that it didn't heat anything any more. It was nevertheless classified as "average" whereas you would expect it to be "very poor" as it didn't work!

G_M

At the risk of opening a political can of worms (or posts), there are few reasons I want the Tories to win the next election, but their indication that they will remove HIPs (EPC excepted due to EC rules) is one of them! Total waste of time.

clairet707

We bought our last house 4 years ago, moved in end of january, we bought from a young family with a baby...

The night we moved in was one of the coldest of that winter, we woke up the next morning to no heating and hot water..

We established (but had no come back according to our solicitor, as it hadnt been tested prior to us exchanging) that when we viewed the place there was no carpet in the linen cupboard with the water tank and timer in... when we moved in there was, and we suspect that between us viewing and exchanging or completing the vendors put the carpet in and in the process managed to cut one of the wires connecting the timer

When we set the heating to come on the morning after we moved in it tripped the circuit etc

It took us weeks to sort it out (and to find the cause of the problem) as the vendors claimed they wouldnt have lived without heating and hot water with a baby

timmyt

erictheking99 wrote: »

my solicitor is recommending that before i exchange on a house purchase i should have the utilities checked out. the property is in good condition in a good area, and the current owners seem like a good family.

having an electrician in to check the electrics, and a plumber in to check the gas, seems like an unnecessary expense to me, and will of course delay matters.

does anyone have any views or experience of this? certainly on previous house purchases i have not done this....

That is just common sense, hardly legal advice. He is now covered for telling you this, and so when you move in and they do not work properly - he can say 'I told you so'.

Lawyers get criticised for not telling you things, so they have to be comprehensive and tell you things that some may think over the top, but others may want to do.

When buying a property, the buyer is responsible for checking out the fabric of the building through a survey and as for utilities, the same. Any dsirepair, then you inherit it.