bought a house with broken central heating! anything I can do?

dz6kb4

Hi all,

Recently moved into our new house. The day later I noticed the overflow from the cold water header tank was constantly leaking out the side of the house. Long story short, it turns out the hot water tank was broken and needed replacing along with all the pipe work. The guy who did the repair work lives two doors down and told me the overflow was leaking when the previous owner left the house.

The previous owner left months before I moved in and so when filling in the property info form etc he had claimed the central heating system was working correctly.

I obviously would have had some money knocked off at least if this was brought up before I moved in, but instead I have had to pay to get this fixed.

Is there anything I can do to re-coop my money??

Many thanks for reading and any help you can offer.

firstaspect

It's very unlikely you can do anything. Unless there is concrete proof that the previous owner lied when he filled in the property info form then it's always up to the buyer to check things out before purchasing.

Vincenzo

dz6kb4 wrote: »

Hi all,

Recently moved into our new house. The day later I noticed the overflow from the cold water header tank was constantly leaking out the side of the house. Long story short, it turns out the hot water tank was broken and needed replacing along with all the pipe work. The guy who did the repair work lives two doors down and told me the overflow was leaking when the previous owner left the house.

The previous owner left months before I moved in and so when filling in the property info form etc he had claimed the central heating system was working correctly.

I obviously would have had some money knocked off at least if this was brought up before I moved in, but instead I have had to pay to get this fixed.

Is there anything I can do to re-coop my money??

Many thanks for reading and any help you can offer.

I don't think you have a chance of getting any money back from teh vendor and would simply put it down to experience, speaking of which....

Based on the limited info given I was surprised to hear this problem required changing the pipework and the hot water tank. The leak you refer to is the overflow pipe which prevents the header tank from overflowing (better outside than in!). It was actually doing its job, the issue being that the flow was not being cut before the tank over-filled. It sounds to me like the ballcock valve on the header tank needed adjusting/replacing (cost c.£10-£15).

Hammyman

dz6kb4 wrote: »

Hi all,

Recently moved into our new house. The day later I noticed the overflow from the cold water header tank was constantly leaking out the side of the house. Long story short, it turns out the hot water tank was broken and needed replacing along with all the pipe work.

I doubt the pipework needs changing.

Two possibilities.

1. The ballcock vavle in the cold water tank is duff and needs replacing. A grand total of £2.50 for the part.

Or assuming its diagnosed correctly:

2. If you have a hot water tank, inside the tank is a coil that the water from the central heating runs through. It is possible that this has split so water in the hot water tank goes into the central heating system and overflows it. Total cost around £150 for a new tank plus an hour or so labour to fit. At the very worst, the piping around the hot water tank may need to be altered to fit the new connections but there's only a couple of hours work tops.

AND MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE OLD TANK - they're worth quite a few bob to the scrapman.

Doozergirl

What did your surveyor say?

When you buy a house it is your own responsibility to check that the things that you want to work, do work.

Most people are on a hiding to nothing trying to sue a vendor for anything that costs less than £5000 as the solicitor's fees are likely to dwarf any compensation. And that's even if there is a case to answer at all.

ILW

Hammyman wrote: »

I doubt the pipework needs changing.

Two possibilities.

1. The ballcock vavle in the cold water tank is duff and needs replacing. A grand total of £2.50 for the part.

Or assuming its diagnosed correctly:

2. If you have a hot water tank, inside the tank is a coil that the water from the central heating runs through. It is possible that this has split so water in the hot water tank goes into the central heating system and overflows it. Total cost around £150 for a new tank plus an hour or so labour to fit. At the very worst, the piping around the hot water tank may need to be altered to fit the new connections but there's only a couple of hours work tops.

AND MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE OLD TANK - they're worth quite a few bob to the scrapman.

You may need to enlarge the loft hatch to get it out though.

Hammyman

You've got a hot water tank in the roofspace? That's a new one.