Pulling out of purchase week of exchange

sonastin

Another option is to just pause for a little while. If you delay exchanging until after the christmas break, it might be enough to push them into a counter offer. Of course there are all the attendant risks that go with not having exchanged yet - i.e. they could choose to pull out because of the stress of it. You could still complete at (or at least around) the same date but it leaves them wondering what you will do (which is what you're doing at the moment anyway...)

poppysarah

Plenty more houses out there.

maryotuam

New boilers seem to break down after 3-4 years like our one today! Our old one which was at least 20 years old Never broke down and was only replaced because we were upgrading our kitchen. Old ones might be less efficient but they were bulit to last and are easier to maintain . From the seller's point of view you are making something out of nothing, probably.
Younger people are used to built-in obselescence but it wasn't like that in the old days when people fixed their own cars, boilers etc.

goldbyron

Think of it this way - you could move into a house with a 5 year old boiler and then that breaks down anyway. It could happen whatever... Personally I wouldn't let this be a deal breaker with all the stress that finding a new property causes and wasted rent. Maybe go back and ask for a 1k reduction and see what happens but if you really love the house just go for it.

DVardysShadow

arachne wrote: »

... After 2 months of chasing, we finally got responses to our enquiries on Friday, which showed the 25 year old boiler had never been serviced although the seller (not a gas engineer) had 'maintained it himself' :eek: and they were not willing to have a service done now, as we had requested.

I think you are reacting wrongly to this. It is the modern fashion to be horrified at 'non-qualified' people doing their own gas maintenance - but this is actually acceptable and allowable provided they are competent.

This boiler could well be in much sounder condition than boilers half its age which have always been on annual service contracts with BG, which perhaps as many as 20 different people have worked on over the period.

As I see it, if they were not willing to have a service done, then it was a totally unrealistic expectation that they would pay for a new boiler. Really, you have picked a bad argument here. You should have arranged a boiler inspection at your expense.

What really matters is the objective report of such an inspection rather than your own possibly realistic by definitely subjective assessment that "the boiler is likely to pack up in the next year or two if it's that age and has never had a service". No doubt the vendors' solicitors will have chosen their words to avoid making any claim that the boiler had been serviced, so as not to mislead you - but made it clear that the boiler had been maintained, to make it clear that it had not been neglected.

To jump straight from that information to a decision to write the boiler off at the vendor's expense without actually getting it inspected is OTT. And the advantage of having it inspected yourself over having the vendor get it serviced is that the gas fitter owes the vendor nothing, so you get an unbiased report of the state of the boiler, rather than a job paid for to keep you sweet.

rilou81

This happened to us, we moved in and within a week the bolier packed in, oven didnt work and there was a leak in the guttering.
Love our little house anyway paid 1K for a new bolier that over over 5 years ago and its still going strong. If you like the house its worth it x

azkaban420

arachne wrote: »

Feeling hugely depressed. We're buying a house which we were due to exchange on this week and complete in the first week of Jan. After 2 months of chasing, we finally got responses to our enquiries on Friday, which showed the 25 year old boiler had never been serviced although the seller (not a gas engineer) had 'maintained it himself' :eek: and they were not willing to have a service done now, as we had requested. As far as I'm concerned, the boiler is likely to pack up in the next year or two if it's that age and has never had a service. We had also had another few £1000 of work raised by our survey that we decided to suck up the costs of rather than renegotiating but the prospect of a new boiler was one cost too far. So, we went back to them and asked for £3k off the agreed price (meaning a revised offer of 6% below asking price) to cover the cost of a new boiler but they've refused point blank and won't even negotiate. We are in rented accommodation at the moment (having completed on our sale a fortnight ago) so have no chain below us. My instinct is to draw a line, pull out of the purchase and look for something else in the new year but part of me feels like £3k is a really small amount to lose a house over when we're this close. Also, our rental is only for a month so we would have to move into another rental property while we look for something else.

I don't think they're bluffing so the choice is pay up (knowing we'll have to suck up the costs of a new boiler in a year or two) or lose the house.

What shall we do???

Hi Arachne,

Just thought I'd give you the scenario my bro found himself in about 3 weeks ago. Exchanged/completed on house same day, property had been empty for months. I checked the boiler in the morning when we collected the keys and put the heating on and it was fine. However a few hours later when they pulled up with their van and stuff, the boiler died. Cue a further 12 days of a packed up boiler, freezing cold weather and repairs to the tune of about £700 (property is only 9 yrs old so boiler isn't any older than that). In the face of it, had he known he'd be 'stung' for £700 by the boiler, he still would have gone for the house...it's just one of those things.

Ultimately it's your choice but if you've managed to negotiate a fairly decent price for the house it may be neither here nor there. I suspect you've already spent on valuation/survey/solicitors fees, if you pull out now, you may end up losing around about £3k by the time you find the next house?

You need to really ask yourself, do you want the house enough to swallow the £3k or would you rather start all over again and find something you may be happier with than what you sound now?

Good luck,

Az

Niowrtt

arachne wrote: »

which showed the 25 year old boiler had never been serviced although the seller (not a gas engineer) had 'maintained it himself' :eek:

Pretty good track record, I'd say.

silvercar

If you pull out now, how much will it cost you to start again. Mortgage application costs, legal fees and new survey plus the cost of moving again now and finding another rental. It all adds up.

Errata

You've done all the tough stuff - do you want to go through all that again with a different house?
A new boiler won't cost £3k, but for arguements sake £3k is only the cost of a packet of fags a week for the next ten years at todays prices.
If this house ticks all your boxes apart from the boiler, then you may have a long wait before you find another house that ticks all but one of the boxes and during that time you may have to move from one rental to another rental to another rental.