Legal Right After Buying home

elmer1974

I hope someone can help.

just bought a house, as part of the survey we were advised to check that the boiler had been checked the previous year. We asked and were told yes. So we did not get it checked.
A wekk after moving in we got BG in to service the boiler, they condemned it. We haev now confirmed that the boiler has not been serviced for 4 years. As we were told by the sellers they had, are they liable for the cost of replacing the boiler?
We have now paid out over 5K on the boiler and in repairing unsafe electrical work. It has been a nightmare

Any info would be of help

jjlandlord

I do not know about potential liabilities, but in any case if they only told you orally that the boiler had been serviced you can't prove anything...

elmer1974

no we have it in writing as we got our solicitor to ask, we have also since emailed them and they again said it has been serviced every year

stokesley

How do you know that the boiler has not been serviced for four years?

DVardysShadow

stokesley wrote: »

How do you know that the boiler has not been serviced for four years?

Exactly

Oranges are not the only fruit.
BG are not the only gas servicers.

BG are well known for condemning boilers at the drop of a hat and charging way beyond anyone else, presumably in part to give a nice commission to the person who condemned your boiler.

If you have been conned, it is far less likely to have been your vendors.

elmer1974

British gas used to be the service providers, they have told us that the contract was terminated after their visit in 2008, where ther had been damged caused by the owners that was not covered.
The vendor has now pretty much admitted this is the case. We have email, the questions we raised before the contracts were exchanged and she left all the paperwork for the servicing for us in the house. the last one is 2007

We also called out the manufacturers to look at the boiler and another boiler engineer, all said the same thing. As the flue had been obstructed, the water in the exhaust had condensed ran back down into the boiler when it was turned off and had corroded the base of teh burner chamber. Basically if the plate had been left much longer, we would have has fumes and unburned gas coming into the house.

elmer1974

She told us in emails yesterday that BG has serviced it last year and every year before that since installation. Thats how we know it was BG. BG told us last service in 2007

Hump

The vendor may not have known the extent of any damage/ corrosion, BG (&others I assume) have a tendency to stick a probe in the flue and seem relunctant to strip boilers down to service them. I'd call it a safety check rather than a service!

elmer1974

no it was not safe at all. All 3 engineers from different companies found the same fault, without prompting and said the same thing

pararct

elmer1974 wrote: »

She told us in emails yesterday that BG has serviced it last year and every year before that since installation. Thats how we know it was BG. BG told us last service in 2007

In which case you should be asking the litigation department of your purchase solicitors if you have a case to take forward...

It would very much depend what question was asked on the form and how they have answered it.
The emails you have exchanged between now and then may also have a part to play.

Be aware though that there has been a suspicion in the past of BG engineers to condemn perfectly good equipment to drive sales.

On this basis for any legal case to proceed a first step may be to get the old boiler inspected by an independent engineer and a report commissioned. You did of course keep the old boiler didn't you?

Best case scenario is you may have a claim against both the vendor and BG.

Soot2006

Well that does sound like an outright lie, so if you have it on paper, tell your solicitor to send them a nice letter before action.