Buyer wants the boiler checked before exchange, what should I do?

djheath

Hi,

We are quite far in on the sale of my flat and the buyer has now requested that the boiler be "commissioned" at my expense before exchange of contracts. It's an old combi boiler and I have no reason to doubt that it is ok, as it still works very well and CH and HW are working fine.

I don't really want to hold up the buying process, but also dont want to pay for the boiler to be looked at at my expense when I consider it in good order. Should I request that the buyer pay for this inspection, or say, I will have it inspected at my expense, but only after exchange of contracts?

But then I dont know what to do if a problem is found with it after being inspected?

Thanks for any advice.

sharpee

I guess the question you need to ask yourself is are you prepared to lose the sale for the sake of a boiler inspection?

fannyanna

Suggest they fund the inspection but that you'll fund any remedial works required.

But ultimately as sharpee says it depends on whether you're prepared to lose the sale.

djheath

Thanks.
I obviously do not want to lose the sale, but just curious what people do in these situations. I would have thought the buyer should be responsible for the inspection of the house etc. I wouldn't ask a vendor to pay for my structural survey for example, if I was worried about the stability of the place.

But I am happy to oblige if it helps the sale.

neas

Well they've requested it.

You consider it fit for purpose... they don't believe you because

A: Your not a GASSAFE ENgineer
B: I'm sure if there was a small gas leak or carbon monoxide leak you wouldn't know about it.

So while i can see both sides Your 'I think its safe' comment isn't worth nadda.

A Service will cost £50 or so.. and will ensure sale. If it truly is working correctly. Why they are asking is, with boilers for safety purposes its a good idea to get it serviced. Yours probably hasn't been serviced for years so there probably is a good chance it isn't working correctly. If it showed as faulty they will negotiate some money off property so they can get boiler fixed.

Dave_6

I bought last month and our survey suggested we have the boiler checked/serviced.
It hadnt been serviced for 2 years + was over 10 years old so it made sense

Anyway, I arranged with a company to go in and do the service after checking with the estate agent and seller.

I paid the £65 cost to have it done,

I guess you could always say that you are happy for it to be serviced but that they pay initially + that you will refund the service costs after you have exchanged contracts


That way if they pull out then they lose the money paid for the service

sunshinetours

If you have had the boiler serviced within last year end them a copy invoice and say you are happy for them to organise their own more recent inspection.

If they get funny about that then you may find they are not as serious about buying as you may hoped

Our boiler is about 20 years old and gets serviced annually and is fine

System

If the boiler has been serviced recently, send them the report. If it hasn't, do it.
It would have been a much better selling point to have done it months ago, and then advertised it as "recently serviced boiler".

I did exactly the same a few months ago selling my mother's house. The estate agent advised, if it hasn't been serviced, why not? What's wrong with it?

vickyj

This is a fairly standard thing now i think we too had to get it done for thier peace of mind and our boiler is fairly new. If the boiler has been serviced in the last 6 months then this is usually acceptable. If not why would you not want to get it serviced even for your own safety.
Good luck

ognum

My recent buyer got the boiler checked before the survey but she had just had to totally replace a boiler to continue her sale so she is a bit boiler obsessed

She paid but if you want the sale I would probably pay!

G_M

My own view is that just as with checking the roof, foundations, electrics etc etc it is down to the buyer to satisfy themselves.

Invite them round and offer to turn the boiler on and show them the radiators and water getting hot. Offer to give them guidance on how the timer etc works.

If they want more ie a gassafe engineer's report, tell them you will be happy for their preferred engineer to ring and make an appointment. Presumably this is what happened when they asked a surveyor to come round? Same deal.

If they are willing to walk away from buying a house because they are too hard up or tight to pay to check its condition, more fool them.