Homebuyer report - Inspection hatches for Flue to boiler

shinydiscoballs

I bought a property a month ago and as there is no service history so I thought I would get the boiler serviced.

The gas engineer who came out said that I should have had some inspection hatches fitted as my boiler flue is concealed in void and the boiler could not be passed without the flue being inspected.

My question is - should the homebuyer report have picked this up and shoud this have been done before the property was handed over to me?

Jimbo1976

Normally the surveyor will issue some terms and conditions before it carries out a homebuyers report. These should inform you what will be looked at and what won't be looked at.

Have a look at these and if this should have been covered then complain to the surveyor

picklepick

I believe that a homebuyers report should include an inspection of the visible parts of heating, electrics, gas/oil and water services. Whether that would include the boiler flue or not I don't know. Do you have your survey to hand? It should say in the first few pages, what is and isn't covered. It should also say in section 7 what observations were made re services.

shinydiscoballs

My report says that inspections of boiler flues are not covered, but I am not asking him to comment on that, I just think that I should have been made aware that there has been a change in legislation that there must be hatches installed to see the boiler flue and that my property doesn't have these fitted.

Surely that would be covered by a visual inspection of the property?

DVardysShadow

shinydiscoballs wrote: »

My report says that inspections of boiler flues are not covered, * but I am not asking him to comment on that, I just think that I should have been made aware that there has been a change in legislation that there must be hatches installed to see the boiler flue and that my property doesn't have these fitted.

Surely that would be covered by a visual inspection of the property?

Just stop at the big red asterisk. When you read the report before buying [you did read it didn't you?] it was time to ask whether the surveyor was doing what you were paying him to do.

At that point, you should have made him go back to inspect if he had been skiving or you should have organised an inspection by a specialist. As I see it, you can only make a valid claim if you can prove he should have done an inspection - but the extent of the damage to you is the cost of an inspection

shinydiscoballs

Yes I read the report otherwise what's the point of getting it done.

What I was expecting is a visual inspection of the boiler and its condition and I would expect that some hatches that should have been installed over the flue would be part of a visual inspection.

I didn't expect them to to look at the flue and comment on its condition, I knew this wasn't in the report but this isn't the issue either.

unclebulgaria

I think your gas engineer was being a little over zealous in the conclusion that he could not continue with his checks or pass your boiler as safe.
He could have carried on with his inspection and even passed it as there is currently a list of specified points he should have ticked off in the event your flue wasn't fully inspectable.
http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/advice/flues_in_ceiling_spaces.aspx
read this link as its to big to write down for you.