Certificates

Kelvin.uk

Hi there,

So I'm in the process of buying a house, I have had the survey results back and the following is under "Risks to people".

Electricity - no current test certificate.
Central heating - no current test/service certificate.
Gas - no current test certificate.

I'm a little surprised how little care has been taken with the services in the house and think the owner should have got these checked when putting the house on the market. I'm worried that when I get these checked, there could be problems? Do you think it's fair to ask the seller to provide these certificates before we exchange contracts? Not sure if I should try and push this or not...

Your thoughts?! Thanks!!

Goldenyears

If safety is your concern, before exchange of contracts you would be better engaging your own qualified electrician and registered gas engineer to carry out specialist surveys that the building surveyor can't do. Surveyors that I know are happy to advise on this question verbally (if you have paid them!).

oldskoo1

If i can speak frankly

I'm selling my house, the buyers recently had a homebuyers survey. All homebuyers surveys as fas as i know highlight the 3 areas you have.

I was with the guy surveying my house, he didn't even look at the boiler. In fact the only thing he did was turn on the hot water tap.

He isn't corgi registered, he can't check it and they always highlight in the report as requiring urgent investigation.

The way it is written scares some people.

From our point of view, we know the boiler works 100%, has never broken down and is actually very efficient considering we have it running 24/7 in winter. However, our buyers are scared into this false sense of urgency.

Even my solicitor said it's only the surveying covering their backs.

You have 2 ways to deal with this, either you pay for a corgi registered inspection or the sellers do... or even, just forget about it and buy the property as seen.

As for the little care to maintaining services. Our boiler is about 14 years old, has never been serviced and has also never broken down or emitted carbon monoxide. I have a gas engineer mate who says regular servicing can actually do more harm than good depending on the engineer. It is wise to ensure the boiler is safe periodically but dismantling a boiler often can lead to unwanted problems. If something ain't broke, don't mess with it.

Keep your carbon monoxide alarms active and get it safety checked every once in a while.

david29dpo

Couldn't agree more.

phill99

Thoughts! I think you are being a tad naive.

It's only in the very recent past thatsrrvice installations have required any form of certification, and even then it's only at times of installation or certain alterations.

During a homeowners occancy of a house he would rarely need any certificate, certainly not on a regular basis.

Therefore the certificates you request probably don't exist and never have done. If its a real issue, get someone in to check them.

Catti

Eight years ago I was told by an engineer that my boiler was near the end of its working life and I should replace it. I was told that replacement parts were becoming obsolete and any future service would probably lead to me being virtually ordered to get it replaced.

So it hasn't been serviced since and still works fine......! (Famous last words.....!)

bb169

We have just been in the exact same position as you.

We left the electrics and got them sorted when we moved in (got a new fuse box fitted and got the electrician the check a couple of things, if theres a problem, it will just trip the fuse).

The gas however we couldn't rest on so paid ourself for someone to go in and service the boiler for us (all was fine)

arbrighton

Generally, it is up to seller to provide any certificates they do have (e.g. of recent installations) to buyers' solicitors, but that doesn't actually mean they are safe or up to standards apart from the moment the certificate was written.
It is up to the buyer to decide if they want additional checks if they want them, arrange for a relevant tradesperson to contact the EA for access then pay them afterwards.
One of our potential buyers had the electrics checked (and his electrician left pendants dangling and broke a light fitting) and the other had the gas checked.
Both at their own expense

Kelvin.uk

Thank you all for your replies, very useful to read

I will just leave it be then

Notmyrealname

Kelvin.uk wrote: »

I'm a little surprised how little care has been taken with the services in the house and think the owner should have got these checked when putting the house on the market.

Seriously?

Up until recently, nobody really ever bothered about a certificate for the electricity or central heating other than the boiler.

arbrighton

Kelvin.uk wrote: »

Thank you all for your replies, very useful to read

I will just leave it be then

So you were worried there might be problems when checks were carried out when you thought the vendor should be doing the checks (and paying for them) but now, no problem, leave it be?