need some advice as boiler condemned by warmfront surveyer

jalexa · 17 October 2012 at 4:07PM

nfriley82 wrote: »

in terms of the boiler the surveyor said that because it has never been serviced it is dangerous and can not operate safely without the airbrick as it is a back boiler. There is a gas fire attached to the boiler which is painted and he states this makes it more unsafe so this is the reason it was condemned. when national grid came he agreed it was dangerous and this is why he capped it off. he stated it could not be serviced because of its age and no one would be willing to do it.

Two people have considered it dangerous and I don't think anybody here would support continued use in the face of "never serviced in 30 years".

That said some of the comments made to you have not been helpful in considering your options. Particulary the throw-away comments about servicing being impossible. IMO the network engineer was out of order in saying that. I stand to be corrected but I do not think the lack of an airbrick is reason to "condemn". That (I believe) should be "NCS". Neither is lack of a service by itself (only had your word for that), however combustion indicators related to lack of servicing could well be a reason for Immediate Danger.

Can you confirm the *exact* reasons stated on your copy of the certificate.

In a way it is in your interest that the heating system is not serviceable. Regardless of the 5 month wait for Warmfront, make sure your application is in and accepted. Keep a focus on that and don't get distracted by the "5 months".

Meanwhile I would go back to Citizen's Advice and go through all the issues again step by step. In particular make sure they become aware that advice they gave you was "useless". Have they got any better advice?

Can you afford any form of electrical heaters? Some types, e.g convector heaters, are not particularly expensive. Look out for offers at Lidls.

spinningsheep · 17 October 2012 at 5:59PM

Word of caution to the OP, electric heating in any form is roughly 3 times more expensive than using gas, so be very careful how much you use it, as you could end up being stung with a very large electricity bill. Could you not consider investing in a Calor gas fire to heat the lounge? Much cheaper to run than an electric fire, but make sure you keep a door open, Calor heaters can cause issues with condensation. And as someone else said, see into getting an immersion heater fitted to your hot water tank to provide hot water. Remember though, plenty have had no central heating for many many years, it's not convenient or as comfortable but using other more basic means to heat sparingly may allow you to save up the required amount to install that much needed air brick.