Gas & Electrics

chr.istine

Just a quick question:

If you are about to buy a house, would you get the gas & electrics checked out before you exchanged?

Gonzo33

I would at least be looking for a recent boiler service (within year). The electrics depends on how old the property is really. Plus regulations change all the time with regard to electrics so I am conscious that I am practically always going to be told it is not up to regulation.

marin_mayhem

Is the property particularly old? Vintage fuse board? Lots of gas wall heaters?
I would at least get a friendly plumber/sparky to have a look.
If you have concerns then yes get a specific inspection done.

If it looked like the place was older but had benefited from refurbishment (new fuse board.consumer unit etc) then less of an issue perhaps.

If you're not sure do you have a friend or friend of a friend who has some knowledge who could take a look?

Good luck.

dimbo61

Have you got say £3500 spare for a new boiler/central heating system and another £3000 for a complete rewire?
Then you will need to replaster the whole house if it needs a total rewire ?
As others have said it all depends on the age of the house and condition of the central heating and electrics !

chr.istine

Yes, we have put money away in the event that we would change the boiler (it has been serviced yearly but is about 20-25 years old, so we'd probably change it anyway).

The house is a late Victorian house, built at the turn of the century but it has been refurbished to quite a reasonable standard.

The reason I asked was because our friendly but feisty vendor had gotten into a massive argument with our electrician and then she decided to ban any more tradesmen (because "there's too many people coming in to look at the house" - we have sent in one surveyor & one asbestos guy before the offending electrician) until AFTER we exchanged.

So we weren't sure how important it was to get those looked at early... as on one hand, we didn't want to upset her further but on the other hand, we also want to make sure we got all our bases covered.

But she's pretty much calmed down today and is okay to let our plumber in next week so all is well again.

Thanks for all your thoughts! :beer:

LEJC

I think the vendor has probably been very accomodating to your needs...I'm sure that when we moved we waited for the house to be empty before we bought our tradespeople in to establish the condition of things.

chr.istine

LEJC wrote: »

I think the vendor has probably been very accomodating to your needs...I'm sure that when we moved we waited for the house to be empty before we bought our tradespeople in to establish the condition of things.

Well, that was part of the conditions when we made our offer .. that there would be checks before we complete, which she agreed to when she accepted our offer.

That said, She's been great though so we do try and make an effort to make/keep her happy.

Yorkie1

I think she was taking the mickey in expecting you to exchange - i.e. legally commit to the purchase at a given price - without allowing you to make proper enquiries of the state of the place.

Your surveyor will not have been able to provide detailed assurances about any of the things you have listed by way of additional inspections. If she'd have taken that course of action with me, I'd have considered walking away.

That being said, sometimes you can glean information about the actual need for gas / electric etc surveys from your own inspections of the type of plug sockets / fuse box etc, and questions about the age of the boiler and gas pipes. And the surveyor will often give an informal indication of any specific issues of concern that he noticed over the phone.

G_M

*look at fuse box - old fashioned fuse wire or modern trip switches?
* turn on light switch - lights come on?
* turn up/down central heating thermostat - does boile switch on/off?
* turn on hot tap - does hot water come out?
* look for CO detector - is it working and is it sounding alarm?
* if no CO detector, take one with you, place near boiler and leave for 10 minutes while doing tests above and measuring for curtains!

Any doubts - pay an electrician and/or gas engineer to do a report.