Fixing broken boiler before moving house

MrSnuggly

Hi there,

Hope you don't mind me opening a new thread as I have a bit of a poser.

My wife and I currently live in a shared ownership property which was a new build when we moved in almost six years ago. We've found a new house where we want to live so put our ground floor flat on the market, found a buyer and we now have around 8-12 weeks before we can move in.

Unfortunately however, our boiler – an Ideal isar 24 – has completely died. It started playing up around 18 months ago where it would shut off and have to be restarted. We got British Gas Homecare to look after it and had callouts on a regular basis. Eventually, the times between callouts would get smaller and smaller because the boiler kept dying and needing replacement parts. About 4-5 months ago BG gave it a flush at a cost of £500 which we were assured would fix the problem, but the problems started coming back.

Now, the boiler is unusable – even after resets and callouts, it won’t stay on to provide heating or hot water. So we have a problem: with 8-12 weeks (or maybe more) before we move, we can’t live without heating or hot water (we have a 2 year old son), but I am unwilling to pay for a new boiler if we’re only going to use it for a few months.

I need to know a few things which is where I’m hoping someone can help me:

- What are the legal ramifications of selling our house with a faulty/broken boiler? Would I be liable for anything?
- It seems unacceptable to me that a brand new boiler would only last around 5 years before dying completely. Do I have any consumer rights in this case?
- British Gas say they can replace the pump but they’d need to remove the cupboard housing it – would my housing agents charge me for taking this down?
- Would there be any value in perhaps contacting the new buyers and asking if they’d pay for the boiler or split the cost? Really I’d be doing them a favour of sorts…

In all sorts of a pickle over this because I can’t afford to spend £2k on a boiler I’m hardly going to use (and there’s the possibility that the boiler in our new house won’t be up to scratch too) but I can’t keep living without hot showers in the morning or heating in the evening. Housing agents (L&Q) aren’t much help.

What should I do?

Yours freezingly.

DaftyDuck

The first - and most urgent thing I'd do is get a couple of local "Heating Engineers" a.k.a. plumbers - in. BG are notorious for writing off a boiler/being unable to fix it, and offering you a new one.

adhara

MrSnuggly wrote: »

- Would there be any value in perhaps contacting the new buyers and asking if they’d pay for the boiler or split the cost? Really I’d be doing them a favour of sorts…

That's how you view it? a favour? You're selling them a property and you want them to throw in the boiler for free and be able to use their boiler for free til you move out?

:rotfl: Let us know how you get on with that!

kaya

DaftyDuck wrote: »

The first - and most urgent thing I'd do is get a couple of local "Heating Engineers" a.k.a. plumbers - in. BG are notorious for writing off a boiler/being unable to fix it, and offering you a new one.

No, don't ever call in a plumber to fix a boiler, they are people who fix taps and toilets and have a very basic qualification to allow them to install and connect gas boilers. You need an engineer trained to understand the workings of a boiler and how to fix it so give the manufacturer of your unit a call and ask who the reccomend locally, they will have all the training and knowledge needed for your unit and carry a good amount of spares for it ( you can't use a tap washer, PTFE tape or a toilet seat which is what your plumber will have on his van). We signed a sheet when selling our home that stated amongst other things that our boiler was working correctly, I assume you have done the same so I would also assume you are in breech of contract if its not working correctly when the new owners take over and liable for repairs. A boiler not staying on doesn't sound like rocket science and the fact that you continually called BG in to repair it also sounds like they didn't know what they were doing or fix the fault in the first place , and yes I am a trained and qualified heating and ventilation engineer so I do know what I am offering is professional advice gained through years of experience rather than an opinion

MrSnuggly

Only in as far as I'm sure many people would think "My boiler is broken but it's not my problem any more, the new owners can sort it out". I imagine I would feel outraged if someone did the same thing for me but I'd prefer that honest approach to moving in on day one and finding you've been screwed over...

davidmcn

MrSnuggly wrote: »

Only in as far as I'm sure many people would think "My boiler is broken but it's not my problem any more, the new owners can sort it out".

Would they? I think most would be aware that purchasers expect the boiler to be in working order, and that's what the contract is going to say (unless you negotiate something else).

MrSnuggly

davidmcn wrote: »

Would they? I think most would be aware that purchasers expect the boiler to be in working order, and that's what the contract is going to say (unless you negotiate something else).

At the moment, I have to believe that because the alternative is me spending £2k on a couple of weeks of hot water

MrSnuggly

I think British Gas maybe aren't the best at inter-communication because our boiler has been seen by dozens of different engineers, each of whom has a different diagnosis from the last, but it seems like every part that can be replaced as been replaced - except for the pump. Replacing that is an option that's covered under Homecare, except it means destroying one corner of our kitchen, which is a whole other headache in terms of handing over to a new buyer.

davidmcn

MrSnuggly wrote: »

At the moment, I have to believe that because the alternative is me spending £2k on a couple of weeks of hot water

Either that or the purchasers deducting it from the price. Probably cheaper for you to sort it as they're likely to add a margin for error.

Slinky

It may be worth speaking to the prospective purchasers about the situation and what they'd like happen.

If it was me buying a house in this situation, I'd at least like to think about getting a boiler I WANT rather than finding a brand new but cheap poor quality boiler has been put in just before exchange.

nomoneytoday

I'd buy a couple of electric heaters if only required for a couple of months.

On the flip side, when the buyer does his survey and finds no working boiler, maybe they'll be tempted to reduce their offer?