Just bought new house, boiler probs

Badgergal

Hi guys,

We completed and moved into our new house six weeks ago. We had a stressful time leading up to exchange/completion and I admit was not as on top of the paperwork as I should have been and did not notice a muckup on the solicitor's part. It has now come to light that although the seller ticked the box on the property info form saying that the boiler (installed in 2013) had a completion cert, it in fact has no such thing; it only has two yearly landlord safety certs, the most recent from May 2014.

It has not been serviced since it was installed; only these cheap safety checks. It had been cutting out and needing resetting several times so I called the manufacturer and they sent an engineer out (after I paid for a service). Except he didn't do a service; he first did a test that found high CO levels, said he couldn't fix the problem as he thought it might be to do with the flue (which sticks out of a gable wall high up because the boiler is in the loft) and as was his duty, shut down the boiler and left. So we've had a freezing few days.

I have contacted the vendor to ask who installed the boiler. He will not tell me; he says they are dead. I told him I am very concerned by this and also let him know our rather crap situation left with no heating or hot water over the holiday period (no one would come out).

He put a cheque for £200 in the post which we have not cashed (sent 'as a friendship gift without prejudice'). We have contacted our solicitor to make it clear we are not happy with the situation; not the fact that he ticked the box to say he had a completion cert when there was none, nor the fact that they missed the missing certificate.

Obviously first priority is getting the boiler safe and running again and we're working on getting quotes for that.

But after that, we need to decide what to do about this missing completion certificate. I don't want it to cause a problem when we come to sell - we are hoping to stay here a good few years, by which time we may have a new boiler anyway, but you never know what life brings. Should we take out an indemnity? Or attempt to get retrospective approval from the council (I've heard this can be difficult.)

All opinions welcome. We've had a miserable few days here so any help would be much appreciated.

G_M

Get the boiler fixed asap so that it is

a) working and

b) safe

Badgergal

Yes, as I said above that is the priority, it is not a pleasant time of year to be without a boiler in a detached Victorian house, though getting a GasSafe person to come out over the holiday period has been impossible.

Someone finally came out today and thinks he's managed to diagnose the problem, and I am hopeful he might be able to come out next week. Once that's sorted, though, I need to decide what to do about this missing certificate. I don't believe the original fitter is dead for a second; they're probably just not not registered...

anselld

The previous owner and the fitter are probably the same.

I suspect the only way you will get a completion certificate is to get a gas-safe fitter to remove the boiler and refit, treating it as a new installation. However, the chances of the Council taking enforcement action are vanishingly small so once it is confirmed fixed and safe you will be fine.

Doozergirl

I'm amazed the vendor sent you £200. Most people wouldn't!

I din't think this is going to go anywhere with the vendor. Many people would not know the difference between the 'completion' cert and a gas safety cert.

The other point is that gas safety certs are exactly what they say they are - it shows that the boiler was safe, twice between installation and your purchase. That means not leaking CO. But they are also only as good as the day they were signed. It dors not mean that it was safe on the day after or, indeed, the day you purchased.

If the vendor gave what they had, then it's the responsibility of you and your solicitor to check the documents. It was also your own responsibility to check the gas instruments before you moved in.

In some ways it would be nice to have the original installer back, but if the vendor says they are dead, it would be nice to believe them! Anyhoo, if they didn't do it correctly the furst time or provide a certificate, what quality would you expect?

Any vendor's solicitor will quote 'caveat emptor' at you if you persue this.

You can go after your own solicitor, but you were provided with safety certs and the only thing you could have done to guarantee a fully working, safe boiler on moving day, was to have it checked by an engineer yourself.

Badgergal

Our plan is to stay here around ten years, in which case I don't think the missing cert should be an issue as we may well have had to get a new boiler by then anyway. I am not worried about local authority action; I work for a planning and building control dept in another council and know resources are not such that they can afford to worry about small fry such as this.

My issue is if our plans change for whatever reason and we end up staying for, say, five years, and we get a buyer's solicitor who's insistent on seeing the completion cert. For example, when I sold my leasehold flat to buy this place, my buyer's solicitor wouldn't let the sale progress until I ordered a FENSA cert off the website for them (even though the windows are not the leaseholders responsibility, they belonged to and had been fitted by the freeholder, the council, which is why I never held the FENSA cert in the first place - but the solicitor would not accept this). Obviously in that case I just did ordered and paid for it because it did exist, but I'm worried if we get a buyer with a similarly terrier-like solicitor in future we'll have problems. Or should I just wait and get an indemnity if that problem presents itself?

I know it's my responsibility to check docs, but I believe it was also my solicitor's responsibility to flag up this missing doc to me, and they did not. A solicitor should definitely know the difference between the two documents. And I did not go with the cheapest solicitor as I believed it was not an area to cut corners, but now feel I may as well have.

dlmcr

As previous posters have said I doubt you will get anywhere by persuing the vendor and / or solicitors and I am very surprised the vendor sent a cheque for £200, most wouldn't have done so.

My suggestion is to get a new boiler fit booked in with a gas safe engineer and write this off to experience. My advise is don't waste time and money fixing / sorting out problems with the existing boiler getting it up to a required standard when in all possibility it maight break again in 1 / 2 / 5 years time with extra expense.

I boought a house recently, within a week of moving in the boiler started playing up and needing to be reset etc. I had a hunch the vendor had lied about the condition of the boiler but on reflection felt that proving such a thing would be almost impossible. I managed to get an accredited gas safe engineer to remove old boiler and fit new one on 23rd Dec, on 2 days notice and less than a days work. If you shop around and get various quotes you should find someone who can shuffle jobs around to fit a boiler. Then it will be done and you can forget about it.

Badgergal

He probably sent the £200 out of guilt that we've had nothing but issues since we moved ; more than usual teething troubles. Our contingency savings have therefore taken a huge hammering, and we are also trying to save for some other work that need doing.


This means we don't really have a spare £1000 kicking around to get a new boiler in if we possibly avoid it.

jennifernil

I'm amazed that anyone would suggest replacing a boiler that is less than 2 years old!

ess0two

jennifernil wrote: »

I'm amazed that anyone would suggest replacing a boiler that is less than 2 years old!

Me too,seems money to burn,rather than money saving.

dodger1

Badgergal wrote: »

Hi guys,

We completed and moved into our new house six weeks ago. We had a stressful time leading up to exchange/completion and I admit was not as on top of the paperwork as I should have been and did not notice a muckup on the solicitor's part. It has now come to light that although the seller ticked the box on the property info form saying that the boiler (installed in 2013) had a completion cert, it in fact has no such thing; it only has two yearly landlord safety certs, the most recent from May 2014.



I have contacted the vendor to ask who installed the boiler. He will not tell me; he says they are dead. I told him I am very concerned by this and also let him know our rather crap situation left with no heating or hot water over the holiday period (no one would come out).

What did the vendor say about the missing certificate?