Vendor knew the boiler was broken

R997

We've just completed on our new house and collected the keys on Friday. Obviously we've checked to make sure everything is working and where we expected it to be.

Hot water was working and we didn't have any real worries until we turned on the boiler to check the radiators worked. Flicked the control box onto 'constant' and were greeted with a lots of clattering and metallic banging from the boiler and airing cupboard. Some radiators warmed a little, but most stayed resolutely stone cold. After a while the boiler turned itself off (I later learned that it had overheated and popped an internal breaker). Clearly things were not working as they should, so I turned it all off and called out a British Gas engineer, who was able to provide me quite a lot of history for the boiler thanks to numerous previous call-outs.

It seems the boiler has a long record of failures, and the service history reveals that as far back as 2008 BG were advising the previous owners to flush the system and get it replaced. There were further call-outs in 2012, and it seems the previous owner had then abandoned the central heating system entirely, relying on the immersion heater to make hot water and presumably owning a large collection of winter jumpers.

The previous owner clearly knew the boiler was dead, and sold the house to us knowing this. We'd anticipated some issues and budgeted accordingly, so we have cash to replace the boiler, but it's going to cost over £3,000, and I was wondering if we have any recourse against the vendor?

thesaint

What does your paperwork from the vendor say about the boiler?
Your tales make interesting reading, but mean nothing by themselves.

davidmcn

What does "we'd anticipated some issues" mean? Did you not test it?

caronoel

What did your survey say about the boiler? Did you have it inspected?

Southend1

Did you ask the vendor what condition the boiler was in?

AndyT678

R997 wrote: »

it's going to cost over £3,000

It certainly will if you get British Gas to do it. Get a couple of other quotes and you should be able to get it done for <£2,000.

Not sure that you'll get anything out of the vendor though unless they said somewhere that it was working. Does the PIF say anything?

silvercar

England/ Wales or Scotland. If Scotland you have more chance of getting it repaired by the vendor. If E/W then it is caveat emptor.

onlyroz

Upon moving into this house we realised the boiler was broken. On the seller forms the seller stated that it was up to us to check the central heating system and electrics. We didn't, therefore it's our fault. If we'd had it inspected before buying then we might have been able to renegotiate the price.

Yolina

R997 wrote: »

as far back as 2008 BG were advising the previous owners to flush the system and get it replaced.

BG standard line about pretty much any boiler :rotfl:

we have cash to replace the boiler, but it's going to cost over £3,000

BG standard price - get a few quotes from independents. It's also possible that they might tell you that the boiler is repairable depending what's wrong with it.


You probably don't have much recourse against the seller.

WestonDave

I'm not convinced from what you've written that there is anything here other than a flakey system. The fact that it fired up and ran the hot water suggests that part of it was fine - so where you get your claim that the previous owners had abandoned it and used the immersion heater is beyond me. Clattering and banging on a heating system isn't that abnormal on a working but poorly installed system - even a good one will clatter a bit as various bits expand etc. Our old back boiler in a previous house used to pop and bang alarmingly if it hadn't been descaled recently - but a quick scale removal and it was fine again.
Again the fact that it worked for a while on the heating suggests it may have been working before albeit that the radiators are probably full of air and/or sludge.


So far all you really have against the previous owner is that they called British Gas a few times - which suggests they had more money than sense but no call outs from 2012 may simply have been because it was working (after a fashion). If you are going to have any hope of claiming anything from them you'll need the PIF to clearly say its working, and then probably an independent engineers report showing that it wasn't working (which as you got it working for a while is going to be hard to prove now!).

HappyMJ

I must agree with the BG statements made. My boiler didn't work...I called BG out to get it fixed...oh what a mistake that was. They couldn't fix it. They ended up calling another engineer out to get it fixed. Still didn't work. They gave up. Eventually got it fixed and the rad's were cold. No BG can't fix that..you'll need to get the system flushed. Would you like a quote? Thinking £100 or so I agreed..not it's £675. Thanks but no thanks. I then called up another engineer who put something into the water and told me to run it for a few days. The blockage cleared itself and now the system works perfectly. I've since drained the system with the chemical out and refilled it myself. Cost £10. I've since asked for a refund and cancelled the insurance they requested I take out. BG did not refuse they agreed, refunded me and cancelled the insurance.