Bought a house and the boiler keeps losing pressure

TerrenceFWitt

Hi all,

I recently completed on a property and moved in with no apparent problems. However, within 1 week the boiler stopped working and the BG engineer said that the pressure was being lost due to a micro leak somewhere. I checked the TA6 form that was provided by our solicitors and the seller had ticked that the heating system was in good working order. The pressure is OK for about 1 week and then I need to re-pressure it.

Does anyone have any advice on this situation? Could I get the seller to pay for it being fixed?

Thanks FW

££sc££

I doubt you could prove it wasn't working when the seller filled that in, so nonyou wont be able to get sellee to pay. Did you get an independent engineer inspect heatig system prior to completion?

TerrenceFWitt

That's what I thought. The central heating isn't used much in the house as it was turned off and they seemed to use the open coal fire most of the time.

No I didn't get an engineer to look at the boiler, but I did get a full survey and the TA6 form said it was in good working order.

berbatov10

It may be as simple a fix as a diverter valve

TBagpuss

The sellers would only be liable if they knew it was wasn't working properly - and I doubt you can prove that. Every leak has to start at some point, after all! Even if the leak was present before you bought, they may not have known about it, particularly if they didn't use the system much.

I'd suggest getting an independent plumber/heating engineer round rather, and also have a good look round yourself - if the leak is tiny you won't get water dripping out but may be a to spot a faint tide mark on the ceiling (if it is an upstairs leak) to help locate the source of the problem.

SmlSave

Twice we've bought and twice the boiler has broken within three months, it's just one of those things as we saw the service report both times.

Not a chance going back to sellers as how do you prove it wasn't working before you bought

bigfreddiel

Look at it this way, what if it was you that had sold, and a little while later your buyer came back to you saying the boiler was broken and you as the previous owner must have known it was faulty and had to pay for the repairs or a new boiler.

What would you do?

Cheers fj

Rambosmum

Our boiler has been in 'good working order' for the last 6 years, still loses pressure though.

There's a leak somewhere. We had leaks in two radiators (still have a leak in one, needs replacing, will do it soon. Once the first leak was fixed the pressure loss slowed, it'll slow more when we replace the second.

We also had a leak in the boiler - took several attempts to fix, but it finally is fixed - it was included in our boiler cover, so we didn't pay extra.

Despite the boiler needing repressurising every week for nearly 6 years I still considered it to be in good working order and would never have considered getting the seller to fix it, it takes less than 10 seconds to repressurise and is a common issue with boilers.

Oh, and we get it tested/ checked/ serviced every year and it is considered by the engineer to be in good working order!

Davesnave

TerrenceFWitt wrote: »

No I didn't get an engineer to look at the boiler, but I did get a full survey and the TA6 form said it was in good working order.

You will know, as we do, that the surveyor's report pointed out that the boiler & associated system was not included in the survey. That's standard rear-end covering nowadays, usually followed by a recommendation to have a Gas Safe engineer test the system.

Others have covered the TA6.

macman

Even an RGI inspection would not have picked up a tiny leak on the CH circuit anyway, as long as the boiler was at correct pressure when they arrived. It's one of those things that come with the joys of property ownership.
If the BG RGI identified the small leak, why didn't he trace it and fix it at the time? It could equally be the EV or the PRV, both take barely two minutes to check.

thesaint

I wouldn't say a small leak would be classed as not in good working order.