Dangerous boilder in new house

Eps01purple

Hi everyone,


So we've just moved into our new house, we completed on Friday and moved in on the weekend. I had an electrician and gas safety guy come round today to put a new socket in for the cooker and he had a quick check of the boiler for me while he was there. He has had to decommission it as it is unsafe. He says it wasn't properly fitted so the fumes are going into the loft rather than through a flu out of the roof.


He says the whole thing is a bodged job and I will need to get a whole new boiler system
Is there any comeback on the sellers at all? They said they had no details about the boiler but they've been living there for three years shouldn't they have had it serviced in that time?


I've already rung the solicitor but she is yet to come back to me. I guess I just want some answers so I don't just sit here worrying about the money I'm now going to have to find for a new boiler. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Doozergirl

Caveat emptor. It was your responsibility to check the boiler before you bought it. No doubt your survey would have highlighted the need to have it checked.

The previous owners owe you nothing, unfortunately.

Eps01purple

I had a full survey carried out which showed no problems with the boiler so I don't know how they missed such a big fault!

Ithaca

What did the sellers say on the property information form regarding the boiler?

What did your survey say about getting the boiler checked? Did you obtain a recent gas safety certificate from the sellers before exchange?

Edit to add: it would be unusual for a surveyor to make a definite commitment as to the safety of the gas installation. Usually they advise getting a separate check done. Can you copy the wording from your survey? I'd be surprised if there wasn't some kind of qualification in there.

Pixie5740

What was your full survey? A home buyer report or something more in-depth? Was the surveyor a gas safety engineer? Since you paid for a survey I'm assuming you are in England or Wales..?

Eps01purple

The sellers said on the form that they didn't have any paperwork about it but that it was in full working order. As I said the survey never highlighted it.


As this was my first house buy I had no idea that I had to get a gas safety certificate until now... I feel very let down by my solicitors that they didn't mention that I should do this.

marksoton

Eps01purple wrote: »

As this was my first house buy I had no idea that I had to get a gas safety certificate until now... .

You don't....

booksurr

Eps01purple wrote: »

I had a full survey carried out which showed no problems with the boiler so I don't know how they missed such a big fault!

survey undertaken by whom? The building surveyor or a dedicated Gas Safe registered plumber?

the building surveyor is not qualified to report on gas safety and anything he said in his report will have a huge caveat attached to it along the lines of you will need to have the boiler inspected by a suitably qualified person.

no there is no requirement to have a boiler serviced not to have it safety inspected, so no you have no claim whatsoever against your vendors. Even if it was serviced during their time a service is not a safety inspection, just the same as a car can be serviced (oil changed, seats cleaned, bullshine applied) but still fail its MOT

Eps01purple wrote: »

As this was my first house buy I had no idea that I had to get a gas safety certificate until now... I feel very let down by my solicitors that they didn't mention that I should do this.

you do not have to get a safety certificate ever, they are only required on properties let to and occupied by lodgers or tenants

your solicitor is there to deal with legal matters, not nurse maid FTB who have no experience of what to do and haven't firstly read a book about house buying (or taken advice from their parents) for example: https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-buy-your-first-home-and-how-to-sell-it-too/phil-spencer/9780091935375

davidmcn

Eps01purple wrote: »

As I said the survey never highlighted it.

What did the survey actually say about it though? Generally a surveyor wouldn't say more than there seems to be a boiler there, but they haven't tested it and aren't qualified to do so.

AdrianC

The surveyor will have included some generic phrasing about how they could not test the boiler, and you should commission a specialist to check it. They will certainly not have investigated the boiler fully and signed it off as being good.

Neither you nor the vendor needed to get a gas safety certificate - only landlords of rental properties are legally required to get one. Neither you nor the vendor needed to get the boiler serviced. Both may or may not be wise, depending on your attitude to risk and the expense involved. But neither are necessary.

Either way - post-exchange, let alone post-completion, is too late to be worrying about anything other than how to get your boiler fixed and what it'll cost you to do so.

martinthebandit

Eps01purple wrote: »

Hi everyone,


So we've just moved into our new house, we completed on Friday and moved in on the weekend. I had an electrician and gas safety guy come round today to put a new socket in for the cooker and he had a quick check of the boiler for me while he was there. He has had to decommission it as it is unsafe. He says it wasn't properly fitted so the fumes are going into the loft rather than through a flu out of the roof.


He says the whole thing is a bodged job and I will need to get a whole new boiler system
Is there any comeback on the sellers at all? They said they had no details about the boiler but they've been living there for three years shouldn't they have had it serviced in that time?


I've already rung the solicitor but she is yet to come back to me. I guess I just want some answers so I don't just sit here worrying about the money I'm now going to have to find for a new boiler. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

First thing I would do would be getting another 'gas safety guy' to have a look at it, preferably one who isn't a jobbing electrician.