House sold, boiler failed

Mojisola

tranceaddict wrote: »

Both really, I know morally its the right thing to do,

Cant really afford to pull out now

she has been quite reasonable as at the time we hadn't found anywhere and she said she was willing to wait as she was buying to let anyway (even offered to buy and let us stay and rent off her whilst we found somewhere)

It's morally (and legally) right; she's been very reasonable with you - repay that by letting her solicitor know that the boiler is no longer working.

You could start with just the plain fact - she may be happy to continue with the sale at the full price or may ask you to drop the price.

Treat her as you would wish to be treated!

xylophone

Tell your solicitor what has happened and ask him to contact the buyer's solicitor about the matter.

The buyer may ask for a reduction - it seems to me that half the cost of a new boiler would be perfectly reasonable.

G_M

tranceaddict wrote: »

Yes, section 12.3 c "Is heating system in good working order" answered yes, as it was when question was answered, although new it was old, it was working fine.

Then that forms part of the contract of sale. If it no longer works you will be in breach of contract unless you either

* fix the boiler such that it again works
* replace the boiler with a working one, or
* inform the buyer of the change to your answer to S12.3 c) and allow him the opportunity (based on the new information) to either

* withdraw from the sale
* accept the new condition of sale
* re-negotiate the price

glasgowdan

Tell your solicitor to get in touch with the buyer, and ask the buyer to choose what spec boiler they'd like to replace it with and offer 50% up to a set figure, £1200 for example. Make sure it's done by a qualified installer who provides a certificate.

If you lose this sale and have to sell "with no central heating" I'm certain your sale price will end up being more than £2k less than what you've currently got.

Mojisola

glasgowdan wrote: »

Tell your solicitor to get in touch with the buyer, and ask the buyer to choose what spec boiler they'd like to replace it with and offer 50% up to a set figure, £1200 for example. Make sure it's done by a qualified installer who provides a certificate.

If the house is going to have more work done on it, the purchaser may prefer to resite the boiler. Better to let the buyer fit the new one.

jamiehelsinki

I would contact the buyer and say the boiler has broken down (don't mention it's knackered) ask her if she wants you to fix it or would she prefer an equivilant contribution from you towards a new one if she's plannng on replacing it anyway.

[Deleted User]

Hmm you seem to think she knew she would HAVE to replace it but later on you admit you told her it was old but in perfect working order. So I very much doubt she does know it HAD to be replaced, based on what you have said so far. Has this not occurred to you? Very fluid thinking on your part.

Tell the buyer and be prepared that you HAVE to replace the boiler or sell as a house with no working boiler for a lower price. Be prepared to negotiate. And try and be a bit less fluid with your thinking.

getmore4less

15 years is not that long for a boiler, we are over 20 and no sign of it being knackered.

Unless you have been comunicating you have no idea how much refurb work they were planning.

Sooner you come clean the longer you have to negotiate a solution.

katejo

tranceaddict wrote: »

Hi

15 year old boiler was on its last legs but working OK, knew it needed replacing but as selling house didn't bother.

Buyer found, she is buying to let so will HAVE to replace boiler anyway.

Offer made, and accepted, now going through the legal stuff, expected to exchange by end of month so nothing legally signed yet, boiler has no died completely (leaking due corrosion etc), it has been switched off and made safe, as Summer don't need heating so using immersion heater for hot water.

So what to do, don't really want to spend £2000 on getting it replaced to get less then a few weeks use from it, and to be honest speaking to my heating engineer he won't have time to do it before we potenatilly move anyway. Buyer was the only offer we had, not sure of her situation but don't want to scare her off before exchanging by telling her what's happened, even though she's going to have to replace it anyway.

Could I wait until exchange and then say it packed up? This would be untrue but perhaps put the onus on her, or should I just get the solcitors to contact her and tell her and offer to lower the price by an amount to compensate? Though don't want to offer the full amount, maybe 50/50 perhaps.

Don't want to lose the sale but don't want to pay out for something I'm not going to get use off

Any help/advice appreciated

Do you have a maintenance contract on the boiler or is there a local engineer whom you have used before? Could you ask them to look at it and say whether it could be repaired? In my current house, the boiler packed in after exchange of contracts. The previous owners had such a contract so arranged for BG to look at it before I moved in.
Not quite the same situation because the boiler was relatively new and the problem was caused by the thermostat failing but I had a working boiler when I moved in. Still have the same one 12 years later.

G_M

Bear in mind different engineers will have different opinions.

I had a 25 year old boiler and when a new part was needed, the engineer said it was no longer available and said I'd need a new boiler. A different engineer said he could easily source a 2nd hand part which he'd guaranteee for 6 months. That was 5 years ago. Still going strong.

BG engineers also have a reputation for recomending replacement at every opportunity - they work on commission.......