Safety gas check before mortgage

CommitedToChange

Estelle77 wrote: »

OK, I was not aware of these insurance tricks. I have always been renting so far and not having any big possessions to worry about, nor living in a risky area to worry about security either. We just don't want to make a mistake. There were several points highlighted in the Home Buyer Survey to do before the exchange of contracts, and the gas and electricity checks were among them, in several places of the report.

It's not a trick - saying they don't lock would be telling the truth since you don't currently have keys to them all.

G_M

chappers wrote: »

I've seen this happen so many times with people buying houses.
Your willing to spend hundreds and thousands of pounds on a property and then get bogged down in the minutiae of a £1000 boiler or a couple of hundred quid's worth of window locks.

I agree 100% with the sentiment - but not the amount!

Unless they are very fancy window lcks, they're around £3.00 each. Times.... 10(?) windows?

Slithery

Estelle77 wrote: »

There were several points highlighted in the Home Buyer Survey to do before the exchange of contracts, and the gas and electricity checks were among them, in several places of the report.

Every home buyers survey will tell you to get the electrics/gas checked whether it's needed or not, it's purely an ar⁣se-covering exercise as the surveyor won't be a qualified electrician/gas fitter.

On all the properties I've purchased I've never had these done, either because the electrics looked OK or because they were so bad that I knew I'd need a rewire.

Estelle77

OK then. Thank you for all your replies. As an inexperienced buyer I have a more realistic view now. But we need the third view to speak to the male owner because during the second the only woman did not know much.
Tha!

G_M

Many buyers never meet a seller at all. An estate agent does the viewings and the owners are never met.

The estate agent, of course, may never have even been to the house before, let alone know anything about the windows, boiler etc.

He'll lead you into a room, take a quick look round, and then tell you "this is the kitchen."

!!

AlexMac

Estelle77 wrote: »

OK then. Thank you for all your replies. As an inexperienced buyer I have a more realistic view now. But we need the third view to speak to the male owner because during the second the only woman did not know much.
Tha!

Good luck with the purchase; how exciting. You've reminded me to come down off my high horse (my dismissive post about not bothering with a gas safety check, above) and think back to my own first purchase over 40 years ago; I was unbelievable inexperienced and was put off the first house we went for because of a tiny damp patch which I now know would have cost a few quid to fix.

You're right to be cautious, but I'd still take anything the vendor or the agent tells you with a pinch of salt. In fact the only statements which you can trust are those made in writing, through their solicitor to yours. So if they make any claims such as
The boiler is serviced regularly

• It was installed only X years ago by a registered engineer and we have the paperwork
• Ditto any electrical re-wiring or replacement Consumer Unit (what used to be called the Fuse Box - fact look at this and ask how old it is; and if it's one of the ancient ones with plug-in fuses, you'll probably want to replace it after purchase )
• Any windows we replaced are covered by FENSA certs
• Any building work/loft conversions/ extensions etc requiring approval by the local authority were signed off by the Council's Building Control officer or their private sector equivalent.
• you'll obviously ask if they've had any problems with damp (rising, penetrating from roof or gutters & downpipes, plumbing leaks, or condensation) especially if these are mentioned in the Homebuyers report, but if they say they have builders guarantees on these ...etc

make sure your solicitor gets the evidence in writing

And although window locks are, as others above say, cheap to buy or replace I wouldn't mess about after you buy the house as I hope you will do. We too live in a low crime area, but were burgled 3 weeks after moving in. This despite the fact that as I always do, we changed the door locks on day one recomissioned the intruder alarm and locked the windows prior to a weekend away. To discover on our return that the locks were on such puny screws that they'd popped when the bad guys used a crowbar on an UPSTAIRS bedroom window! The alarm scared them off without getting more than a few hundred quid of jewellery, but it taught me to also check window locks; ours are all now bomb-proof (another cheap DIY job). Interestingly, the insurer did ask me to photograph the damaged window and asked if we'd upgraded them on subsequent renewal.

Good luck with the most stressful purchase of one's life!

(PS- I guess that as a First Time Buyer you've now worked out what FTB is? And I love your assumption that blokes know more about how houses are put together than "only a woman". Don't say that in front of my wife; "Rosie the Riveter!
http://www.allposters.co.uk/-sp/Smithsonian-Rosie-The-Riveter-Posters_i13191908_.htm?AID=1586766026&GCID=C15100x057&gclid=CJHt8rzp9NYCFRX6GwodgeIDCg&gclsrc=ds)

Estelle77

LOL, good reading

It was not an assumption that the woman knew less. She herself said she did not know this and that and that he husband did. Mine also knows much more than me regarding buildings.
The owners had the house extended and all the documentation suggests the Fensa and other certification is present, except of the wall kicked down between the lounge and dining room, done some 12 years ago. No structural damage noticed by the surveyor but the solicitor is still trying to get some sort of paperwork done additionally. We'll see how it will end up.
To minimize the risk of burglary during a week of being away we have bought a little device that emits light like a TV and is attached to the timer. One would have to go around the house in day and night to see whether somebody is in there or uses tricks to discourage a potential burglar. When not present for a few days, all precious items are stored in a secured place, that includes data from the PCs, credit cards we don't take with us and similar.
Also thinking of installing a camera outside. Not sure about the effect, whether it won't encourage somebody to get in. If the house has a camera there must be something really valuable inside... Sometimes the damage is worse than the stolen value.