Buying a house with 18 year old boiler - renegotiate price?

csgohan4

PhilE wrote: »

Well, you can jump and shout behind your computer. A house with an old boiler is worth less.

yeah by how much? a new boiler is 2k ish, in the grand scheme of things that is a drop for house prices now a days.

A new boiler can break down as well.

If you want everything new, buy a new house, least you can cry over the new build premium and watch your house depreciate over the 1st year

I bought my house to live in , not just a boiler. It's like saying a old roof is worth less than a new one., so Should you ask the vendor to get a new roof as well?

molerat

My daughter just had her 10 year old boiler replaced, luckily down to the council and not her. How many years old does a boiler have to be before asking for a reduction ?

PhilE

csgohan4 wrote: »

yeah by how much? a new boiler is 2k ish, in the grand scheme of things that is a drop for house prices now a days.

A new boiler can break down as well.

If you want everything new, buy a new house, least you can cry over the new build premium and watch your house depreciate over the 1st year

I bought my house to live in , not just a boiler. It's like saying a old roof is worth less than a new one., so Should you ask the vendor to get a new roof as well?

No, I didn't say everything should be brand new. If you look at what I wrote I mentioned a 5 year old Worcester combi as an example.

Unless the OP's prospective buy has good condition RELATIVELY new rads and pipe work hooked up to the old boiler, the whole system will probably need replacing. That will be more than 2k, assuming its not a very small property.

PhilE

molerat wrote: »

My daughter just had her 10 year old boiler replaced, luckily down to the council and not her. How many years old does a boiler have to be before asking for a reduction ?

Well, you've said it. Your daughter had hers replaced at the 10 year mark.

Worcester give a 10 year guarantee.

10-15 years life expectancy on a boiler, some may go to 20 is what I've been told. Depending on usage, maintenance.

lisyloo

PhilE wrote: »

Well, you can jump and shout behind your computer. A house with an old boiler is worth less.

But by the same logic, the OP should go round all the items in the home and if any items e.g. the fencing/patio are NEwER than average then they should correspondingly up their offer.

My view is that it’s not significant enough to change the offer on its own, you have to take the rough with the smooth if your not buying new and should have considered the overall condition including important items when making the first offer.

Sanne

PhilE wrote: »

No, I didn't say everything should be brand new. If you look at what I wrote I mentioned a 5 year old Worcester combi as an example.

Unless the OP's prospective buy has good condition RELATIVELY new rads and pipe work hooked up to the old boiler, the whole system will probably need replacing. That will be more than 2k, assuming its not a very small property.

We bought a property with a back boiler (from around 2000 so not as old as some) and radiators which we guess were the original ones from the mid-70s.

We had a combi boiler put in and advice was the radiators could stay - we opted to have them replaced but wasn’t a necessity according to the engineers. The only pipe work out in was for the gas supply to the boiler.

The buyer who pulled out (and who we replaced) wanted an £8k reduction in price - the vendor didn’t budge as 1) the boiler was serviced each year and working perfectly fine and 2) it was pretty visible there was a back boiler... (and it didn’t cost £8k!)

csgohan4

I think PhilE is going round in circles

End of the day, Op can drop their offer, but it isn't without its risks and vendor has every right to say no or worse drop them.

OP's choice and OP's responsibility for their own decisions, simples.

SusieT

My question would be, does the boiler work. If yes, no reduction required, if no ask for a reduction. Older stuff was made to last longer (my boiler I know is well over 18 years old), so why possibly lose a house for something that is not currently a problem.

Jimmithecat

beedeedee wrote: »

Our boiler is coming up to 30 years old, serviced regularly and our heating engineer says he will keep it going efficiently till he can no longer get the parts - which could be 20 years or more!
In his words "there's less to go wrong than in more modern ones"....
We wouldn't reduce the price on the house just because of the boiler.

Same here - our boiler is slightly older than this, serviced every year and is a real work horse

I would be very offended if a buyer wanted a discount as it would imply the boiler is no good when we and our plumber know otherwise

Tom99

PhilE wrote: »

Well, you can jump and shout behind your computer. A house with an old boiler is worth less.

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]And if it's an old house with an old boiler you will want even more off the price.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]'Crikey I didn't know the house was built in 1930,it as old as my grandad, I want 50% off.' [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Unless a house is brand new, then some parts are going to be partly worn out, boiler, electrics, roof, bathroom, kitchen etc etc. [/FONT]