Buyer's friend to check boiler

kakalokia

Hi all.

Got a question which I hope is not silly

I'm in the process of selling my house. It's in sold state and buyer has pretty much everything in order, just waiting on searches.

Today the buyer messaged me directly (we exchanged contacts) asking if his friend can come and have a look at the boiler. I didn't object and told him it's fine by me.

I just want to check, should the buyer go through the estate agent/solicitor to request for his friend to come and see the boiler? Or is it OK for me to allow his friend check the boiler? I'm mainly asking from a legality point of view, in case allowing for his friend to check the boiler without EA/solicitor knowledge causes any issues with the EA or solicitor.

I think his request is probably because I couldn't confirm how old the boiler is and haven't had it serviced. His solicitor asked for it to be serviced but my solicitor said I don't have to. I said I was happy if the buyer wanted to service it himself.

Obviously I won't allow his friend to do anything crazy with the boiler (i.e opening it up altogether), but happy for him to carry out a normal check.

G_M

kakalokia wrote: »

Hi all.

Got a question which I hope is not silly

I'm in the process of selling my house. It's in sold state and buyer has pretty much everything in order, just waiting on searches.

Today the buyer messaged me directly (we exchanged contacts) asking if his friend can come and have a look at the boiler. I didn't object and told him it's fine by me.

I just want to check, should the buyer go through the estate agent/solicitor to request for his friend to come and see the boiler?
Why?

Or is it OK for me to allow his friend check the boiler?
Your house. Your boiler. You can do whatever you like!

I'm mainly asking from a legality point of view, in case allowing for his friend to check the boiler without EA/solicitor knowledge causes any issues with the EA or solicitor.
No


Obviously I won't allow his friend to do anything crazy with the boiler (i.e opening it up altogether), but happy for him to carry out a normal check.

What's a 'normal check' if he does not open it...???

My concern would not be whether you're 'allowed' to let him look, but whethr you 'should' let him look.

If the friend just intends to turn the boiler on and off - fine (though I'd tell him you'll do that yourself).

Anything more, insist on an authorised GasSafe engineer.

Slithery

kakalokia wrote: »

Obviously I won't allow his friend to do anything crazy with the boiler (i.e opening it up altogether), but happy for him to carry out a normal check.

What are you expecting him to do? A normal check involves opening the boiler.

I wouldn't let this friend anywhere near my boiler until they had proved that they were GasSafe registered.

kakalokia

Thanks for your replies.

I've never had a boiler check done, so I wasn't sure what's involved in it (should've googled it). I just assumed it doesn't involve opening the boiler up (i.e taking the cover out and looking into the internals). Clearly I was wrong.

I will allow the buyer's friend to look at the boiler, but will ensure he's GasSafe registered if he wants to open it up.

Thank you.

davidmcn

kakalokia wrote: »

I will allow the buyer's friend to look at the boiler, but will ensure he's GasSafe registered if he wants to open it up.

You might want to clarify that with him first before anyone wastes their time with a visit. But if he just wants to look at it rather than tinker with it, I don't see a problem.

kakalokia

davidmcn wrote: »

You might want to clarify that with him first before anyone wastes their time with a visit. But if he just wants to look at it rather than tinker with it, I don't see a problem.

Good shout. Will clarify that once the visit is confirmed.

Thank you.

G_M

davidmcn wrote: »

You might want to clarify that with him first before anyone wastes their time with a visit. But if he just wants to look at it rather than tinker with it, I don't see a problem.

Though what on earth he or the buyer expect to learn from 'looking at it' I have no idea.

That it fits in with the kitchen colour scheme?

My guess is that he will want to do more than look. Probably he is a 'handyman'. Or a builder. Or a plumber. In all these cases I would not let him touch it.

If he is a registered GasSafe engineer (check here!) that's fine.

googler

Are you selling in England/Wales or Scotland?

Sibz

I don't think the request in itself is out of order. I agree that you shouldn't allow any tampering. The guy may know about boilers and be able to advice his friend on the approximate age of the boiler and to vouch that it is working etc.

Your buyer may simply want to get an idea if it's something he is likely going to have to replace sooner rather than later. Maybe they plan on doing up the kitchen and want to know roughly what this will cost and if they should replace the boiler at the same time.

Refusing to help, while you admit that the boiler does not have a service history (at least while you've resided there) would raise the buyers suspicions. If I was your buyer I would be considering whether to reduce my offer to factor in likely costs to replace this. Just make extra sure he doesn't do anything that leaves you with a less effective boiler as I don't think you'd have much recourse?

D_M_E

You say that contracts have already been exchanged.

If that is the case then buyer is legally obliged to purchase the property at the agreed contract price and you can happily refuse any reduced offer made after the boiler's been looked at.

If the friend is not gas safe registered then I think it's an automatic £5000 fine for the friend as soon as he removes anything from the boiler.

davidmcn

D_M_E wrote: »

You say that contracts have already been exchanged.

No, contacts.