selling house - no boiler installation certificate

Sibz

Boilers are important and lots of people panic about them. I paid attention to boilers when I looked at houses (mostly as I'd replaced mine at the time with a nice new shiny one - hadn't anticipated that I would be moving again so soon, either way it was a nice thing to tell potential buyers about). But my assumption would be if it was over 10 years old there would be a fair chance I'd be having to look at replacing it in the foreseeable. No decade old certificate would give me peace of mind beyond that.

It's your sale and your say. I'd provide the up to date gas safety cert and the service history. Explain that you are and have been totally happy with its safety while living there, if they want more they can take out all the insurance their heart(s) desire.

Slithery

Sibz wrote: »

But my assumption would be if it was over 10 years old there would be a fair chance I'd be having to look at replacing it in the foreseeable

I'd say that depends on how old the boiler is.

Anything 10-15 years old and I'd agree, but if it's 30+ years old I'd argue that it's probably going to have more life left in it than you do...

Sibz

Slithery wrote: »

I'd say that depends on how old the boiler is.

Anything 10-15 years old and I'd agree, but if it's 30+ years old I'd argue that it's probably going to have more life left in it than you do...

We know when it was installed, I was going by that - highly unlikely to be an old beast. Nobody here is dealing in absolutes. I don't think an old as the hills though reliable boiler would be reassuring the new buyer any more than whatever one is there currently.

and for your information I'm going to live forever

moreofthegoodstuff

We were asked to provide allsorts for our boiler even though we had previously discussed with the buyer that a new boiler would be required (well it works, but it’s 30+ years old) we still got asked by the solicitors to provide a gas safety report and the most recent service, neither we could provide. I think it’s a standard thing they ask for and as the solicitor said, you can say no to anything you see fit and they can weigh it up.

Badger51

Our buyer's solicitor stopped asking for an installation certificate when we were able to prove that our bolier had been in for over 10 years. Only by a few days as it happens. I don't know whether 10 years has a formal legal basis - it might just have been that particular solicitor's threshold for saying "sod it, who's going to bother you about it when it was so long ago".

foxy-stoat

resilie wrote: »

Our buyer's solicitor is asking for a boiler installation certificate

For a boiler over 10 years old, I think the solicitors are trying to justify their fee.

Did your solicitors not ask the previous vendor 7 years ago? Maybe just a gas safe certificate was all that is needed.

mpr87

I'm coming from the opposite side on this one but we are purchasing a house and the seller had a brand new bathroom/boiler fitted in 2017. it all looks very nice and the fact the house was modern looking etc and had recently had renovations done was the reason we put the offer in that we did.



Anyway it turns out that there is no building regs document for the boiler. There's no gas safety certificate. It hasn't been serviced since installed and the vendor is saying it has a warranty but can't provide documents.



after a few little niggles on the survey regarding the bathroom installation and based on what the vendor stated when we viewed the property it would appear that they have had a mate do the installation as a foreigner. We've asked to get an inspection of the boiler done at our cost and the vendor has just replied saying he will get everything sent to the solicitor.... that was 6 weeks ago...



so for us it is potentially going to become a sticky point. But in your instance if the boiler was over 10 years old, personally as a buyer I would have a slightly different view as i would be expecting to potentially be buying a new boiler in the not to distant future anyway.

Mossfarr

We will be in a similar situation when we come to sell our rental property. We had a new boiler installed in 2010 as part of the extensive renovations we carried out. The engineer who installed the boiler simply refused point blank to submit the appropriate documentation to the Local Authority. No reason given - he just wouldn't do it and as he no longer works as a gas safe registered engineer we have no way of forcing him to do so. His work was inspected by a Gas Safe Inspector and they provided a really complimentary letter in support of his work so there are no issues in that respect.
I intend to tell any prospective purchasers what happened, provide them with copies of all the annual gas safety checks and service history and a copy of the letter from Gas Safe and they can make their own decision. Can't do anything else really. I definitely will not be buying insurance for it.

Sibz

mpr87 wrote: »

Anyway it turns out that there is no building regs document for the boiler. There's no gas safety certificate. It hasn't been serviced since installed and the vendor is saying it has a warranty but can't provide documents.

so for us it is potentially going to become a sticky point. But in your instance if the boiler was over 10 years old, personally as a buyer I would have a slightly different view as i would be expecting to potentially be buying a new boiler in the not to distant future anyway.

Re the warranty - If it hasn't been serviced annually the warranty (if there was one) is most likely void. I can't say all, but certainly any I know of require a service annually

blackshirtuk

A couple of years ago we were buying a house from an executor, whose parent had passed on, with a view to a complete back to brick refurb. Our solicitor was insisting that she needed to see confirmation of the hot water tank installation and guarantees it was in working order.

We were only allowed to proceed after writing a letter to the solicitor that we were planning to install central heating!