Help please - house sold to us with LPG tank that we cannot get filled!

jimbog

‘Help please - house sold to us...’

More accurately ‘we bought a house’

DCFC79

PJ9506 wrote: »

It doesnt meet safety regulations.... as far as I can tell, it didnt when they installed it either. Unfortunately we didn't own the house then.

Your on a very sticky wicket with not getting your own survey done.

diggingdude

You made a mistake but don't listen to Phill99 who clearly has never made a mistake before in their lives. The rest of us have and learned from those mistakes

AdrianC

diggingdude wrote: »

You made a mistake but don't listen to Phill99 who clearly has never made a mistake before in their lives. The rest of us have and learned from those mistakes

Quite. And there's a substantial difference between admitting you made a mistake, and trying to blame everybody else for it.

It's impossible to learn from a mistake when you won't acknowledge it was a mistake.

Assuming the tank was positioned before the location regs changed, then there's no requirement to move it after the regs changed... until such time as you want a new supplier to take it on. Then it needs to conform to the regs. The regs changed substantially around the Millenium.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/lpg/storagetank.htm
http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/lpg/legalframework.htm

When we bought this place in 2013, the tank was outside the then-current regs. It would have been inside when our predecessors bought it in the late 90s. <shrug> We moved it.

Cakeguts

You have actually got this the wrong way round. What you should have written was that you bought a house. What everyone knows is that when you buy a house you have surveys done to make sure that you understand what you are buying and to highlight any repairs that might need to be done to the property.



You have found that there is a problem with the LPG tank. This is now your house so it is now your problem to sort out. The problem is nothing to do with the previous owners. It is your problem because it is your house.

Waterlily24

It was the same with our oil tank, when we bought the house it was only about 1ft - 18 inches from the kitchen wall. We did a big extension so new central heating was needed and a new oil tank to replace the old metal one. It had to be at least 3 meters away from the building and on a concrete or paving stone base. We are lucky that we have got a big garden so it wasn't a problem.


The people across the road still have a metal oil tank and it's very close to their house.

phill99

diggingdude wrote: »

You made a mistake but don't listen to Phill99 who clearly has never made a mistake before in their lives. The rest of us have and learned from those mistakes

Trust me I have made plenty of mistakes.


But how many times on here do people post that there is such and such wrong with their house and then it transpires that they have done zero due diligence while looking for someone else to blame for their failings?


A house is the biggest investment you will ever make but so many people go about it like they are buying a bunch of bananas from Tescos.

eamon

The OP needs a site visit from a competent LPG installer. There must be a solution that is cost effective such as moving the tank and the use of a firewall as mentioned by a previous poster.
Get back unto Flogas you can't be the only "want to be customer" in this predicament.

Skiddaw1

I hope OP can find a not too prohibitively expensive solution. I agree that a competent LPG installer should be able to come up with a realistic plan.



Whilst I agree that it pays to be duly diligent when buying a house, to be fair it's very easy to be wise with the benefit of hindsight. OP is a first-time buyer and I can quite understand why they (admittedly rather naively) assumed all was OK. I'm sure, if they're in the market again in the future, they'll be more savvy but frankly, buying and selling property is a bit of a mare at the best of times and I expect there's few of us who are absolutely immune to getting burnt a bit in the process.



Good luck OP..

AdrianC

The only "competent installer" needed is from one of the gas suppliers. They'll survey the site and install the tank as part of a move to them for supply. They then own the tank, and ownership is transferred as part of changing suppliers.

Yes, you can buy the tank and own it yourself - but to save ~17p/day rental in exchange for having to get it periodically pressure-tested etc... Nah.