Boiler broke down in the house we are buying - seller asking us to pay 50% costs

hounsehunterftb

Hello guys,
To give you all a bit of a context

1. Its a simple chain of three of us involved - us -> our seller -> our seller's seller.  They had three more offers alongside ours. We are paying £15,000 more than the asking price.
2. We are currently close to exchange of contracts and completion date is penned down for 10th February.
   
3. We have been chasing for exchange to happen since December (our deposit with solictors since December) as our notice period of our rental proeprty depends on it. Its already screwed as they couldnt exchange (seller and selller's seller) we are already paying one month's extra rent (£800) (with no fault of ours as we are in position to exchange) plus mortgage as they CANT even push the date to late Febuary. So its 10th February verbally agreed yet
4. We had raised boiler concerns in our query and sellers replied that they have boiler insurance and that they would get a replacement.

Today the estate agents emailed us with a weird and irritating request, that the seller's boiler broke down and the engineer said it can't be repaired and needs replacing. The British Gas quote for it is £2750 and sellers are asking us to pay 50% of the costs
My questions are as below

1. Are we liable to any of the costs at this point? 
2. We obviously WANT a WORKING/good quality boiler when we move in since now we know its not going to be repaired. Could the sellers refuse to address this issue altogether? Are the sellers legally required to fix it? When we signed up for the house, it was with a assumption of working albeit an old boiler. 
3. We are already paying one months rent through no fault of ours and now they are asking us to bear this cost. Is this remotely reasonable?
4. What would you guys do? Any suggestions are welcome!

Thanks for listening!

Stubod

If it were me I would agree to the 50%. A boiler can break down at anytime, and if it broke down a day after you had moved in then you would have to pay the full amount. But I would make sure that I was getting the boiler I wanted.

davidmcn

I'd be asking them to get competitive quotes first.
If you haven't exchanged then nobody is liable for anything.

MgComp

I'm in the process of buying our first home so by no means an expert, but this doesn't sound right at all to me! You don't own this house yet, exchange hasnt even happened. They own that house and are therefore responsible for fixing anything inside it UNTIL completion. I would probably reply with a straight no and politely explain that it's not currently your responsibility to make sure that house is in working order.

Honestly i'm surprised theyve even suggested this as i know many people who would pull out of the sale due to things like that.  It might be that they're being advised bu their solicitor or something to ask for the money and see if they can get you to pay half on the off chance.

If you say no first, then they can either say that the boiler will be broken when you move in, or they might say it's fine they'll pay it all themselves. But then you can go from there instead of just putting up with paying half straight away!

wilfred30

That's a difficult one.  Although my first thought was that British Gas engineers always say that a boiler can't be repaired and has to be replaced!!

As we are in the middle of winter, I would have thought it unlikely that your sellers would be prepared to live without heating/hot water between now and 10 February if you refuse to contribute.

Having said that, getting a new boiler now would benefit you more than them so it could be said that it's not unreasonable to ask you to pay half.

loubel

You aren't liable for any costs but it's understandable that the seller would ask. The seller knows you won't exchange without a working boiler so they'll have to rectify it. Presumably you made an offer on a property with an older boiler and you will now be getting a brand new boiler under warranty so that's a positive and potentially increases value a little. You can of course negotiate how to split the cost (and certainly don't pay them anything before contracts are exchanged).

Mickey666

1. No

2. If they really have boiler insurance, why the cost to them?  I don't think they're legally required to fix it as there is no contract in place.  They've done what they need to by informing you and suggesting a solution.

3. Difficult.  You were prepared to buy an old boiler that would likely need replacing soon so they're offering the chance to get a brand new boiler for half price.  That could be regarded as a bargain if it was going to breakdown soon anyway.

4. Depends on other circumstances.  Are you really prepared for everything to fall through at this late stage for the sake of £1375 - bearing in mind that you're getting a brand new boiler for that money?

One of these heart or head moments.

seradane

You have not exchanged yet, so there is no contract. You are not liable for anything. Any party can do what they want. At this point its all negotiation. They can ask. You can say no.

But let's break it down - there are a couple of different outcomes here

1. You pay 50% of the boiler
2. You don't pay 50% of the boiler, the seller replaces it themselves to ensure the sale goes through
3. You don't pay 50% of the boiler, the seller doesn't replace it, you then have to replace the whole thing when you move in
4. You don't pay 50% of the boiler, the seller doesn't replace it, you pull out of the sale
   

Both options 3 and 4 will put you out of pocket more than the £1375 for the boiler, so on balance you're probably better off just sucking it up and paying for it. Is it worth losing the whole house over a thousand pounds? But then if you think the seller would prefer to swallow the whole cost to avoid losing the house they're buying, maybe you can threaten to pull out and hope that they don't call your bluff. 

Up to you.

SpendsLikeAnAubergine

Pay half but insist on choosing the boiler that you want and getting competitive quotes. They will just go with the cheapest with no warranty otherwise. British Gas are ridiculously overpriced. They quoted me £1k more for exactly the same boiler than I ended up paying. The Boxt.co.uk website shows their prices openly; useful for price comparisons.

macman

Aside from the issue of 'who pays', that quote from BG is way over what an independent local GSR RGI would charge. BG are typically 40% more, so the price paid should typically be more like £1,750, assuming that no other major work is needed to bring the rest of the system up to standard. It must be power flushed, as otherwise the warranty will be invalidated.

Suseka97

As has been said, if you do offer to pay the 50% make sure you are getting the sort of boiler you'd be happy with and don't hand over any money until you've exchanged.
Perhaps you could go back with a lower offer than 50%?