Moral dilemma

Crashy_Time

Deleted_User said:

This is a difficult one, particularly this time of year when heat is essential and the boiler does sound like its ready to completely give up imminently. I'd be most unhappy moving into a house in mid winter to find there was no heating and no hot water. Do they have young children at all? 

On the other hand given the fact they have bashed you down on price at every opportunity my guess is that they would most definitely use this as ammunition to demand a further reduction. 

Did they specify what remedial work they were negotiating the price off the back of the survey? Only if they included a boiler replacement in that, then I think you can assume they already have been compensated for it. 

If not, well, that brings you back to square 1. 

Personally, given you don't have any great relationship with them and they've already got several thousands off the sale price, i'd be inclined to leave it, and feign ignorance if/when you get the complaint from them. I mean, its not like its completely buggered yet is it? "It was working when we moved out". Half true, plus they can't really prove otherwise. 

Unless they are reading the thread?

pinkshoes

What exactly do you mean by "stopped working reliably"?

Does it still work? Or not? What you have written implies it still works... If it does still work and the seller is aware it's an old boiler then I'd leave it at that.

I have a lovely 40+ year old boiler and no thermostats whatsoever! We intended to replace it when we moved in but many years later still haven't bothered!! 

If it needs fixing, then get a more old school gas engineer round to do it. We have had 2 heating engineers who didn't even want to service our boiler and only wanted to quote to replace it!!! The 3rd one was at least honest and admitted he wasn't keen on working with such an old donkey but his dad would happily service it!

Crashy_Time

Anybody buying a house should have money for boilers/roof/leaks/floorboards etc.etc. put aside before they buy, just let them get on with it.

NameUnavailable

I've viewed a few places with obviously older boilers. I have each time added the cost of a new boiler to the list of 'improvements' I'd want to make and considered that in the offer I'd make and reserve of cash I'd want to keep after buying and in one place I'd have fitted a combi boiler regardless of the state of the existing one, so as I mentioned earlier, the buyers have most likely taken it into account already, or if not they're being daft.

Grumpy_chap

The OP might find these threads interesting.
1. Seller asking for money towards a new boiler:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6232050/boiler-broke-down-in-the-house-we-are-buying-seller-asking-us-to-pay-50-costs/p1
2.  Buyer claiming "faults" after purchase:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6234481/buyer-wants-compensation/p1