Ready to exchange but boiler appears broken after my final viewing

cymruchris

silverbanana said:

cymruchris said:

Today, our plumber has been to the property and diagnosed the boiler with having a faulty PCB which is the printed circuit board.  Apparently, but I am no plumber, quite a common problem on a lot of boilers. The seller has agreed to have the part replaced and a full service and health check on the boiler and it is now working absolutely fine.  It is kicking out the heat from the radiators and providing hot water.  The part fitted also comes with a 12 month warranty,  I have attached a copy of the invoice for your information.  The cost agreed to be paid by the seller is £372.00.

Estate agent has returned with this re: boiler, I am inclined to accept it. Do you think that's fair and reasonable?

Not sure how I managed to say that in your quote (I appear to be listed as the person that said it) - but the outcome would seem fair and acceptable to me. Yes it might need replacing further down the line - as will other things around the house - but when the time comes you'll be in control of the specification and quality. 

Mutton_Geoff

I personally would not believe a word the agent says and make sure you visit again to see it all working to your satisfaction.

housebuyer143

silverbanana said:

cymruchris said:

Today, our plumber has been to the property and diagnosed the boiler with having a faulty PCB which is the printed circuit board.  Apparently, but I am no plumber, quite a common problem on a lot of boilers. The seller has agreed to have the part replaced and a full service and health check on the boiler and it is now working absolutely fine.  It is kicking out the heat from the radiators and providing hot water.  The part fitted also comes with a 12 month warranty,  I have attached a copy of the invoice for your information.  The cost agreed to be paid by the seller is £372.00.

Estate agent has returned with this re: boiler, I am inclined to accept it. Do you think that's fair and reasonable?

I think that is fair. The PCB is basically the main part of the boiler (and incidentally what went wrong in my rental) so with that replaced there is no reason to think it will break again in the immediate future. No one can tell though, it's like a car, anything can happen. 

I would probably go back and check it works though, just in case 👍

biscan25

There's a lot of good advice on here, but if I was in your position.

1. I would have priced a new boiler into my offer, but wouldn't necessarily do it right away. 14 years isn't actually that old. Efficient condensing boilers were around in 2008. That said, if it had a habit of breaking down I would then replace it.
2. As above if you replace it yourself you can pick the spec, go slightly bigger than you think you will need.
3. I'd demand the boiler be fixed before exchange. I imagine the vendor would accommodate this as it is not an unreasonable request to have working heating in. Reading the thread this is what has happened.
4. I'd definitely view the house the day before exchange anyway. The boiler aside, there's no way I wouldn't do this in future as we discovered a heavily leaking stopcock this way.
5. Look into service plans for the boiler that cover breakdowns, these are often cheap in year 1, giving you time to replace the boiler in the meantime.

As an aside, I had almost exactly this problem in a house almost 10 years ago, albeit noticed after completion. The boiler there was ancient <25 years, and was a back boiler. We moved in and saw the boiler had a cover on saying do not use (Carbon Monoxide). The house was sold with working central heating, so the seller was bang to rights. Thankfully the estate agent was a skilful mediator, and the vendor paid half (£1100?), of a new shiny Valliant combi boiler installation.

silverbanana

Thanks guys for all your advice and help, I am going to let the boiler go.

AlexMac

I can't add much to the above, but every one of the 8-10 flats and houses I've bought over the past 40odd years needed a new boiler within a year or less of purchase! Except an ancient cast iron one.

I now just assume that modern boilers have a design life  (or death wish) of 10 years!

Bourne out by my last service engineer whao said that now our current one's 10 years old, without filters or mag trap, that I should just suspend the service cotract and wait til it busts, then repalce it with one with a 10-year gauarantee and all the modern features

badger09

Subject to you receiving copy of Service & Safety report, I would accept. Vendor is not obliged to do either. 

When we bought this place last year, vendor refused our reasonable request (as CH wasn’t on when we viewed in November or when surveyor visited in December, both on very cold days) & there was no recent service history for very old boiler. We didn’t push, threaten to reduce offer, or anything else. We simply arranged for our own CH engineer to do them at our expense. 

Boiler packed up a few weeks after we moved in. Was a relatively cheap & easy repair but we decided to replace it sooner rather than later. That’s the nature of buying a non new or nearly new build. 

youth_leader

I'm glad you have a boiler solution, won't be cold, and can now prioritise saving towards replacing it.  I hope the rest of your negotiation goes well.

When I sold our Boulter boiler was 20 years old, but I'd had it serviced annually, and my heating engineer could still get the parts.  

TheJP

biscan25 said:

There's a lot of good advice on here, but if I was in your position.

1. I would have priced a new boiler into my offer, but wouldn't necessarily do it right away. 14 years isn't actually that old. Efficient condensing boilers were around in 2008. That said, if it had a habit of breaking down I would then replace it.
2. As above if you replace it yourself you can pick the spec, go slightly bigger than you think you will need.
3. I'd demand the boiler be fixed before exchange. I imagine the vendor would accommodate this as it is not an unreasonable request to have working heating in. Reading the thread this is what has happened.
4. I'd definitely view the house the day before exchange anyway. The boiler aside, there's no way I wouldn't do this in future as we discovered a heavily leaking stopcock this way.
5. Look into service plans for the boiler that cover breakdowns, these are often cheap in year 1, giving you time to replace the boiler in the meantime.

As an aside, I had almost exactly this problem in a house almost 10 years ago, albeit noticed after completion. The boiler there was ancient <25 years, and was a back boiler. We moved in and saw the boiler had a cover on saying do not use (Carbon Monoxide). The house was sold with working central heating, so the seller was bang to rights. Thankfully the estate agent was a skilful mediator, and the vendor paid half (£1100?), of a new shiny Valliant combi boiler installation.

1. The Op in their viewings would be able to see that the boiler was old, house would have been priced accordingly.
2. Agree you can control what you replace (if it needs to be replaced). I replaced a gravity system for a combi because that's what i wanted.
3. You cant demand anything, all you can do is request and negotiate. You aren't owed anything as a prospective buyer. Your diligence will help with this process but demanding things makes you look like an inexperienced person. Your posts suggest you react before you have the full facts.

The remainder of what this poster says is irrelevant, if the boiler works then it works and you cant demand a new boiler just because you want one. Their scenario the boiler was condemned which is completely different to your situation.

Bluebell1000

The combi boiler in our old house (which is now rented out) is about 16 years old. We had to replace the PCB about 7 years ago and it's still going (touch wood).