New house purchase

acrmnsm

Apologies if this is the wrong forum, I am not sure where to post this.

lincroft1710

Unless you are in Scotland (and that is limited), you have no comeback against the vendor. You have no comeback against the vendor's gas engineer as you have no contract with them. The fault has obviously existed since the boiler installation 8 yrs ago

lincroft1710

Did the vendor state the boiler was working on the TA 6 form? Did you see the boiler working when you inspected the house? Did you have a survey? If so, did the surveyor make any mention of the boiler?

MikeJXE

How big was the boiler to justify 3.5k costs ? 

user1977

I can't see you've got any comeback against the engineer unless you employed them. I take it you didn't get your own inspection done?

Wonka_2

acrmnsm said:

No, just that a boiler was included, on the TA10 form.
So I am screwed then, new house, and have to just take the hit on a new boiler? 

Unfortunately yes - and if you look back through the forums you'll see many others who've been hot with the same situation. At least you've now got one less thing to go wrong in the coming weeks/months/years

I'm sure more 'Gas Safe' knowledgeable people will explain whether there's any comeback on the original report but I suspect it'll be much like an MOT that's a snapshot in time and the only comeback on the tester is internal rather then consumer facing 

DullGreyGuy

acrmnsm said:

Do we have a leg to stand on to recoup costs from the vendor?
Vendors solicitor initial reply was - your argument is with the gas safe engineer. However as the boiler was also unusable we feel a bit ripped off.

No, bought as seen. 

Its fairly likely the vendor themselves were unaware of issues and its the engineers that are at fault but with no relationship to them you have no mechanisms for redress. 

One of the joys of private sales, 3.5k is steep for a new boiler but plenty find bigger problems, especially if they skimp on the survey. 

ss2020jd

It is unfortunate this has happened but in my understanding once completion has taken place, there is little recourse unless the vendors have deliberately misled or falsified information. 

You would expect a gas safe certificate to be reliable but I was always advised by my solicitor and sometimes surveyor to have my own inspection before exchange. Not always possible or often done but that would be the time to negotiate.

Perhaps some of the legal experts on here can give better advice. If you have legal advice cover on your home insurance you could also try them. 

acrmnsm

Nah I thin its clear this is going nowhere, thanks for the advice all. 

pinkteapot

acrmnsm said:

Nah I thin its clear this is going nowhere, thanks for the advice all. 

Sorry it's happened to you though.  

From the other side, a few years back my mum sold a house. She'd had it from new, for almost 20 years. Boiler had worked perfectly throughout. She switched the boiler off when she left. New owner switched it on, and it wouldn't re-start. Dead and needed replacing. God knows what was wrong with it, but it genuinely did just happen and she had no idea it would! New owner tried to get cash out of her and was politely told no. 

This does sound more like a boiler that's been dodgy for a while, but you don't even know the vendor knew. If they've used a bit of an iffy gas person for years, they could have installed it and done the most recent gas cert saying it was fine. 

TripleH

Sadly gas safety certificates are only relevant if the property is rented out. So for homeowners, you could be living in a deathtrap for years slowly being poisoned without knowing it.

My mother had a gas safety certificate for her old home but only because she had an attached cottage that she rented out so had both done together.

The only possible way you might have a claim about an unsafe installation is if you bought the house from a professional 'gas fitter' who could be expected to know if it was unsafe.

The previous owners might have been oblivious to living in an unsafe home but could fall back on the certificate to say they had got professionals in to review who signed it off.