Viewing empty flats, concerned about heating.

prettyandfluffy

Miri_J said:

Doozergirl said:

If they're recommending that the boiler needs replacing for a condensing boiler then I'd simply
budget for replacing it (and maybe the rads) within the offer price.  

Having a gas boiler is a benefit in a flat as it's cheaper than electric heating.  Condensing boilers have been in the regs for at least 15 years now so it sounds like it doesn't have much longer in it.  Fine if you're living with it already, but an item to budget for quickly if you're a new owner.   Get it sorted asap and reap the benefit of slightly lower bills. 

I would definitely budget for it, I'm just concerned about moving in there possibly around March / April with no heating! 

If you go ahead with the purchase you could arrange for the work to be done immediately you become the owner i.e. before you actually move in if you can sleep on someone's sofa for a night or two.  Nothing to stop you moving all your stuff in and you can be there during the day unpacking whilst the gas fitter does his work.  Depending on the work involves it should be quite quick, we had a gas boiler relocated and replaced just before Christmas and it was done in a day.

AlexMac

Agree all the above but…”if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. 

Although having said that, we’ve had to replace boilers in all of our last six properties; some immediately, a couple within 2-3 years, at a cost between £1.5k and £3.5k… 

gm0

The stuck without heat issue with 25 year old gas boilers (pre-condensing) can now be electronic parts availability/
In 2024. Oldies e.g. Worcester were often better made than some built since.  A good clean.  A new fan if it fails or gets noisy.  And they can give good service for years. But "electronics" fails (can now be expensive or slow to get a new brain now  - for a long discontinued model).   Older service engineers retire.  And youngsters see fewer and fewer of the very old ones now or never saw one.  The time to change arrives.

A modern (condensing) boiler will offer more control features, better efficiency % of gas used to heat. 
And you can get parts for it. 

The other thing to look at for a vintage installation is relationship of plumbing location to boiler location to flues to the outdoors and a drain access near the boiler.

Fitting condensers for the first time can need a change to a correct flue and some plumbing for a condensate drain. 

Flue rules have changed materially over 30 years. 

And in flats in particular flues can go out of the wall behind or alongside the boiler, up and out of a roof, or travel across internal roof voids and out of a different wall in a different part of a flat.  Boiler near plumbing in an interior hall closet but with a stupidly long flue. This last one can be bad news.

There are rules about visual inspection and access hatches e.g. to ceilings) to permit the checking of all joints on horizontal flue runs.   The fact these ceiling features are not there on an ancient installation does not mean they will not have to be added for a new one.  So know where it runs (boiler flue visible from outside building vs floorplan and known boiler location.   This was a noisy issue with flat purchase ~15 years ago. 

Most flats have had this issue sorted by now - well or badly - via a boiler replacment cycle.

ThisIsWeird

Hi Miri.

If the boiler is so old as to be non-cond, then factor in ~£3k to replace it.

There may be additional costs involved - replacing the odd rad, etc - but you should probably take that as typical updating costs.

For any other property, it is usual to ask for a recent boiler service record, and most sellers would provide or arrange for one of these; mil did so when they sold their bungie a few years back, and it was the first service they'd had in a decade. Even that is no guarantee that the whole system works as it should, of course, so there's always an element of caveatemp. See what the SIP says, and ask any Qs you feel you need to.