Boiler Installation & Selling House

[WingingIt101]

Hoping someone can come along with helpful advice!

Dh and I are in the middle of selling our house and in a short chain (first time buyer for ours, and we are buying from an estate in probate). All parties targeting 2 weeks today for completion for various reasons that will save us c.£1000.

Searches have come back and all fine with the exception of the following:
Local authority have no record of the boiler installation we had done 3 years ago. Building regs were never notified.

Over the three years since installation we have contacted the gas safe engineer who installed it for us asking for quotes for other work (eg servicing the boiler) and for copies of the installation certs when we started the sales process for our current house. He never responded to any messages or emails.
The engineer is an acquaintance of my dads, drank at the same pub / did some work for my dads house etc.

When we were notified that our buyer was unhappy the LA hadn’t been notified we approached the engineer again asking for it and explaining the urgency. He did not respond.
I told my dad in order to check I had the correct number for him and my dad (without me asking) called him. Within ten mins I had a phone call apologising profusely and saying it was his admin error and he would register with building regs the next day and text me all the certificate details so I could share them with my buyer via the solicitor.

Regulations state it must be done within 30 days so I have no idea how possible it is to do this 3 years down the line.

Saturday came and went, no details
I text Sunday.
I text this morning
I text this afternoon
I left a voicemail
My dad left a voicemail.

No responses.

He didn’t tell us at the time of installation it needed to be registered or id have checked it was done.

I’m so worried we won’t be able to sell the house because of it or at best will get a big bill to provide indemnity of some sort. All because he hasn’t done his job or corrected the issue despite admission of his error

We have to complete in the next two weeks and I’m so worried this will mean we can’t.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing, or advice of how we can proceed?

Thank you

[DollyPomPoms]

How much are you selling for?

[WingingIt101]

£230k

[Pipandmum]

I think you can get a gas safe engineer to check it offer and issue a certificate. I did that after I had to fire a plumber and he left without doing it.

[Pipandmum]

Check it over that should read

[DollyPomPoms]

Ok, so the company I use to get indemnity policies (I am a Conveyancer) would charge £45.00 to cover a lack of b/regs for the boiler. Just instruct your solicitor to offer an indemnity policy and save your self the stress. It’s a very normal situation, for example in my experience if a tradesman accepted cash there is very rarely a paper trail so lack of certification happens a lot!

[WingingIt101]

Thanks @Pipandmum we had it serviced this year in readiness to put the house on the market - I’ve assumed that the new company we hired to do that wouldn’t have been able to sign off the service if it were in any way unsafe but would building regs accept this in order to register it? Sorry to be so naive but we really aren’t familiar with any of this and feel so stupid!

[WingingIt101]

@DollyPomPoms I could kiss you!! Obviously in a Covid secure metaphorical way. Thank you. Thank you so much that’s really reassuring. Although if I’m going to spend an extra £50 at a time my accounts are being wiped out to get us into the next house I’d rather it were on literally anything else!

[DollyPomPoms]

You don’t have to pay for it. Your Solicitor could just respond ‘A Gas Safe Building Regulations Compliance Certificate is not held. You have been provided with the most recent service record. Should your Client require the comfort of an indemnity policy this should be at their own expense.’

Stock response saved to my drafts.

It is not unusual for sellers to not agree to fund the indemnity policy. You may also want to check if you solicitor charges a fee for arranging the policy, I charge £30.

[WingingIt101]

Thank you so much - you really have made me so much more reassured! I’ll be using your words to my solicitor in the morning!