Selling our house and boiler on the blink

[HermioneKipper]

We’re currently in the process of selling our house and our boiler has started playing up.

We’ve had issues with it since we moved in 5 years ago (boiler is now 10 years old) and we’ve had numerous services/patch ups. We thought it was sorted but it’s doing the same things again - losing pressure and going off. We need to adjust the pressure about twice a day at the moment to put heating/hot water back on.

Do we need to fess this up to potential buyers? Our sellers didn’t tell us about the problem either

Have you filled in the seller's property information form yet? It has questions on the age and condition of the heating. It also asks for a copy of the latest service report.

In my firm we ask for a report no less than a year old/for the seller to have it serviced if none available.

When I sold my house last year (England) we were required to provide documentation regarding the boiler's last service and if there were any issues.

Good luck with your house sale OP.

When we bought our house the seller was very transparent. I looked at the boiler and asked about it's age/condition and she just said it was 27 (!!!) years old and worked, but probably not for long. We just took 2k off our offer to compensate!!

If it's looking pressure you likely have an issue with a leak in the pipework, rather than a problem with the boiler itself. Put blue tork roll round all of your radiator valves and see if any water is leaking there are they are often the culprits. If this is the issue it's a very easy fix.

When was it last serviced? If the buyers conveyencers are doing their job they'll want proof it's been done in last 12 months and if it hasn't they'll want you to do one.

If you admit to there isn't one, and refuse to pay for a service now, they can't make you!

It's repairable. No need to get it replaced. If you've lost confidence with your smaller independent plumbing and heating companies then ask the manufacturer to do the repair. Before you do make sure you do not have any water leaks on the heating system which would be another reason why the pressure is going down.

Depends how decent you are OP I suppose, you are obligated to inform if you are asked. I am currently viewing houses (to buy) and we ask the condition of the boiler and if there is the paperwork to view every time so would reflect the age and condition of that into any offer we might make anyway realistically, especially if the service history was poor and its 10 years of age, I'd assume I'd have to replace it and my offer would reflect as such- so I suspect you'll end up footing the bill in some way or other. Everybody knows a boiler is costly and everybody knows one on the blink at 10 years is a costly time bomb.

Quick question - does the pressure stay in the boiler if you fill it and then leave it for several hours? And only go down in pressure once the boiler has been running for hot water or heating?
If the boiler only looses pressure when it has fired up, and then cools down again, that suggests the expansion vessel in the boiler has failed. The boiler heats up, water in system expands, has nowhere to go as expansion vessel isn't working, and so the system discharges the excess pressure through a safety valve.
Once system cools down, water shrinks and the water pressure drops below the minimum for the boiler to operate.

And if this is the case - expansion vessels are easy to replace, or a new vessel can be installed out of the boiler if you have space (so not if installed in kitchen ect)

They can't make OP service it but if my client was buying I would suggest they ask for it to be done at buyer's cost. Refusal to allow that would make me mightily suspicious.