Seller incorrectly completed the TA6 form

[Optimist2020]

Hello wise Mumnetters, after some advice . Me and my partner recently (end of July 25) purchased a property. Within 5 weeks we noted issues such as the upstairs toilet being incorrectly fitted leading to waste water leaking on the bathroom floor and a new floor, floorboards needing to be replaced.

I turned on the central heating and the two radiators in the living room , hall way and downstairs bathroom do not come on. I contacted British Gas whose engineer viewed the property and advised that the pipe work has been incorrectly fitted and therefore the radiators do not work.

I checked the TA6 form and the sellers ticked that the central heating was in good working order and the heating system report is to follow. I have searched my emails and can’t find the heating system report and notified my conveyancing solicitor of the issues and awaiting their response.

Has anyone experienced anything similar ?

I’m tempted to obtain a heating system report as we have been in the property just over 2 months and I feel the incorrect pipework and lack of radiators working downstairs would be an issue the former owners would of been aware off. Not sure If id be successful in a small claims court ?

what exactly do you mean by incorrectly fitted?

The pipework to the radiators downstairs is 8mm but should be 15mm, hence the radiators not working as there is restricted airflow . The selllers said the central heating system was in good working order but it in fact the radiators downstairs donot work.

Has the boiler been serviced and is it something like a pump issue? Especially if the upstairs radiators are working. If it’s not been on all summer something could have failed like a valve. A plumber would be a better bet to service it all.

"The pipework to the radiators downstairs is 8mm but should be 15mm, hence the radiators not working as there is restricted airflow"

8mm is common in some properties and is referred to as microbore. You cannot tee off these but they are quite capable of heating up am individual radiator so does not really constitute a fault.

Have you had a he system inspected by a heating engineer?

The boiler has been serviced. The paperwork upstairs is different to downstairs , the plumber / gas engineer said the pipework upstairs is fitted with 15mm pipework but downstairs is 8mm which has lead to the air not being able to be circulated

Ive triple checked my emails and the heating system report wasn’t sent by my sellers although they said they would
email it over.

@Walkden A heating engineer came
out from British Gas. But I will
purchase my own report. The issue that I have is the sellers said the central
heating was in good working order but 4 radiators do not work due to the pipework .

You don't know that's why the heating doesn't work

did you test the boiler before you bought?DH found it mad but I insisted on doing it - literally asked the estate agent to prove that the heating was working.

were they living there with no heating?

I thought it was usually by we beware with properties I mean things can go wrong the day after you buy

We have microbore pipes which don't heat up our radiators, it's a pain. The only option is to replace them entirely, we've been told.

By the way it's usually water flowing in the radiator pipes, not air

@RoundandSad The boiler works fine, the upstairs radiators work fine. The downstairs radiators do not work as according the British Gas engineer the pipework is incorrect. The engineer has started that in order for us to get the radiator to work we need to lift the floorboards upstairs and install new pipework to all the radiators downstairs.

The former sellers ticked everything was working fine and didn’t send over the heating system report .

That might just be a change in regs, so the pipes you have are fine, but not up to current regs which you shouldn't expect unless you're buying a new build

As a pp has said, microbore isn't incorrect, it's just a rubbish choice. Common in certain types of properties (ours was built in the 80s).

It's like saying single glazed windows are "incorrect" - they aren't, they are just a bit rubbish compared to double glazed. Incidentally we have those too! Our house is like a cold, cold cave

I was thinking, did you test the whole heating system but I realise if you're expecting a report you wouldn't

If they never sent a report, I'm not sure what you can do

I hope you get it sorted

Just adding

British gas have told me so much rubbish I can't believe it. I had to get four engineer visits out for the boiler to be properly fixed. They told my Parents a load of rubbish about needing to power flush the system. It was all just to make money. So I'm not sure if the pipe thing is even true there might be something else wrong

Even if the pipework is correct (the house was also built in the 1980s) the sellers ticked the central heating was in good working order, did not send over a heating system report which they were supposed to do and my solicitors should of realised. I will pay for a heating system report but in my opinion, the central heating system
isnt in good working order and non of the radiators downstairs work!

Granted none of the radiators work downstairs NOW you need to be able to prove they didn't work two months ago

Possibly a stupid question but have you bled them? I probably would get a second opinion as well. One of mine stopped working completely last year, it was something quite simple (can't remember what though but easily fixed by a plumber).

There are a bunch of things in my house that the seller clearly kept a bit quiet about, including a boiler that got condemned as soon as I moved in, but it is difficult to prove - you've got to think of your legal costs too if you do pursue it, could end up not being worth it.

I have never heard of (or had) a heating system report in the several houses we have bought and sold....

I’ve just moved and had to provide evidence of the boiler being serviced and also that it was still under warranty. Had I not been able to produce that evidence, I had to pay about £100 to insure the heating system for the new owners. My conveyancer was quite instant upon this and I did query it as like other posters, have not been asked to provide this before but it is many years since I last moved house.

But if you hadn't seen the report on the heating system you should have followed this up.

They will have worked.

Trn up the flow temp

And this will be the challenge . However what could have drastically changed within 2 months to mean the radiators have gone from working to not working ?

I should have chased up the heating system report but we had so many other reports it was something that was an oversight on mine and my solicitors part.

Are you sure it’s not British Gas trying to make money out of you? Their prices are so much higher than a local heating engineer. Arrange for another plumber to come and have a look and a quote (if necessary).

Anything to be honest - a fault often happens overnight rather than builds up over time.

Easy to solve, nothing to do with pipe size

Will do, the British Gas engineer told us not to get the work completed by them as they are expensive and to get the work done by another plumber / heating engineer .

I’ll get an independent person out to inspect . Given the toilet has leaked waste water onto the bathroom floor as the pipework was incorrectly fitted and other botch jobs we discovered was hoping to threaten them with legal action .