New boiler -Seller not supplying gas safe building regs certificate

[Ambivalence]

Buying a house which was purchased y a developer whose done it up to sell.

She's put in a new gas boiler ( and left the crappy immersion heater for hot water-presumably that was cheaper than installing a combi.

It has not been done by a gas safe person, which is why it hasn't been registered with the councils building regs and there is no gas safe buildings regulations compliance certificate.

She's trying to pretend that a landlords gas safety certificate. ( done the day the boiler was installed) is the same thing...

She's already refusing to budge on price based on works needing doing from the full structural survey ( mainly clearing up her bodged work),

I know I can get an insurance from her, and probably not selling the house within the lifetime of this boiler, but annoyed I am paying for a new boiler, which will probably need to be ripped out an d refitted..

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do now -I've told my solicitor sellers need to supply proper certificate before exchange , but anticipate they will refuse...

Nothing else in my price range in this area , lack of supply so hard to walk away...

Any advice?

As this would be notifiable work you could ask for them to go through regularisation with local building control. You may find they inspect and pass it.
On the other hand is this house you want to buy if it has lots of issues?

Either she has the boiler replaced properly or you walk away. I wouldn't buy it given what you do know. Never mind what you don't.

The full structural survey came back that house was sound, roof and walls fine and no damp. It's 1970s.
Surveyor said the work she'd done was poorly finished and house needed redecoration , but she haant done much. ..new kitchen, bathroom, boiler and removed an internal wall. Surveyor said it's a fair price for the size of the house. ..
I'd walk away but there's nothing else on the market

As you know the two certs are not the same. How did it pass, we wonder?

Was that internal wall holding anything up?

There is always another house. Don't pay full price for a bodge . no one else will.

You need to phone gas safe yourself and tell them what you know. Whoever installed the boiler was breaking the law by doing so and they will persue the matter.

You could ask the seller to get the boiler recommissioned by a gas safe engineer who would then be able to issue a gas safety certificate. Don't buy the house without one. This would potentially be a deal breaker for me.

You say the developer hasn't done much but those are key things which would put me off buying from her. I would be wondering what else was wrong and what else will go wrong.

Thanks all.
I'm under huge pressure from my mum to buy this house (she wants.me out of her house where I'm staying ),
Yes, it indicares lots else will go wrong. ..

Be careful. I know someone who had a boiler replaced by someone who said they were gas safe. Turns out they weren't.

Gas safe were called in, the whole boiler had to be repositioned as regulations has changed since the original boiler was fitted, new one had been fitted in same place and it no longer met regulations. So, she had to call in another gas safe plumber and get it moved. It cost £1100.

Does the new boiler have a warranty?

If your mum wants you out, rent somewhere for six months. Don't buy a possibly dangerous bodge!

The boiler would be a deal breaker - expensive to put right.

You can play a little bit hardball on this.

Thanks all. I'll see what my solicitor suggests, but yes, it's a bodge job....

Just to give a slightly different perspective... my house was full of bodge jobs when I bought it, for less than the seller had paid a few years previously (and this is London). However, buying it was the right thing to do - if everything has been done properly to a good standard then the house would have been out of our price range. We've been doing things to put it right over a few years and we now have a beautiful home. No regrets here.

I'd be very wary of buying a house where someone had bodged things. That new kitchen and bathroom won't last 5 minutes so you will need to factor in replacing that too.

We bought a house from a bodger. Didn't know it at the time though. Everything we get done, problems are found from the bodger and it costs us more to put it right. The 'great' boiler has just had to be replaced as they picked a crappy make that you can't get parts for and a lot of plumbers wouldn't work on them anymore. They picked crappy windows that are going to need replacing. We've already done the kitchen and bathroom and redecorated nearly everywhere else.

I love this house but there was a definite air of 'our house is worth more because it's nice' but really it was sentimental value and everything has been badly done that we are having to fix.

In your situation where you know she has bodged something important like a boiler, I'd run a mile as no doubt there is a hell of a lot more done badly just for a quick turn around.

Thanks all. I know I should just walk away...I has a builder bodge the last flat I lived on. ..I paid them £11,000 ( labour then 13,000 for materials for complete renovation. .rewire, replaster, new kitchen and bathroom etc
then spent about £4,000 clearing up the mess they'd made by not capping off bathroom pipes causing leaks, removing floorboards under the kitchen and bathroom units rather than just drilling to guide the pipes through. .leading to mice, having to replace a leaky loo etc..it was all a nightmare. .
but equally my colleague is having to pull out a bathroom he has fitted 6 months ago which is leaking, so getting the work done yourself is no guarantee it will be done properly. ..
What makes me cross is that if you are supposedly in the business of property renovation then you are well aware of the building regs etc, she is just choosing to ignore them and hoping to get away with it..

I'm now looking at what else is out there. .

She's probably playing at development and has probably done everything on the cheap in order to maximise her profits. A lot of so-called developers are clueless and only make money in a rising market.

She's an ex estate agent...

According to the estate agents...

Yes. From checking her companies house records looks like she's been doing one house at a time..for last 3 years, so maybe this is her 2nd or 3rd property she's done...

...and she still isn't very good at it, from what you say.

don't walk away. Run!