buying a house with a 30 year old boiler

[feellikeahugefailure]

Even if they say it works without issues and has been serviced would you still knock 5 grand off for it and assume it needs a new one?

this thread shows all the madness of UK energy policy. New boilers are indeed far less reliable, due to a design wrong turn. (same as the catalytic converter was a stupid idea, we should have gone for lean burn).

Add the 20% VAT on new boilers and as people note, they take a very long time to pay off. Almost no-one will pay extra to use less energy so it is indeed worth sticking with the old one as long as possible.

Our oil boiler was on its last legs and the consumption has crashed since it was replaced. But so has the oil price so we are looking at several more years before it becomes even vaguely financially worth it.

I currently have Helplink ripping out my boiler (17 years old and 68% efficient) installing Worcester Bosch 24ri boiler, replacing 12 radiators with all new valves, TRVs, chemical flush and fitting a magnaclean, replacing part of pipework from 15mm up to 22mm and converting the Y plan piping to an S plan and it is costing me just under £4.5k.

So your British Gas quote is a joke.

My usual careplan is with British Gas because my boiler kept breaking down and I knew BG would turn up the same day. I knew they would be more expensive than anyone else hence Helplink.

I am in Leeds for price reference.

*replacing 12 radiators and new valves fitted.

I agree with one of the PP's up thread. As a vendor, there's no way I'd accept that as a reason to knock 5k off. The place is sold as seen, and the age of the boiler factored into the price. It's not a 'new discovery'.

Also agree that I wouldn't accept 5k off for an older boiler, this should have been factored into the house valuation.

I bought a house with a 15yo boiler and tried negotiating based on thag and the fact the patio doors weren't safety glass and needed replacing and the carpets were 30 years old and threadbare.

Vendor refused to budge and said the house was priced according to condition.

Despite what I said further up thread, that was our old house. Our new one has an oldish boiler, in the wrong place ( for us) and is a micro bore system. We have decided to wait till it breaks down, although we will have services but no care plan, before we replace the system.

We knew what it was and that it would eventually cost, but did not ask for a price reduction. More alarming was the wrongly installed dangerous, wood burner! Which must be replaced, such a lovely feature to have!

I'm with my others here. You know the house has a 30+ year old boiler. The price reflects that (unless the vendor is pretending it's newer).Just budget to change it or buy a house with a newer boiler ? I think you can only fairly reduce an offer if unforeseen things turn up in the survey.

Have you already had an offer accepted? When our buyers were liking around I made it perfectly clear our boiler is ancient but works absolutely fine. They knew that when they put in their offer and I'd be really pissed off if they started asking for money off now. We had other interest in the house and if they were insisting on dropping the price we'd consider contacting one of the other interested parties. £5k discount for a boiler you already knew was old is ridiculous.

We got s new boiler last year. BG quoted us £4K. A local Worcester Bosch approved heating engineer charged £1.9K to supply, fit and install a new boiler and 6 radiator thermostatic valves. A higher capacity boiler than BG had quoted for.

Our gas bill has come down about £12/month. 3 bed house, well insulated.

Yes to asking for a price reduction, but get a second quote.

It's all negotiable before exchange but as others say depends how desperate they are to sell and how much you like the house otherwise.

Could go in high and see what they say but I would always beware of being too difficult if you really want the place. The agents can phrase it diplomatically (or not!)

We have a Baxi Bermuda back boiler. It's ancient, loud, and inefficient.
But it has never gone wrong or not fired up in 12 years of living here. Plus the water from it is burning hot.

It's getting replaced with a Worcester combi this month, costing £2k.

Offer what you think the house (boiler included) is worth/what you can afford, bearing in mind any repairs (boiler included) you would need/wish to make. But if I were you, I wouldn't go to them and say "I would pay such and such, but am knocking £5,000 off because of the boiler." They'll have an amount in mind that they are willing/able to accept from you - pointing out demerits in their house that are making your offer lower is essentially irrelevant, and potentially even annoying. It would be to me, anyway - I recently sold a house, and was far keener to sell to the potential buyer who said "we love it - this is all we can afford" than to the ones who went round trying pointing out all it's demerits - as if I didn't know what my own house was like. I realise not everybody thinks emotionally about the house sale like this, but it definitely made a difference to me.
This is assuming you have not already had an offer accepted. If you have, and are now trying to change it, then you may well have them over a barrel, depending how much time has gone on, and whether or not they have a deadline to move by. On the other hand, be prepared for them to pull out of the sale, as they may have needed the amount of your original offer for their next purchase.
I also don't think most boilers are £5,000.
Good luck, whatever you decide.

I agree lovely. I was selling my house last year and someone wanted to buy before it had even gone into the market but wanted £5k off for the kitchen. It was priced considering the kitchen needed upgrading. We agreed, but the house we were buying fell through and I was glad I didn't sell to them. Turns out it was undervalued and we decided to stay put until the children were a little older and it never went on the market and I'm currently having a shiny new kitchen which is adding value
If they had been nice, I think I would have felt obliged to move, but she annoyed me by all the criticisms and knocking money off for x, y and z.

We've got a 25 year old boiler and it was flagged on the survey when we bought our house (in the South East) in January 2016 - We've had a quote and are getting the boiler replaced, everything flushed out, the water tank replacing and all the thermostats sorted - all in, this is costing us £5K which we're very happy about - We knew it needed to be done and whilst our boiler is still working fine, we couldn't get boiler insurance so wanted to wait until the summer and save up and then sort it out now.

One thing I did make sure was that we had a carbon monoxide detector nearby....

We didn't bother asking for a reduction on the house price, however I'm glad we were aware of it so we could budget / save to replace it as one of the first things we do in the house.

Our boiler is over 40 years old to my knowledge and is serviced annually. We too have been told not to change it until it konks out. Our bills are very reasonable.
If I put the house on the market I would expect that the potential cost of a new boiler would already be reflected in the price as I know lots of people are keen to change them despite the installation costs taking years to be recovered by lower running costs. I would ignore a BG quote, they would charge far more than any other local company.

We've got a 25 year old boiler and it was flagged on the survey

Flagged for what?

It is clear the boiler is old. You have made (or are thinking of making) an offer for the house as it is, not how you would like it to be. If you think that it is overpriced considering the work you think it needs, offer less. If you've already made the offer and have now decided it's not worth as much then you can revise your offer, but be prepared for them to get annoyed and potentially refuse your new offer. If it was me selling I'd be instructing the agents to put it back on the market, and only carrying on with you if you stuck with the original offer (and grovelled a bit).

Eek you never get BG to do anything! Get a lovely local and it'll be about £2-2.5k

Flagged for what?

Flagged for being an old boiler. That's basically it.

Have you already made an offer/had one accepted?

I would assume that the age of the boiler has been taken into account when deciding the asking price. It's a pretty obvious, first viewing thing to look at. Still, I suppose they can only say no, so no harm done.