New Property

[NewBie2710]

Hello All,

We bought a Property recently. The house is in good condition. However, most of the white goods are not working/in repair - Fridge, Dish washer, Oven. We bought a new Fridge and had to fix the Boiler motor. Heating is only working in some of the rooms and is not very effective (this is my main concern as we have had to bring in other heaters to keep the house warm and had to deal with couple of cold nights). When we initially checked with the sellers, they told us that it is all working to their knowledge. To their defence, the property was empty for about an year before sale. However, we are struggling due to Covid-19 and don't really have much resources to spend on this at the moment. While we have got some heaters, the rest of the house is still cold. To add to this, we got some quotes to cut some very large trees at the end of the garden and they came around to £4K to £6K. (We initially thought it would be around £1K - £2K, we could have done more research on this, but with a toddler, this slipped my mind). What are your thoughts on these. Are the sellers responsible for any of these costs. Is it even worth asking them? Please don't be critical, I am genuinely looking to fix these issues and to see what is the norm in general. I am aware they can just deny, however, interested in seeing if others have any experience claiming most or at least a portion with sellers post sale.

Just to add - The heaters are stand alone ones which we have got as a temporary fix.

I will say that it is down to you to fix and pay , you can't go back to the sellers now for what you have said.

No, you’d have known the trees were there, and everything else needs to just work when you move in.

Past that it would cost you more in legal costs to go after them. That’s what surveys etc are for. If they weren’t moving on the day of entry that would have been the time to ask.

It’s your responsibility to have appropriate surveys carried out. It’s not the seller’s problem that you underestimated the cost of / didn’t bother to get a quote for tree maintenance.

If the central heating was stated to be in good working order, then it should be in good working order. If the sellers only said if was “working to the best of their knowledge” and you knew the property was empty then you really should have insisted they have the boiler and system checked and serviced. You will struggle to make a legal case for it being their responsibility to pay for repairs because they said it was working when it wasn’t, when they were suitably vague in the first place.

That makes sense, helps to know. Thank you all for the responses.

Do you have central heating, radiators which are cold, if so try bleeding them, YouTube it, it's pretty easy.
White goods, try to source 2nd hand ones from places like face marketplace.
Trees, put a shout out on SM for a local gardner/handyman, we have one in our area who charges by the day.

Sorry OP but absolutely zero chance of recouping

Similar problems when we moved house, shower not working at all, apparently working perfectly well when they had left in the morning . We paid for repairs (and had to wait ages for spare parts).

In Scotland you have 5 days after moving in to report anything that doesn’t work - boiler, taps, appliances etc. You could then argue it out via a solicitor, but if appliance was clearly old then you’d maybe not get much ££ back. I’ve always thought it was similar laws in rest of UK?

If you’re outside the time limit, then tough luck. And the trees are also your problem now...

I had a nightmare with one of our houses. Boiler didn't work, toilet was leaking, bay failed, joists and floorboards were rotten, holes everywhere. None of it was on the survey but the seller knew about them. He refused to even pay for a skip to get rid of all the rubbish he left. There is very little you can do

Sorry that you’re going through this, it seems all too common. We’ve replaced all the white goods, wood burner and complete central heating system. On purchase, the only thing obvious was the outdated bathroom!
Fortunately we could do the replacements, but the arrogance of the seller who claimed we were getting a bargain ( we weren’t) still annoys me.
Give yourself time and work out what things are essential to do first.

houses are sold as seen and subject to survey. And surveyors don't check the operation of white goods or of the heating.

sorry.

We bought an empty house, but viewed it 5or 6 times and got the estate agents to turn heating on each time so we could check all radiatora worked.

Did you not check heating worked?

Trees is nothing to do with sellers