Survey came back with very old boiler

[Cocochoc67]

We've had our survey come back and the boiler is very old and it states it will need replacing in the near future. Would you ask for a reduction based in this? I hate to do it - is there any middle road? I'm not confident the boiler would even heat the whole house.

I don't think it's fair to ask for a reduction for that sort of thing unless you thought the house was new or newly refurbished.
When we offered we took into account things like that originally and the house will have been priced with its condition in mind.
I think reductions after survey are more for things you wouldn't have anticipated eg a structural issue or damp etc

If the boiler is working fine, I wouldn't ask for a reduction just on the grounds of age.

Tbh the cost of a boiler is not significant unless the price of the house is extremely low.

Our survey stated our boiler was very old, and might need replacing. That was 20 years ago, it's still going strong. It is serviced every year, and we have been told all the time spares are available it should continue to function.

It depends on the boiler, make and model as well as age.

We lived with a very old boiler for 5 years, it never stopped working once, it never needed a repair.

Bought a house, boiler was old but a crap model. Asked seller if it worked and he said it did. It worked for a short time and then broke down as soon as there was snow. It was just a shit boiler to start with.

In a similar situation we paid for a gas safety certificate and boiler service- get an accurate independent view on how long it had left and whether parts were still available for repair

We bought a house with a 28 year old massive floor standing, oil fired thing that had its own room and smelt of Bus Stations. It still worked fine but we replaced it anyway for a more efficient small Gas boiler system.

The Boiler Room is now our Cloakroom.

No I wouldn't, it wouldn't be worth it to potentially lose a house by pissing the vendor off over a couple of K.

I wouldn't agree to it as the vendor either.

Sorry i forgot my point! I wouldn't ask for a reduction if it still works. It may need replacing in the future but thats your look out. You wouldn't ask for a reduction if the roof could potentially leak in the next 2-6 years would you?

We completed our house purchase last month and it still had the original boiler (25years). There was nothing wrong with it but we still had it changed last week for a combi boiler. My previous house also had the original boiler when i moved in (20 years) and again it never broke down until i replaced it with a combi following the water tank leak.

@BigusBumus

Sorry i forgot my point! I wouldn't ask for a reduction if it still works. It may need replacing in the future but thats your look out. You wouldn't ask for a reduction if the roof could potentially leak in the next 2-6 years would you?

I think, actually, if a roof is that close to the end if its life, that's a major structural issue and would expect a discount, but not for a boiler.

If you are concerned whether the boiler is effectively heating the house then that's a question for your solicitor to ask, e.g. is the heating system working and all radiators functioning. The boiler being old wouldn't bother me.

Did you see the boiler on viewing, ask about it? An old but regularly maintained boiler may outlive a newer one. If it was self evident then your offer took it into account.

we moved into a house with a boiler that was about 35 years old - we replaced for multiple reasons but the key one for me was the water tank was so small it only filled half a bath.
Sounds stupid but that would be my main question if its a water tank - will it fill a bath with hot water!

The boiler I inherited with this house five and a half years ago was put in sometime in the 80s, so it's very old.

I will only replace it when it absolutely has to be but it is serviced without fail every year and service engineer has said as long as he can get parts then to just keep going with it.

A new boiler is roughly £2,500+ and I do have the money put aside should it die on me.

I didn't ask for a reduction due to the age of the boiler but I did get a reduction due to survey picking up some roof issues.

@SpanishChard Actually you're right, it was a crap analogy! But you get my drift i hope.

We inherited an old boiler when we moved in. We didn't ask for a reduction and have only just replaced it after almost 10 years of living here. It cost £2300 including changing from a water tank to combi boiler. It is more effective than the old one so probably should have done it sooner but its not a deal breaker for me.

When we viewed the house we bought we could see it needed new electrics, boiler etc. Of course those things came up on the survey but we didn’t ask to reduce as for us it was a good price for what we were buying.