Buyers asking for recent gas and electric safety certificates?

[BlueCherryBlossom]

As part of their enquiries our (FTB) buyers have asked us via our solicitor to provide gas and electric safety certificates.

Am I right in thinking this is not something we are obliged to provide?

For the sake of moving things along and reducing hassle we are thinking of getting the gas safety done (as it's the cheaper easier one) and telling them they are welcome to access the house to get their own electrical survey done?

Is that reasonable?

To our knowledge there's nothing amiss with the gas or electrics and we've just had a new boiler put in so presumably the engineer that installed it would have flagged any major gas issues?

On the flip side it's an old house and we've only ever rewired the downstairs (about 7 years ago)... if they do get an electrical survey then is that going to open a can of worms when inevitably it finds things that might need addressing in the future? (They've been frankly ridiculous about any mentions of 'can't rule out' back-covering stuff in their homebuyers survey- which was actually a fabulous survey for such an old house, so they aren't the most laid back of buyers!).

No you are not obliged to provide.

I can see why they are asking but I would be tempted to say no unless you can afford it easily.

As you had a new boiler recently fitted you'll already have a gas safety but they can organise/pay for their own electrics EIRC.

England - of course you aren't obliged to provide these. They are presumably ex-renters who don't realise that they are now on their own.

tell them to organise their own inspections, same as they did with a survey. You are already getting cluelessness flags.

for a house purchase, what they need is the building regs cert for the gas boiler - and that you already have.

They sound a pain

You're not obliged, no.

I had a buyer ask for access for an electrical survey. I told her that was fine, but said if she opened the cupboard for the fuse box, she could see it was very very old.

Nonetheless, she came back after the survey and asked for a reduction. I said "no - and we've had this conversation".

She did buy. I don't know why people like to faff so much.

I don't think you have to pay for them. They can pay for their own inspection on though.

you are not obliged to, but it's a very common, and imo, reasonable request unless it's a newbuilt.

I had an electrical survey done it was £80 one socket needed replacing and a wire to the cooler was eroded - total cost £40

Might be worth it for your own safety.

Ok, mixed views.

Thought electric safety checks were more than £80? More like several hundred? For the sake of £80 we'd probably just get one done. Not sure we want to spend loads on one though!

@BlueCherryBlossom

Ok, mixed views.

Thought electric safety checks were more than £80? More like several hundred? For the sake of £80 we'd probably just get one done. Not sure we want to spend loads on one though!

One problem you might have is other buyers will want to do their own anyway, they might not trust yours.

Very true @AcornAutumn! And I'm not exactly brimming with optimism that this sale will even go through... why such nervy buyers thought such an old house was a good choice I have no idea

I had a full electrical compliance survey done it was £1000, last summer, but it was a large 5 bedroom house with 2 attached barns, so not a standard house, but I thought they usually cost hundreds of pounds not tens.

I was assuming £300ish?

Don't they just mean the certificates you would already have from the recent boiler and the 7 year ago electrics?

These are fairly standard requests I thought. Just part of the standard solicitor form.

I would think not supplying anything/saying you won't would look very dodgy.

Depends on your area, but where I am, for electric safety for a standard house is about £125-200ish depending on different things, some do combination deals.

You're not obligated and if they've been a pain, you're well within your rights to say they can organize themselves at their time and cost.

If you wanted to be nice, maybe giving recommendations of ones you've used would be good and could speed things along. I'm trying not to be a pain to our sellers, but we've now asked the estate agent - who also do lettings - for recommendations after some bad luck with tradesmen which has meant we still don't have any information (other than one of them tried to sell us on all the things that need doing - including on appliances the property doesn't have - ugh). We only did while we were waiting for searches - this is a notoriously slow area for that - as we'll want the information anyways as we know the place needs updates and repairs. We're now almost done with the searches though so we're trying to get things organized quickly to not delay things any further.

@arethereanyleftatall

Don't they just mean the certificates you would already have from the recent boiler and the 7 year ago electrics?

These are fairly standard requests I thought. Just part of the standard solicitor form.

I would think not supplying anything/saying you won't would look very dodgy.

No, they asked for those too and we have already provided them.

Nope only a certificate for a new boiler x

Clueless ex renters as someone said! I think that some FTB get a bit of a shock when they realise that they are actually responsible for things and can’t just blame everything on a landlord! They get an EPC and any building regs compliance certs etc but gas safety and elec checks are not a normal part of buying a house.

I did a gas safety check. I'm not doing an electrical check (I have just had to pay out for the new checks on two properties i let out, as they are required by law).
The agent said the surveyor will want to see the gas certificate, otherwise he may say it needs one and I don't want any delays. It was £80.
Ftb are notoriously jumpy and want reassuring on everything.

If the house buying process has gotten more lengthy and stressful over the years - it has ! - it's in large part the fault of buyers themselves, asking sellers to tick more and more fatuous boxes.

@tanguero

If the house buying process has gotten more lengthy and stressful over the years - it has ! - it's in large part the fault of buyers themselves, asking sellers to tick more and more fatuous boxes.

Yes, it's frustrating! It's an old house and we hadn't the time/energy/money/inclination to make it a PERFECT totally risk-free purchase when we listed it for sale, and if we had gone to those lengths we'd be asking a LOT more money for it!

It's a lovely old house with nothing major wrong with it (to our knowledge, and according to their survey) but we aren't pretending it's a perfect clean slate either, and it's price reflects that 🤷‍♀️

We said no - it's common for solicitors/buyers to ask as a standard question, but you don't have to agree to it.

We'd shown our buyers that it was an old boiler. The electrics will be checked against the 2018 regulations and nearly all houses fail them in some way.

We had to supply both. We had five buyers (four fell through). All their solicitors demanded the certificates. Luckily our neighbour was able to do the electrical one for free.

@Ismellphantoms

We had to supply both. We had five buyers (four fell through). All their solicitors demanded the certificates. Luckily our neighbour was able to do the electrical one for free.

HAD to? In what way?

4 buyers falling through sounds stressful, curious as to why they fell through... not due to your unwillingness to provide an electrical certificate, surely?

We said no - it's common for solicitors/buyers to ask as a standard question

@InescapableDeath that's good to know!

My gas safety and service cert is £80 is yearly and the EICR was around £200 and I think 5 years plus